Topic: Do you ever feel you've missed something great because you couldn't appreciate it?

I've been gaming since the late 80s and tried most systems, but I've never really got into the Playstation. When the original one was launched I never wanted to get one and bought a Saturn and N64 (both of which I loved, so never regretted it), I did buy a PS2, but apart from MGS1 (the PS1 game via backwards compatibility) & MGS2 it ended up being a DVD player, and a PS3 but never used the thing.

I've never really got drawn in by any of the big PS games and it makes me feel I've missed out on something since so many people seem to like it. Even now looking at the PS4 there is nothing I can see that makes me want to get it (although this gen is generally a big disappointment to me - only have Wii U and that's solely for nostalgic IPs/titles and the VC). Anyone else see other big crazes (gaming or not), where it didn't appeal to you and you feel that you have missed out on something because you don't see what other people do?

I sometimes feels that way about Gears of War, but then I remember how many games were made less interesting by 3rd person cover shooting because they want to be Gears of War.

There are plenty of beloved games I've missed, but if I had the time I would play them. I don't intentionally avoid games people like (outside of my EA boycott between 2004 and 2007, and even then I bought a used copy of Freedom Fighters). I just play games I wanted more instead. If I did, I wouldn;t consistently still try to enjoy stealth or strategy games.

I will say, I wish I played Excitebots more than I did.

Yes and no. I'm actually not big on most of Sony's IPs either. I've tried Uncharted and God of War for example and didn't think either were as good as people make them out to be. On that note, I personally don't feel like I'm missing out on anything with those. However, if it's a game or series that looks interesting to me and I haven't gotten around to playing it, then sometimes I do feel like I'm missing out.

I'm kind of the same with Sony,their consoles have never really appealed to me for some reason.I find that strange personally as I owned and loved several Sony products growing up,from the Walkman cassette to Mini Disk player every thing I owned from them served me well.I think my perception of their consoles comes from playing on my mates PS1.I always thought the games he owned were inferior to what i was playing on my Saturn then N64.Then when he got his PS2 ,I had the Dreamcast and moved onto Gamecube and my other mate the original XBOX.The PS2 always felt like the worst out of the 3 especially when it came to FIFA.I moved over seas in 2003 and apart from visits have never returned to live so I've never really got to play much on any of the non Nintendo consoles since then.I keep my eye on what comes out for both consoles but I'm just not drawn to them for some reason.If I was to ever buy a PS or XBOX instead of Nintendo I would still check Nintendo news all the time and feel like I'm missing out.I don't get that feeling with the other 2.

However I do wish we had FIFA,it doesn't feel right to me to not have a football game on my console.Every console I've ever owned from Atari 2600 through to Wii I've had at least 1 footy game on it.I can't bring myself to buy FIFA 13 (12) when all my mates are playing 15,even though it's still decent and can be had for cheap the old squads will really bother me.I'm foolishly keeping my fingers crossed EA will give us something at E3.

I wouldn't say I missed out on a game I can still play - I'm a retro gamer, I can always go back to it if I want to. But not being able to appreciate an obviously good game because of some small and possibly unimportant factor? Oddly yes, if only because I was a pretty stupid teenager, plus I have some rigid phobias. I still can't enjoy Half-Life 2 because of the Ravenholm level. Like, even when I made it through the faux-horror part of the level, the fast zombies and confusing level layout pretty much make it impossible for me to get through the rest of it...

I also have yet to be able to get myself to play Phantasy Star IV because in December 2008, it won an award from the now defunct VC-Reviews, leaving Ys Books I & II in second place (clearly it was robbed even though I've never played Phantasy Star IV ). I want to get to it someday, but I just keep making excuses not to every time I even think about playing it. Ironically, the award thing wouldn't have been an issue if I didn't make such a big stink over it. I'll probably never interact with any of those people again, and even if I did, they'll probably never remember it, yet somehow I still feel like I'd be letting myself down if I gave in and let myself play and enjoy it...

There's probably more examples, but that's all I have time for right now. TL;DR, I'm weird.

EDIT: Oops, I misread the original post. You're talking about "I don't see what everyone thinks is so great about it, but now I feel I'm missing out!" sort of thing? Everyone gets that way. It's all about how you deal with it. I personally try to understand whatever it is as best as I can, weighing the pros and cons, but if it still sounds like something I won't enjoy, I just move on and focus on something I will enjoy. Sometimes I'm wrong - I never could've predicted I'd enjoy Dishonored as much as I did, since nearly everything about it is something I normally wouldn't go for. Yet it did all of that in a way that worked even for me.

Other times I'm completely right (The Last of Us, for instance. I've said plenty on that, but it really is not my kind of game, or even that great for the type of game it is), and then I simply forget about it and move on. I got better games to play.

There are two games I regret not getting into, but for two entirely different reasons.
The first is Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast. I got it the year it came out, in the heat of the online craze, but I was still a teenager and still living with my mom. I couldn't play online much because it was too expensive to hook the Dreamcast to the telephone line. I have played it online a bit, but never enough to get the full experience. I used to read magazines back then and people would send letters saying "The phone bill was £1,500 this month but this game is worth it" and I was like, bloody hell you can buy a second hand car for that amount, don't this people have a family?!

Second regret is probably FIFA - not that I miss having played the game, but I miss the social side of it. It is the footy game par excellence at the moment, and I stubbornly refused to give it a try when the new versions came out because I kept saying "Can't be as good as PES". Fast forward 6 years and everybody and their uncle is playing FIFA and refuse to play PES. Now it's a bit late to join the party because I really suck at it and I DON'T LIKE IT, but if I could go back I would give it a try instead of wearing my colours like a badge.

The PS3's library. We've had one for a number of years (which my dad plays his baseball game on), but I've never made an attempt to get into it's library, despite my intentions to do so (I did play InFamous thanks to the "Welcome Back" program, though).

To a lesser extent, the PS1. Pretty much the same deal as above (I was too busy with our N64), except for the fact that we did have Crash Bandicoot, Contra: Legacy of War (which was still dad's), and I was more willing to play the sports games with him.

Pretty much all the main series Mario games? There are lots of games I don't like, and a lot of them are popular, but the Mario games are the only ones where I ask myself what I'm seeing wrong that I don't really get into them.

I think it's because they're just so polished that I never really feel like any part of the experience is mine, but I don't know. Those are the games that I want to like, but never seem to!

Absolutely not. Sometimes a large majority of people love a game that just isn't for you and sometimes its just overhyped. Other people thinking it's great doesn't matter - only what you think of it matters, because its your spare time. You could argue that this applies to games that are now really aged, but honestly, you end up loving the games you play in your childhood no matter how good they were, and its not like you'll ever be able to play them all.

I guess maybe Pokemon. I played Yellow, and really enjoyed it, but after getting Gold, it all felt a bit too similar so I gave up, maybe 25% into the game. I didn't try another until White 2, and was amazed to find it still felt like I'd played the exact same game recently, despite a gap of about 14 years. I go to regular 3DS street pass meet ups, and I see how into Pokemon a lot of them are, and I do wish I could enjoy it that much, but it just feels like the same game over and over again to me.

Yep, I feel that way with Minecraft. Plenty of people love that game, but I cannot understand the appeal of it. I gave it a try, and managed to make a shelter. But with no real objectives, and nothing specific I wanted to make, I soon got bored of. Plus, my old laptop was having some framerate issues with it, so that probably put me off as well.