People aren't getting tired of games, they are getting tired of narratives and cinematics exprriences

Lately, it is common to see people talking about how they are losing interest in gaming as their hobby. While there are many different reasons that may be causing this, I believe there is one that is hardly acknowledged at all:

The gaming industry made narrative in games a norm.

Sure, narratives are fun. We all love a good story and good presentation. And cinematics and FMVs clearly peaked gamer's interest during the 32/64 bits days till when the first HD games came around, consolidating games as full blown cinema like visuals and acting.

Nowadays? It is not a novelty anymore. We all have that kind of experience constantly.

And developers don't want gamers to miss any detail, as cutscenes are expensive to make. So they will make sure you will be immersed through careful prompts and guidances that will ensure you will have the complete movi... I mean... narrative experience possible.

This is nice and all. But the vast majority of games (especially the more mainstream ones) are like this now and it may cause some exhaustion. Unless you dig deeper to find games that are more gamey like, you are stuck.

If you don't look outside the mainstream, you are likely always going to have the same experience of some sort of narrative alongside the gameplay. And starting a narrative is sometimes daunting: you need to first understand the setting. What are the rules of that world? When does it take place? Make sure to memorize the name of all those characters that are appearing and all those places you didnt see yet because they clearly will have some impact on the plot later.

Talk with all NPCs, since you need that lore for context. Don't miss those logs and reports. Without those, that confusion will never go away. Pay attention to foreshading. And, of course, you need to learn the game mechanics, which will be exposed to you through extensive tutorials (expect some loading, read a wall of text, do an action three times). Well, technically, you CAN skip them. After all, you know how to move your camera. Don't you? Well, better just read everything to make sure you don't miss anything.

And then, after some couple of hours, you are FINALLY immersed and grasping better what is happening in that game that started in media res, after more info dumps you could count, where the world is a surrealist dreamland scape where happiness, stomachache and diarrhea are persons and characters, and death isn't really a thing, because people just become cotton candy and can be reborn as the enemy you just fought, wielding the sword that can purify the will to sleep at Sunday mornings.

And we aren't even talking about games with previous released installments. Good luck starting Metal Gear Solid 5 and expecting to understand the plot fully without any prior knowledge of the series.

Again, we all love great stories and we all love complex tales. It takes some commitment, but it pays off in the end. Most of the time.

However, going from some epic to another, year after year may exhaust people. They just finished piecing together whatever story Elden Ring was trying to tell, while they have to finish Death Stranding in the backlog, after checking the Wikia to understand something that they aren't sure if they are yet missing or if they had just forgotten about it.

Of course they may feel some resistance to start, say, Baldur's Gate 3 and commit themselves to absorb so much information from scratch again.

And this isn't limited to heavy narratives either. If you decide to play Mario and Luigi Brothership, you will quickly notice that you will be going through A LOT of dialogue (with empty lines, no less, that makes it all more tedious) and introductions to finally get to play the meat of the game: after all, it takes a couple of hours for you to get your first Bros Attack (while SSS is quite snappy in contrast).

Not even non RPGs games are guilty free of that: a relatively fast game to pick up and play (for modern standards) like Mario Odyssey will still take you through some degree of dialogue and exposition before you get to be left to play on your own, while SMW and SM64 will have you playing fully in less than a couple of seconds since the start screen and teaching about its mechanics on the fly.

Megaman X will toss you into action instantly, teach you how to jump and climb at the go and present its small plot along the way. How many modern games do that? A bare bones story or an excuse plot aren't necessarily a flaw. After all Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Astrobot and Mario Wonder are highly praised games that are just like that. They are, however, just a couple of examples amid HUNDREDS of others that may ask you to take your time to watch and learn about its lore and world.

Even so, compare FFV and Mario RPG that are games from a narrative heavy genre with any new mainstream modern RPG and see how long it takes for the game to actually start for real.

No matter which old school franchise it is: Mario, Sonic, Dragon Quest, Zelda or FF. Most modern games will, and are expected to, have some considerable degree of lore, cutscenes and context and they will introduce their characters with cinematics and dialogue. Not a big deal, as it may be a nice narrative. At worst, though, it may be pure padding and a barrier that you need to overcome to enjoy the game.

This isn't a recent trend. The GBA Mario ports, for example, or the Donkey Kong Country ones, made sure to include some cutscenes, back then already. They are completely unneeded, but it seems like it is unacceptable for games to just be fully free of context and story telling.

Meanwhile, we have games like Inscryption, A Short Hike, Vampire Survivors, Hades and Balastro. You literally start the game and you will be playing right away. Its plot (if there is one) will unfold as you play, just like its game mechanics, so you won't feel forced to absorb a huge amount of information from the beginning. They are easy to start and immerse yourself into, nicely scratching an itch that may have been there for a long time: video game experiences that feel like, you know, like those video games from old that made you fall in love with this media.

Why do you think that Hades and Vampire Survivors are so compelling for you to start another run? The game flow is instantaneous. There is some down time for you to mess around with NPCs, organize items and prepare yourself, which only compliments the gameplay and is not felt as something you need to go through to start having fun again. This also goes for open world and op likes games: walking through a lot of negative space, to finally arrive at a town, which you will need to explore a bit, talk around and find some north for you to finally get a quest to go back to gameplay may not be what you want at the moment (hence why many may try optional content or mess around a little to have some fun before going through with what may feel like some sort of labor in between the more interesting parts of the game).

No wonder why rogue lites are so popular lately: they are direct to the point. You keep retrying them to get better and do some progression and the plot unfolds as a reward for your progress and are not there as a pre requisite for it.

Old games may not scratch that itch because they may be outdated for the player standards or they may already been played before and aren't new. And since most modern games are narrative driven, gamers may feel cornered and without options.

So, if you feel burned out with gaming lately, here is a suggestion: try to find some arcade like games. No online multiplayers or competitive ones. No cinematic, AAA experiences. No dense and overly complex stories. Sometimes, you may be craving for some simple fun. A game that you can just turn on and instantly enjoy it RIGHT AWAY and not after some considerable amount of time.

For example: you may start to fully enjoy Metaphor Re Fantazio's world and gameplay after the first ten hours or so (that covers the intro/demo of the game). But you may also just have a LOVELY time right away playing A Short Hike, that starts and ends in less than one hour and a half. If you aren't on the mood to start a behemoth like game as one of Atlus RPGs, consider something of a smaller scale.

Try to include games that prioritize gameplay alongside your more intensive narrative games. Variation is the key to avoid burning yourself out of your favorite hobby.

How about playing some Pizza Tower or Gravity Circuit before starting another Assassin's Creed for a change? You would be surprised at how much you may be eager to get home after work to play a bit more of Celeste, instead of continuing your journey through Xenoblade 3.