Pre ordering cyberpunk. Probably the worst mistake I made in the last 10 years.

Buying a few (too many) FPP (boxed) games in the 2000s. While most of them are more like Half Life 2 than like 'pure shooters' (Quake, Doom, ...), nowadays I find that they still have too much focus on mostly shooting... and 'zooming around'.
Examples: Elite Force 2, No one lives forever, Prey, Doom 3, AvP, Far Cry, ...

Half Life 2 was a breath of fresh air, after a period when every dev/publisher seemed to be wanting to cash-in on the Quake craze - now I just think: it's a far cry (no pun intended, really!) from System Shock 2.

My taste in games hasn't changed that much... I like "adventures", spanning multiple genres (it makes sense to me, and that's what matters).

I don't find Shooters (FPS) bad or anything - they're like platformers, fun for 15 minutes - then I get bored with them.

This is a good suggestion, thanks. Owning a Wii Classic and Wii U Pro controller though (including PS1 and DC), I can't say I enjoy the d-pad where the analog stick should be. This is why Xbox 360 / One and NSP are the best controllers I've ever used. And the 8bitdo button layouts are the exact same as an NSP controller, so there's not much incentive to switch.

---

Another gaming mistake I've found was not expanding into other genres when I was younger. I realize now I'm losing a lot more manual dexterity as all aging adults do and so it takes me longer to learn and complete fast-paced games. Completing the most technical achievements to 100% the game are out of my reach legitimately too. Good thing let's play videos exist so I can still enjoy those games I've missed if needed.

Yes. I bought it hoping there would be more variation between classes, skill trees and plastyles but all of that is dependent on the RNG guns you get, which are 99% useless with the others coming only after bosses or similar level up events. I did buy for SP though, and BL is supposed to be a co-op franchise.

I once chose to game instead of sex. Does that count?

Playing a first-person 3d game with a controller. Nearly died IRL lol.

Forgetting I had (at the moment) 32 bit Linux. y my game no work. GOG had to tell me.

Not equipping weapons and armor in Champions of Krynn. Got wasted in the second fight. In my defense, it was my third videogame (not counting Infocom) and first RPG ever.

(in a good way) Playing Kingdom at all. The damn game stole so much time from my life.

(in a bad way) Playing Cultist Simulator at all. It's garbage, and gave me carpal tunnel syndrome.

Not joining Steam earlier, when Greenlight started. Thank you for your sacrifice. *21 gun salute*

Talking to others about your progress ( game specific fora )
Buying games you know upfront would be hard to ' get into '
Playing too many games at once
Ignoring a wrist pain

Yeah. Most legendaries being gated behind specific bosses that you have to farm into oblivion is one of the worst things about it. You can't just play the game and be rewarded for it, you have to do mindless repetition to the n-th degree. But it was not so bad in the first game, which is my favorite. There, you can find legendaries even in trash piles, chests have much better drop rates and the scaling is not nearly as aggressive so a well rolled weapon with good parts can last you 10+ levels easily. Ever since Borderlands 2, a legendary you find now will be nearly worthless 3 levels later...

As for the skill trees, you can find some variety in them, but it's more about what you focus on early on as later, you will most likely have enough points for pretty much all you'd want. Borderlands 2 was the worst to me and clearly oriented at multiplayer. Pre-Sequel, I had much more fun with and it is absolutely the one with the most character playstyle variety. If you didn't like TPS, then you most likely won't like any of them.

Never played a second of co-op in either of them.

Not making proper use of my industry friends / contacts for work years ago.

Buying Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (Yakuza Kenzan) in Japanese and hoping to use it to finally learn Japanese. It taught me that unless you've already learned another language, only buy localized games.

Good thing there are still turn based games, RPGs and turn based strategies, that you can enjoy even without manual dexterity.

(This is assuming that the game doesn't suddenly require it for a mandatory minigame or something, which unfortunately is something I have seen some RPGs do.)

At least it's not as bad as some games, where if a boss doesn't drop the rare item you want, you have to reload your last save in order to try again, as the boss doesn't respawn and there's no other source of the item.

(In my current SaGa Frontier 2 playthrough, I spent over an hour trying to get a Granite Staff, and not getting it either here or in the one other event that lets you visit the same dungeon would mean never getting it. At least, tha drop is a random enemy drop, so I can at least get skill levels while hunting for it. I ended up giving up, but on the way through the dungeon to complete it, a Granite Staff dropped for me anyway.)

I feel like I will regret installing Genshin impact even it is decent fun. Also freaking Conan Exiles. So many hostile alligators and cannibals. I just want to ask them what I should do other than collect wood and stone.

I've been gaming on the computer since the 80's. My family + extended members and my wife's family (grew up together) was SUPER into computers so that was always going to be in my cards. I just really detested console. They were the equivalent to someone offering me a cigarette in those days.

There are probably a lot but truthfully, listening to the gaming press. It's become more blatantly obvious over the past 20 years or so but what a skewed hype machine. I can't believe how many titles I rented or owned over the years trying to convince myself I was having fun. Whatever magazine or website said it was a 9/10 so I'd spend time and money on something I didn't enjoy. Sometimes it just wasn't something I personally enjoyed and sometimes it was the hype around an average game. Best graphics ever! Largest open world ever! Collectibles! Secret unlockable characters! If it was a slog to get through the main game why would I want to replay it with a slightly different character?

The worst offender now is Game of the Year and awards crap. Gamers are an internet savvy bunch from way back. Word of mouth and forums like this one are way more important then the media. A little plaque or trophy has no bearing on if a game is actually good. Sales don't either to a certain extent. It's like the Oscar's. Industry insiders tend to be morons existing in their little industry bubble. It's why we still watch Citizen Kane, Saving Private Ryan, and any Kubrick film but none won Best Picture. Go see if you even recognize the films that beat them out and the media told you were so good.

Anyways that's rant. Listen to friends or those with common interests for tips, not the press who got assigned to report on something as a job and quite possibly despise you.

One of my fave films ever was slated by the critics (to begin with). It originally scored 2 on rotten tomatoes!