Hello, fellow gamers.

Firstly, I hope you didn't read the question in the voice of an angry parent or that of an accusing TV host. If you already did, I am sorry. It wasn't intended. Instead, the question that I've been recently thinking about is the following: what is it that we seek in games?

When I was a little kid, I was told that video games were simply a way to kill time, like playing checkers with your grandma or with friends, or playing football with your friends (or with grandma). However, later I found out that some games were different. They gave an opportunity to escape the "real world" and immerse oneself in a world of fascinating adventures. For the little me, this was amazing! (and for the teenage me, this was a lifesaver).

Now, having discovered that there is more than one purpose to gaming, I am curious about whether anyone else here has thought about and found new answers to why video games are so appealing. What do you think it is that we seek in games? What basic human needs do we want to satisfy? Do we seek a way to kill time, a challanging experience, a tool for escaping reality or, perhaps, a way to connenct with others (in the case of online games) while we can't or do not want to do so in reality? Let's discuss.

Looking forward to your answers.

Oh my god, I didn't expect so many answers to my request, I didn't expect any tbh. Thank you a whole lot guys, you made my day :))). So, of course not all the games i've played are listed above. It would take some big space to list all of em so I'll read all of the suggestions with pleasure and will answer them all even if the games I've played are mentioned.

@Articuno76 I've played both metro games, and I liked them both perhaps for the reason that even though the games didn't let you travel much, you always knew there was a huge "world" with many stations full of traders and places to get some sleep and most importantly campfires - just as i like. And of course it reminded me of the good ol' STALKER which I enjoyed playing many years ago. It was like a remake of stalker with better animations and better textures.

I will look up Binary Domain on the internet a bit and will write about it really soon. Thanks for the suggestion mate :)

@phoenix5352 I've played the witcher 3 and I've stopped halfway through it. The game just got boring at some point despite my love to the series and despite it being a great game (at least in the beginning). Never played any Metal gear solid game and I think it'll be hard for me to play the 5th part while knowing nothing about the previous parts. So, could you please tell me if the game requires knowledge of the previous games?

@jKryptonite Actually, what I liked about hl was 1) the hope of getting out of that hell ( well at least till you are told to teleport to xen to save the world (again) at the cost of your shiny a** :/ ). and 2)the gameplay full of interesting and various events that didn't let you get bored, e.g: the 3 snakes coming out of nowhere or the sudden big creature that you had to bombard. In short the game was full of intriguing moments. However according to what I've heard that i haven't liked about DS is the lack of variety in the events. In short you just kill hordes of enemies and go to the next level and whatsmore you don't even get out of that place. Concerning the challange, I'm not really that interested in challanges. I mean, everyone loves challanges (i suppose) but to a limited ammount. I care more for the atmosphere of the game, in other words I want the game to make me believe in it ( which, sadly, has got harder due to getting older and getting more into other "life" problems). But if you tell me the the game really has a good world to engage into and a good atmosphere I'll surely have a look cause as i said I've only "heard" those things about DS.

@The_Last_Ride You know? Recently I've tried fallout 3 which i surprisingly hadn't tried before and i found the game somewhat boring for more. The game failed to engage me in its atmosphere/world and soon enough I got bored. But it was really shcoking cause it had all i needed: open world, shelter(s), futuristic settings. I just didn't like the story and the "unreal, empty" characters. I want to have a look at the 4th game and see if it's different from it's ancestor. So I wouldn't really call myself an "oldschooler" and even though I'm not happy with many new games, especially with the cod series which could've been much better, there are many new games that I find quite interesting, and I'd even say hillarious. So, no criteria there, both old and new games are good as long as they have a good atmosphere.

BTW I will give "Remember Me" a try to at least do something till I've found a good game and I really want to test if a linear game will be of any interest to me thanks to it's futuristing, cyberpunk setting.Thank you all again for all the answers.

P.S. One more very important thing that I've forgot to tell about in the original post - the only platform i can use is my PC.

Hey there mates. I hope you're doing great and that you're all having a nice day. Quite recently I've encountered myself in a very sad situation. You know, the problem is that I don't seem to find another good game to play. I seem to be criticizing every game I encounter and that I haven't played before. There might be a problem with me just having got tired of gaming in general, but if it's not the case.. well let's hope it's not the case.

I've played many popular and mainly oldschool games as a child and I'll list the games below. The only thing I want to add is that I've found an intereseting atmosphere and I'll try to do my best to describe what might've attracted me in those and I hope that there might be another fellow gamer who might have the same taste as me and might tell me what game i should play next according to their own experience. So here we go fellas:

Half-life - not much to say here, it was a great game with many interesting ideas and mechanics. I really liked the concept of getting the protagonist to the surface sometimes as means of giving hope to the player but sending him back to "hell" a few instances later.

Half-life 2 - good balance of puting the player alone in danger and him reaching safe points (again, giving hope for the better, but not stay-in-safelocations-for-the-rest-of-your-life ),interesting storyline with interesting characters.

Halo - another great game, the idea of the companion (cortana) was great for not feeling completely alone, and i must admit I'm in love with this genre of futuristic fantasy with lazer guns and stuff, exciting storyline with interesting characters, badass protagonist.

STALKER - a living and changing OPEN game world, looting/inventory system + trading system (sort of an rpg i guess? just without skills?).

Mainly the concept of safe locations for the player to have rest, trade, have some sleep and sit near that good ol' campfire( even though by the lore the locations weren't so safe from all sorts of mutants or raids or even radiations, which made sticking with other people more meaningful and more interesting and at the same time making the safe location not-fully-god-mode(at least by the lore) unlike ,for example, Left for dead locations ).

I'd go on but I'm not really sure about the success of this post, but meh, at least i gave it a try :)