I've certainly noticed that my patience has dropped off a cliff.
When I was young, I spent hundreds of hours in RPGs. Then I got into roguelikes, which are like RPGs, but condensed down. Well, and now I'm microdosing this crack, because the condensed version of roguelikes is apparently puzzle games.
A good rogue like is a super complex puzzle with randomness thrown in! Completely see the similarity.
Only RL I went hard for was DCSS for some reason, and it's hard to estimate how much time I put into that over the years. At least as much as other heavily played AAA or MMO type games for me. What about you?
Ehm, well, I may or may not be moderator of a DCSS community here on Lemmy. 😅
Yeah, I decided to write "roguelikes" up there, but 99% of my roguelike time, I've also spent in DCSS. It being more puzzley than many of the more recent roguelikes has certainly played a role...
Edit: OOPS. You meant whether the statement about being puzzle like applies to OG Rogue. You said almost exactly that. My bad lol, below remains intact to display my shame (and enthusiasm).
It's a puzzle in the sense that you have a constrained number of options, both in a given combat scenario and in the general sense of building your character and attacking the dungeon. And usually all those options have some tradeoffs, beyond just the opportunity cost. Skill (and creativity! one of my favorite elements!!) of the player make the difference between a doomed run and a cakewalk. Careful marshaling of resources, knowing when it's time to spend something rare or take a gamble. Knowing what late game change might solve the weaknesses your character has and help achieve specific goals, knowing what would be folly.
Lot to learn, and then deploy in fun and creative ways. And challenging. Loss is the teacher, lol. So good!
I used to love RPGs when I was younger too, but now I find them too slow. I’ve always loved roguelikes, back when I still liked RPGs, and still to this day.