Why I'm bored of shooters, and why I can't stop playing them

Last September I decided that all modern shooters were just cut and paste copies of each other, so me and two of my friends vowed not to buy any of the new 2011 shooters. My friends both immediately caved into the pressure from everyone and bought them but I stayed strong believing it would pay off in the long run, I'd have saved about £100. But a few months later I ended up going out and buying Battlefield 3, as much as going back on a promise to myself annoyed me, I craved the familiar tension, satisfaction, and rage that all came from this predictable but fun style of game.

So what is it about these games that gives almost everybody has an undying need to play them? And what makes us all buy the new ones every year for the same experience? Well the simple answer is usually the best, and in this case it is. The reason these games are so popular, and that gaming itself is so popular, is that they are built from the ground up to make you feel like you need to do it again and again, and this is not a bad thing.

Imagine a casino, the games played in them keep people coming back again and again with the same thing. Risk. You get a thrill from playing it, and when you win you feel fantastic. When you lose, not only do you feel disappointed and angry, you also feel like you have to do it again until you win back what you lost. A perfect formula in practice, but eventually people get bored of the same game over and over and want something different. But they want to feel the same effect. That's why these games are re-released with slightly different looks and new game modes every year, to keep the magic alive.

Even though it annoys me to think that these concepts are taking over from storyline and gameplay in this genre, I do enjoy these games a lot and don't wish for them to change at all. I hope that this will enlighten some people to what they're playing so that in an argument they don't have to resort to the annoying and blatantly wrong phrase "they're nothing like each other!" because they are. I also hope that it shows people who are dead set against these games that say "they are trying to look like different games when they're not" realise they aren't hiding anything and they know exactly what they are, so shut up and join the fun.