I've been thinking about the recent thread about computer game burnout, in part because I've felt the same way for a long time now.

I've been playing since the late 80s, have a usable game collection (i.e. one in which the games are playable at the click of a button) that is nearly the equivalent of a computer game museum, and have kept current with virtually all of what few titles are being released anymore. I have a Fighterstick for WW 2 games, a Warthog for modern sims, Simped pedels, TrackIR, and all the rest.

But I don't actually play the games anymore. When a new simulation comes out (or a new mod or whatever), I buy it, install it, configure it, play it just long enough to make sure everything is set up right, and then call it a day. I tell myself that I'll come back to it later and play it in detail, but I almost never do.

I'm honestly disappointed by that. First person shooters and strategy games and computer flight simulations--especially when I played them multiplayer with my sons--have given me real joy over the years (I'll remember the Longbow series with fondness for the rest of my life, I think), and I'm sorry to feel that sort of pleasure slipping away. So when I read the earlier thread about computer game burnout, I thought, Yeah, that's me exactly!

But then I decided to give it one last go. In the past, buying a new computer always seemed to regenerate my enthusiasm for the programs I already own. It was fun to see how much better they ran, and how much I could turn up the detail and whatnot. New hardware seemed to kickstart my love of the software in really helpful ways, and after buying a new machine I found myself playing games I hadn't played in years.

So I negotiated the issue with my wife, configured a seriously fast new Alienware system, took a deep breath, and pressed Confirm Order.

Wish me luck. If this doesn't work, probably nothing will.

You should try Rise of Flight if you haven't already.

It's not perfect, but it's the most engaging and immersive sim I've played in many, many years. It's reignited my own dwindling engagement with sims, anyway. I'm quietly hopeful that Battle of Stalingrad will complete my recovery. Time will tell.

Good luck, anyway.

Good luck.

I often feel the same way as you do now, and I was even shopping some of the custom flight sim boxes earlier this year (Alienware, Jetline Systems, Chillblast). I don't think I'll go that route just yet, since last summer's attempt to reinvigorate my interest in console systems only left me with an a new, still mostly unused Xbox 360 to keep my PS3 company in the entertainment cabinet.

You probably read my 'game burnout' thread then.

Watching the relevant films or documentaries is a good idea.Once I've watched a few of them I want to 'be there' a little bit more.

I'm waiting for BoS which will probably be my last hope with the flight sim genre,although I spotted Heinkill's Battle for Malta which prompted me to re-install CloD,even though that release is some way off.

What I really want is Jet Thunder to get finished!

I'm having a hard time aswell getting the flying bug back, but there are a few offering that I'm watching closely, like COD/TF/BOS/DCS/WW2. I installed the WT patches, but my eyes quickly glace over after a few minutes. I know what "will" bring me back to flying is the Oculus Rift, if it works aswell as it appears it might, it will revolutionize the feel of flight on a PC. Loft the developer of BOS has been impressed with the OR and hopes to implement it. I believe the TF team also have a prototype of the OR, but I'm not sure they will be able to implement it. WT has implemented the OR already.

Sorry Chivas,I meant Jet Thunder

I wanna fly in the Falklands

Let me take a stab at this:

You have many sims, but feel no desire to play them. You are ordering a new system with the hopes that it will rekindle your interest. Good luck!

However, has your waning interest been because of some hardware problem? Maybe some low FPS that makes the game unbearable to play? Or long loading times that made you feel like you were wasting more time than playing? Perhaps a weak GPU making the game look jaggy? If so, then a new, more powerful rig may well be the right step towards a better gaming experience.

If, on the other hand, your waning interest has been more of "hmmm... now that I've done that, what else is there for me to do??", I would say your problem lies more with lack of immersion rather than a hardware problem. The game simply does not pull you in, or does not keep your interest once you've seen what it is about. There is nothing wrong with that... the problem may be the game itself simply by not being one that you desire to play. I have tried out Guild Wars 2, MechWarrior Online, and MechWarrior Tactics and have returned all three games simply because after a few hours of playing, none felt like a game I would spend hours on. Games that have lasted longer would be FSX, DCS A10C, Mass Effect (played and finished 1 & 2, but not 3), Dragon Age, and so on. Games that I play all the time are Falcon BMS, Gnomoria, and X3 Terran Conflict. Having said that, my library of games contains a vast number that are either on the "meh" list or the "I'll find some time to play them later" list. I try not to dwell on the idea that I've got so many games but play only a few but that fact has made me a bit more cautious when checking out new games to buy. It also helps me justify whether to buy it now or wait until a later sale.

One thing I should point out here is that I hate babysitting AI aircraft when I fly. I don't have much patience to figure out the nuances of target selection and when to issue certain orders. Because of this, I almost never play SP campaigns.... I'd say 95% of my flying is online with human wingmen. I have much more fun interacting with a human pilot, and post-flight debriefs are a good source of learning. I do fly offline to practice tactics like multiple JDAM release in one pass in BMS, or practice non-computed pop-up tactics. I've now hit the point in BMS wherein I'm comfortable deploying all manner of A-G ordnance and now "hmmm... now that I've done that, what else is there for me to do??" And the answer is 1) learning how to fight in A-A (BFM, BVR and WVR combat, guns-only fights, etc.) and 2) learning how to use WDP for computed pop-up attacks.

I hope this gives you ideas on how to rekindle your interest in whatever sim you decide to play once your new rig arrives. Again, good luck!

The best thing you can do for burn-out is take a break. When you are ready, you'll come back.

My dream is for a remake of the classic sim: Tornado

Yes Please!!

My most memorable simming experience still has to be flying in low level, keeping your time on target exact so you would ingress on an airfield just as the other 3 Tornadoes from your flight approached from multiple directions, and just completely destroy the target.

Loved that game.

How's your sex life? (Believe it or not, there's a direct correlation between the two.)



Problem: hardware overload. Solution: send the whole kit and kaboodle to me. Let me struggle with your 'burden'.



Problem: you've fallen in love with the 'foreplay' instead of the 'climax'. Solution: here in Canada, we put a man down when he reaches that stage. Or you could try testosterone injections.



You should be. God didn't create all this hardware, including that hardware between your legs, just for decoration. Use it or lose it!



That's the spirit! And here's just the thing you'll need: AM



Negotiating with any woman is a bad sign. It usually means a man has come to the end of his usefulness in life, and should take up Macram� unless he has a few true friends willing to put him down. Do you have any true friends?



You'll need more than luck if you can no longer get it u play Arma2 with the vim and vigor you had in the 80s.

***

Hope this was helpful. I know you've got a lot ridin' on it, but remember, your brothers here at SimHQ are behind you all the way. Do us proud: march into that laundry room right now and take that little woman of yours right then and there. Don't matter if the kids are watching. It's a hell of lot better than that sh*t they watch on the Discovery channel. Plus you'll be teaching them how to be real men. Once you've asserted you sexual dominance, you'll be roaring for a steak dinner and a round of Arma2. Good luck, and may the force be with you.

Yep. That was an absolutely amazing sim. The types of moment you're describing where fantastic. It genuinely felt as though you were part of a tightly coordinated military operation.

My problem is the lack of immersion in recent flight sims, and none of them have hooked me in. They might be great technical simulations, but they lack fun.

DCS is a good example. Probably marvelous simulations, but they aren't fun to play. They're stale and dry, and nothing draws me in to them and makes me want to play. To me personally there's not much incentive to overcome the learning curve too.

IL-2 1946 was good, but again lacked immersion. Great for coops, but the singleplayer campaigns/careers were lacking in my opinion.

Rise of Flight comes close, but even the career mode there hasn't quite kept me hooked.

Sadly the arcade battles of War Thunder are the most fun I've been having with flight games in recent years. That's something that would have been unthinkable for me a decade ago.

I don't know who's more to blame, my own tastes or the games.

Battle of Stalingrad feels like my last gasp at the flight sim genre too.

+1 Played Tornado for hours and hours on end, it had all the right elements in just the right amounts. Great GFX for it's day, just enough technical stuff without being overwhelming on the player and heart pounding, sweaty palms missions/campaigns. To this class I would add DiD's EF2000 and Janes F-15E Strike Eagle also. To use an old adage "they just don't make'em like that anymore"

I think you've just outgrown it a bit. I know I have - but that's gaming in general.

Unfortunately very few of us get to keep our active imaginative minds as we get older and focus more on goal completion as a mental exercise. For instance with a new flight sim I'm finding it a challenge to see whether I can learn and fly rather than the actual game itself.

Take BMS for example - with it's detailed dynamic campaign, probably the best contender for an immersive war experience as well as a flight sim. Yet after I learnt all there was to learn about flying the F16 my interest promptly died off.. I tried the campaign and yep, definitely can see it's good and know that it would have had me hooked 10 years ago.. like F3/F4 did. But not now.

Same for ROF's career mode, any of the modded missions for CoD (Heinkill's or that Desastersoft) which I would have absolutely loved... ten years ago.

I dunno, maybe it's the lack of time needed to fully invest to enjoy a flight sim these days.
I find I'm just firing up games that offer braindead, quick games such as MWO, Arma3 SP or something like that.

Here's the thing. If you are forcing yourself to get interested again in flight simming then that tells me right away that there's a fundamental issue. It's like when I've listened to an album over and over again in the hopes that I would eventually like it. Enjoying something shouldn't require so much deliberate effort imho. What I think happens in most cases is that people simply get bored of a hobby after a while. It's normal.

IMO the problem is that after a while, you want something more than just playing/flying a mission or game session. There needs to be some kind of "point" to what you're doing. Flying a mission is dull unless it makes progress in a game with a larger scheme...an actual war that you can influence by the success/failure of your mission. Persistent consequences, some kind of participation in a war effort. The best gaming I ever played was Chromehounds on the 360. A persistent war between 3 nations. The war might take a week, it might take 3 months, but what you did had some reason to it. Then it started again, but at least it wasn't a new pointless battle every 5 minutes or an hour like 99.9% of the games out there. I don't want it to be just about my w/l or k/d stats, I want to contribute to something. EndWar had that too, but on a very small scale compared to Chromehounds, that had 100's of maps and conditions to play in.

I'm hoping that MWO and maybe War Thunder (?) will have that kind of gaming soon. I wish I knew of other games like that.

Sounds like people are just bored - go out do some other things - learn something else - in a few years you might get the urge to come back...............

Get your asses over to ArmA 3 that will rekindle your interests,
The community have got some amazing mods coming out planes trains and automobiles
subs diving simulators helis tanks infantry aircraft carriers etc
all in glorious physx first person with 12000m view distance sandbox 120kmX120km islands.
Heres the mod im working on.

That looks really great KHMatt! I'm quite anxious for when SimHQ changes over to ArmA 3 for Military Mondays.