Do you just play shooters ?

[kamrenroder]

I have never played newer games to any extent. The only games I bought on the release day during the last ten years are FFIX,Assassin's Creed II,Darius Burst and Espgaluda II. Probably because I don't like FPS.

Today I play arcade games almost exclusively (mostly shmups), with a side order of strategy games. and some times I play Nintendo games.

[Vyxx]

I grew up with Mario, SOnic, FInal Fantasy, that whole group. Shmups became of interest later after I played LifeForce over at a friends house. My interest in Shmups grew from there, and has steadily become more of a passion. Life is a lot busier now, having a 1 year old daughter and all, so even when I do find time to game I gravitate towards Shmups because you can play for 5 minutes or 5 hours and still have fun. You don't need to be able to devote 10 hours of your life into them everyday to feel like you've made progress.

Back on topic: I play about 1/3 Shmups, 1/3 Survival Horror, & 1/3 everything else (puzzles, platformers, action/adventure, etc.)

[God]

My interest in STGs is just an offshoot of my love of 2D action.

As for RPGs, these days I prefer them on paper & pencil.

[dnbiola]

Shmups are just one of many genres I play. I tend to play more older games than new releases, though.

Me too. I've never got into the hyper-realistic, FPS games. I end up playing a lot of portable games and older games because I enjoy 2D stuff, platformers, and of course shoot-em-ups.

[Dragoforce]

I have never played newer games to any extent. The only games I bought on the release day during the last ten years are FFIX,Assassin's Creed II,Darius Burst and Espgaluda II. Probably because I don't like FPS.

Today I play arcade games almost exclusively (mostly shmups), with a side order of strategy games. and some times I play Nintendo games.

You can't do that.

[KBZ]

I love Shmups, but what can I say... I've been addicted to Day of Defeat for years now..

[Pirate1019]

I love Shmups, but what can I say... I've been addicted to Day of Defeat for years now..

Having fun playing dod_avalanche?

I should get DoD Source. I'd enjoy it more than CS Source.

[mesh control]

I took a break from shooters when MW2 came out and I've started to ween my way back into them. Played Dodonpachi DOJ for the first time last night and it was exhilarating.

[Dandy J]

shmup are a side thing for me, i usually dig into a shmup when there isnt much else to play. i usually play fighting games, and some racing games and sometimes the big name action/rpgs that come out. i also like playing 2d platformers when one rolls around

[Enhasa]

Brief personal history/context: I've played shmups since I was a kid. First was either Space Invaders or Centipede. Kept on playing them. Of course, I played all sorts of games too. As they became more niche and thus harder to find, I had a bit of a lull after the Saturn era. In 2003 (when Perfect Cherry Blossom and rRootage were released), I got to play modern shmups, doujin shmups, and using the PC for shmups (other than older crap like Raptor and Tyrian) really for the first time. Like most things you expose to the internet, you pick up a lot of info and interest this way, and soon it was MAME and blah blah blah.

I'd played for score before, but after STGT 07, that became my focus. Also as a graduate student with a job, I have a lot less time now, and the time I do have is often not in large enough blocks. So for the last couple years, it's been mostly shmups. This isn't because I don't want to play other genres now, but shmups are just pick-up-and-play and time friendly. You know how it is. I also decided philosophically that I want to minimize all luck-based entertainment in my life, since life itself is already too luck-based as is. I love how shmups are like this, especially compared to other games. Around this time I also quit playing poker, fantasy sports, MTG, and other games with high luck value. Fantasy sports was a big one since I still kinda follow sports, it's not too time-consuming, and I'm rather good at it (better than I am at video games for sure). Yes, everyone says these are skill-based and better players win over the long term, but in the short term, it's frustrating to get screwed over and I don't need that.

At this point, I have high score submissions for basically everything in my top 25, meaning games I actually want to play for score. So I actually expect the % of gaming time spent on shmups to have to naturally go down. Even if I love the games, there's still a lot of stuff I want to catch up on. Will always play shmups as long as I can though. I've always been thinking that while I'm still young, it would be a good idea to play as much dexterity and reflex-based games as possible, because there's always room for other stuff when I'm older. Maybe by then story-based games will have evolved to the point where they don't completely suck ass.

I don't feel like I will ever get to the point where I feel like I've played everything worthwhile there is to play, even in one genre, because I know better than that.