How much time do you spend gaming compared to 10 years ago?

There is a kickstarter claiming to be inspired by Plancescape: Torment, but nothing on the page made me believe they were going to end up with anything worth playing.

Bethesda is still making Elder Scrolls games. Morrowind has more memory potential than most because the devs actually looked at the idea of making a mildly alien ecosystem. It's quite a shame that Cyrodil and Skyrim have familiar European ecosystems with a little splash of European fantasy aspects and daedra.

Not sure about this one, can't remember if I played it.

Other games that have had attempted followers but still outshine them:
Alpha Centauri
Master of Magic
Master of Orion 2
Heroes of Might and Magic ... can't remember if it was 3 or 4
All Command and Conquer games before that worthless mess that was C&C4 (the changes in the 3s made the gameplay awkwardly similar to the Blizzard *craft games, but they still felt more like Command and Conquer than Scrincraft/Bearcraft) [yes, I include Renegade in this list]
...and I know I'll think of another 15 when I get home tonight. That doesn't mean all games were better a decade ago, just that there were enough good games to be worth rebuying off gog.com because I don't know where my discs are. The modern philosophy of "release now, finish next year" also doesn't help. I don't want to pay $60 for a beta release and then another $40 for the rest of the content (also released in public beta levels of quality).

What I wouldn't mind is a game similar to Neverwinter Nights 1 or 2. (Not Neverwinter -- that is a MMO, but the old NWN games.) Granted that the OC for NWN1 was fairly weak, but HotU more than made up for that, not to mention the very well written stuff made by players.

These let one run their own persistant worlds, where if you wanted to design something cool, you could make a HAK pack for your custom stuff, then allow people to connect. There were some really creative worlds with very interesting plots, not to mention quests to follow.

This is one series of games, with an excellent interface for making new game modules (single player or multi-player), real time DM-ing (DMFI add-ons helped a bunch), and decent add-ons.

What would be nice would be an engine that used Pathfinder rules, had a decent database backend as an option (so multiple zone servers could function on the same info), and could have both single player and multi-player stuff. I'd pay well for one of these on kickstarter, but it would have to be something that is always maintained well.

There are still interesting ideas -- the Mass Effect and Witcher series, for instance. I do wish developers would stop looking to MMOs for inspiration for single-player RPGs. It's just insulting when a $60 SP-only RPG hits me with a "kill 10 of monster X" quest. But I also hate crafting, so maybe there's just something wrong with me.

Well, maybe you should look?
I heard there was some new relatively unknowns game in the Elder Scrolls serious called Skyrim.
I think you have changed more so then the industry has changed.

A lot of people lament the dearth of innovation in gaming. When asked what they want? They ask for sequels to games they already played.

But that's ok. Because people aren't looking for new ideas in games, they want "good" games. New ideas that are poorly executed are still going to result in a bad game. Old ideas with great execution are going to result in a good game (assuming the idea hasn't been worn to death like WW2 shooters). People just want good games.

So here's a few in line with the games you've called out.
1) Planescape torment - One might reference Neverwinter Nights games (specifically with the expansion stories) to get the isometric D&D style gameplay. But the gameplay in Planescape was not important at all, it was all about the protagonist's existential dilemma and top-quality writing, that's the element that people remember so fondly. With that in mind, The relatively recent game I'd recommend that you try is Walking Dead Season 1. If you don't watch the show, or read the comics, that's fine, because this game is both totally unconnected to, and is much better than the source material. Unless you're the kind of person that likes to jump on the bandwagon of hating things that are popular? This "game" has hardly any game mechanics to speak of because this is an RPG in the purest sense. You play a role, and the entire focus of this game is on making you really feel like you're IN the role. You make weighty decisions that result in significant consequences.

2) Morrowind - Play Skyrim. The mod community for Skyrim is just as lively as Morrowwind's.

3) Wizardry 8 - They just released the 10th Might and Magic game in January 2014, M&M X. It's still a party of 4 adventurers you customize and take through the world on a turn-by-turn basis. Don't know how good that game is, but Legend of Grimrock which is also using the same formula, is definitely a good game.

As for new ideas, look towards the indie space on Steam. There's still plenty. I don't play games as often as I used to, and I too have fond memories of games going back to Dos prompts and Nintendo cartridge-blowing days, but I still see great things happening in the games industry and I don't believe that all the highwater marks had already been reached in the past.

But going back on topic, I definitely play games a lot less than I used to. I won't have much free time until the kids are older. In the meantime, I find I experience most of the new things happening in gaming through "Let's Play" video channels on youtube or Twitch where I watch someone else play games while I'm doing dishes, folding laundry, etc.

Yeah, except the stakes are real, and he's the bottom most priority of that shitpile.

Kids are easy to replace compared to a house or a dog.
Even if you don't have a woman to fuck you can just buy a kid in russia or afrika.
Thailand has so many babies that they find them in the trash and in landfills.
Also I think that if you married the right person they will love you more than the kids.

Also this is not sarcasm. I just don't give a fuck about kids. In fact I actively dislike most of them.
Don't worry; I have no plans (or even prospects) of having kids.

It is in order!
But you are right the wife might not take it that well.
But if I said /. she would look at me funny :)

You assume his wife thinks more like you and not more like him.

Maybe the ordering is in order of acquiring it, not in order of priority? Or maybe it is in order of priority and they both agree on it?

I'm going to go out on a limb her and ask. Why aren't you playing games with your daughters?

I played, and still play, all kinds of games with my kids. both are now teens.

Sad story about your cordintation. I'm nearly 50, And stll hold my own against my kids and their friends...much to there announce.

Me: "I'm going to shoot you in the head now."
Them: "Haha, you can't hit me"
me: *Headshot*
There friends: BWahahahha
me: "what are you laughing at, your next."

Great times, have them.

The irony is, it takes longer to play a hand of solitaire than it does to complete a modern AAA crapfest these days... And I'm pretty sure solitaire hasn't changed much over the years.

It appears he now spams slashdot ..

Just read up on Star Citizen and I've become interested as well. Have you ever played or heard about Escape Velocity Nova [ambrosiasw.com]? It sounds somewhat similar to Star Citizen, though EV Nova is single-player only.

I found EV Nova to be highly engrossing and fun; it's a free roaming space trader / space combat game with RPG elements. It's shareware, so you can download the full game and play about the first 50% of it for free, with the option to $30 for a license that unlocks the full game, with all the special missions and spaceship outfits and what-not. And you can use the same license for the universal binary mac version (the game was released in 2001, and there's an x86 mac version! bless those devs hearts :P), or the windows version, or both. You can also get free plugins for EV Nova to play the two earlier games in the EV series, again on either mac or pc. Hands-down the best shareware game I ever bought. Oh, there are also a ton of user-made mods and total conversions out there, even though it's always been a bit of a niche game.

I used to go on 12-hour binges with games like Battlefield 2 and Diablo 1/2, but I always found that EV Nova never inspired me to push myself and play more than an hour or two a day. Maybe it's because a lot of the story is described in text terminals and requires some degree of imagination to "come alive", I'm not quite sure. Since it offered me such a good deal of fun for so little addictive potential, I thought I'd share it with you; it's a good game for someone who likes space trader / combat games but also has a life to attend to.

Yet most of us were causing death and destruction on human beings in games when we were 6. Unless you have a history of murder, all these "it's ok if they're zombies/robots/fantasy" posts are kind of silly and propagating a concept I wish would just die already.

" and I can only say no so many times"
no, you are a dad, you can say "no" every time.

They aren't zombies. i.e. raised from the dead. They are sick humans. well, really they are just pixels; which is the important bit.

Oh, and if she like 'zombie' story, have her read 'The Dead' by Charlie Higson. The whole series is good.
In fact I consider the Dead one of the best 'Zombie' book written. It was recommend to me by my 13 year old daughter.