I love my favorite games and have been playing them for years, but I disliked about 99% of the games I played.
I don’t think I have FoMO or anything; I just find it weird because my taste in music, film, or art/media in general is usually fairly broad. I guess I just wonder why my taste in games is aggressively limited.
It’s not for the lack of trying new games; I’ve tried more or less anything I could find, sometimes because it’s popular, other times because it looked interesting, but nothing really hits the mark like my favorite games.
I just don’t like what most developers create, I guess?
I’m hoping, by posting this, maybe I can find others who are having a similar experience, and we can share thoughts.
There’s no wrong or right way to enjoy games, and so many ways to find enjoyment in those games. Some people love the novelty, or the stories, graphics, music…
Based on the favorites you’ve mentioned, I feel like you really enjoy specific mechanics or the physical experience/practice of the game. Back in the day, I could spend hours running through Diablo 2, and that was entirely based on button mashing and running. Something about its pacing, interface, and the match of its challenge with my coordination just hit exactly right - difficult enough to be rewarding, easy enough that repeatedly dying didn’t frustrate me, and always another fight just seconds away. I played that for years.
Now that game launchers track my time, it’s really obvious that I like certain games for their mechanics - mostly Skyrim & Fallout - other games for sandbox/crafting - Valheim, Rimworld, X4 - hundreds of hours in each, even though I’ll try other games, at least long enough to finish their stories, once. Sometimes just because I paid for it & feel obligated to get to the end. It’s OK to have favorites.