It’s strange. I feel like I should miss them, since I spent so much time playing them for so long. But for some reason, one day I just stopped caring all that much. I try and play games that i loved even growing up, still nothing. There is a nostalgia value, yes. But an actual desire to keep playing, and that passion that I once felt- nothing.
When I see people playing new games, I go, “Ah, cool looking.” But I have no desire to play them. No interest. Nothing. I used to be very addicted to them up until a few years ago. And now, well, I just can’t get into them. I can’t care.
It’s not like I miss it. I mean, I feel like I should miss it. But I don’t. I got a little bit into FF12 for awhile. But I stopped for a few weeks, and couldn’t get back in. Just, well, meh.
But at the same time, I’m kind of glad. It gives me more time to write. More time to read. More time to watch some good movies and television. More time for all this other stuff. Going on walks. Playing with my kids. I don’t think this is a bad thing.
But it is weird. Since I spent so much of my youth playing it. So very very much.
You don’t mention what kind of games you liked, in particular. RPGs platformers, puzzles? Maybe you just aren’t finding current games that are suited to your tastes. Throw us some examples!
I feel the same way… From sitting on the floor trying to get the lighting just right to be able to see Pokemon on my Gameboy, to playing Goldeneye on my N64 for so many hours my family gets worried about me, to the emotion I felt completing FFX, to the thousands of hours I have spend on MMORPGS, I have always loved video games. It used to be my biggest hobby, I am 17 now and I just don’t seem to have as much fun playing anymore.
Because of the massive amount of games I have played I rarely come across something new. Much of the time I feel games are too predictable now-a-days, for example in shooters like CoD, BF:BC, MAG, etc, you know your going to spawn, run around, kill or be killed, then repeat. But even RPGs seem to not be able to hold my attention anymore. I just bought Dragon Age: Origins thinking that it would be my key back into the fantasy RPG world that I have always loved being in, but it wasn’t. I play for about an hour and get bored and watch TV or something else, and I don’t really even like TV because of all the shity commercials, but for some reason now TV seems more captivating than video games. I remember the days I used to sit on GameFAQs reading all of the unlockable items for FF games and hoping on my system till about 3AM working for them, now it just seems like a waste of time. I bought FF Tactics, 7, 8, and 9 off PSN thinking I would love them and in a years time I have barely come to complete a single one.
It is interesting that this happens to so many people, and I do agree that it partially is because I am growing out of it and becoming more interested in other things. Though I do find it kind of sad that I am losing interest in something that used to be such a big part of my life. I think that no matter how old I am I will still play video games casually, but never as ‘hardcore’ as I used to because I have just lost the desire.
All video games. Every single last one. I could care less. Platformers, shmups, rpg’s, whatever. I just don’t find them interesting anymore.
Well games about learning/gaining skill and competing/proving skill. Maybe you don’t feel you have anything useful left to learn, or maybe you feel proved already.
err.. in relation to those games, that is.
I don’t know. I’m not quite sure that’s it. But it’s also weird to me to hear people talking about video games. And being excited about it. It sounds strange to me. Like they’re talking a different language, almost.
I play more games now than I have at any previous time in my life. Even childhood, I think.
The addition of online/co-op play has made all the difference for me. But the co-op interest has led to an occasional single-player game, too.
The advent of sandbox games has drawn me in, too. And the MA rating. The potential for genuine antisocial mayhem without a story to imprison me is appealing.
Ninja Gaiden 2 rules!
Also, erm… no, I think know what you mean. It takes a fair amount for me to play a game more than a few times these days. There are so many that are fairly uninspiring, or that fall into repetition. It’s a shame because video games have such incredible potential for storytelling (I mean, they could really create a new utterly immersive experience) and even those praised for their great stories are really fairly mediocre when compared to even the meanest of novels.
But even a great story isn’t enough to carry a game, because so many other things have to work too – visuals, gameplay, etc. I think maybe Mass Effect, might be close to being what I want video games to be–excited to check that out–but, more than any other form of entertainment, video games fail to meet the overblown expectation in my head.
RPGs on the other hand are flexible enough to be far closer to what you want them to be. You can toss aside rules, create new ones, and the story, of course, is whatever you want it to be. The gap between expectation and reality can be made much smaller.
Sort of, but not quite. Video games as a whole don’t interest me. Not because of story telling, or narrative, or repetition. I just don’t have the slightest interest. It’s like that part of my brain turned off.
I feel a similar detachment. I have a bunch of consoles gathering dust, and I don’t really miss them. I have many great NES and Genesis memories, but the memories are sweeter than playing games now. The one exception is my DS; I still regularly play games on it–regularly, not incessantly and I still enjoy them.
In the grand scheme of things, give me a good book or my imagination, dice, and a few friends any day.
Liked ‘em a lot when I was a kid, pretty much like every other boy, had a Super Nintendo even, later – and an X-Box – which is mostly used for watching tv now.
Is a long time since I was addicted, remotely. Play very rarely these days.
I was searching the web for answers to this very question when I came across your blog. I was a hardcore gamer for most of my childhood. I remember spending entire Saturdays, like maybe 16 hours straight, playing a game on the Super Nintendo. Much of my young adult life I spent always wanting to play, too, on the PS1 and PS2. I got into Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft, and was online constantly. Then, about half a year ago, I quit WoW, and wanted to go back into console games. But I just never could muster the desire. Even right now, I’m just sitting around. It would be a perfect night to fire up the PS3, or put some new game in the computer and go play. But I just don’t even feel the desire to turn on the power for the machine anymore. Video games were a massive part of my life, but I just can’t seem to want to play them anymore. It’s an odd feeling; I know where you’re coming from.
I am the same way…..
I feel like I should miss gaming, however, I do not. It’s a wierd feeling. I feel nothing for them, I guess empty.
The last game I bought thinking I would get back into gaming was Mass Effect for the PC. The graphics were nice, the story was tops, however, It just doesn’t feel the same anymore. I play it and think to myself, this is not nearly as fun as it was even 2 or 3 years ago.
I have even tried to load some of the games I used to love, however, I get nothing, just about 20 minutes of play time then I turn it off. After a month, I usually uninstall. (this pattern has taken place off and on for the past 3 years)
I hate to say it, but I feel like I grew out of video games.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion. It feels better to know that there are others like me.
Peace,
ned
Ned-
That’s it exactly! I feel like I’ve grown out of them. And when I hear people talking about video games, and playing them, it just sounds so weird to me. Like a waste of time. It’s such a strange feeling, after being so addicted.
Same for me. I’ve played massively all the way to adulthood. The game I spent most of my time (several years) on was Warcraft 3 (I played at pro level), then I was absorbed for ~2 months by WoW (no gaming after WoW, hehe). One time I realized how much time I’ve wasted pursuing false, virtual achievements and started feeling sick about gaming as a whole. Now I just can’t enjoy them; it’s like my instinct restrained me from that.
And I’m quite content with it
Definitely agree guys-I’m 17 years old and i’ve been gaming since about 5. I do console, but mostly it’s been PC, and some gameboy as they’ve evolved. Last year, i got really busy and didn’t have much time for video games. when i tried to pick them back up in the summer, they just weren’t fun anymore, I would play for maybe an hour, and then get tired of the game for good and never pick it up again. There was a wide variety of genres too, shooters, MUDS, rpg, platform,etc. Its been been more than a year, and I feel like i should be playing them as most of my friends do, but i simply does not hold my attention. Ned’s got it right i think i’m just growing away from them. Same thing with pen and paper too, which i played lightly. All in all, i probably do more meaningful things with my free time now, but i sort of miss the fun and the feeling that they used to, and now do not, give me. It does feel wierd, glad others feel similarly.
Holy Moley now I want to share my story.
I played alot of games as well growing up. Now im 22. The top titles for me were, Zelda, starcraft, sim city, Diablo 2, Halo, and Supersmash brothers. But now when I play those games, I get sick of them within a few minutes.
I’ve been on a quest to find some new games, but with no success. I have bought spore, sins of a solar empire, KOTOR 2, and Battle for Middle earth, and none of them last for more than a week. It’s way frustrating. They just aren’t fun for me. I still want to play games, because I know how fun they were. But no game seems to do what games used to do for me. What is the deal?
I have come to the same realization that I don’t find video games much fun anymore as well. Today, I am 27 years old, and I’m just tired of reading up on the latest video game news, and playing highly-rated “must play” video games. It does feel like my purpose in playing video games is just to get through my list of “must-play games.” I like playing casually, and only now and then. I started this year thinking I will start and finish Bioshock and Mass Effect, but now I have mixed feelings about those games. I have played these games a little to check out the gameplay, but I have little desire to complete them.
I have been playing video games since the Odyssey 2, and have enjoyed console gaming more than PC gaming. I am tired of this hobby, and I’m ready to let it go. Playing a video game should be for fun, but the pressure to complete a game is mindnumbing.
Hey everyone, This is a long one sorry :/
I thought I would share with the group. I have been, like most of the other posters here, playing games since I was very young and have kept up with gaming trends and motions over the years. I am 27 now and I have also realized that games (both past and new) don’t hold the same luster. I gave it some thought and I think I know where it stems from. Now this is not to say my opinion applies to everyone but maybe it helps shed some insight on your situations too.
For me, my lack of enthusiasm for new games is three-fold:
Overexposure, Cynicism, and Maturity.
By this I mean after 20 some odd years of gaming, you kind of have seen it all and done it all. Oh look another shooter *bang bang*, great a new quest for more fake praise… We already know what to expect before we even play – granted there are some surprises that wake us up once in a while, but after that gameplay goes right back to the same ol same ol.
Now thats not to say games aren’t fun, but that most games are getting old hat. Fun (for me anyway) comes from keeping my interest and engaging me in the story/action/event etc. That ties into the fact that every game, no matter how fresh and different will always result in the same cycle of events:
Wait for game > Buy game > play game > beat game > master game > sell/trade/forget game.
We are just avid gamers that stop caring somewhere around “play game”. And thats fine! Games are for recreation not as a replacement for our real lives. There are 8th graders out there that swarm the forums and live play and think that being the best at games is what life is all about. And fine great knock yourselves out but frankly if I have to spend 28 hours improving my skillz so as not to be beaten by an 8th grader – than I have fallen too far to be helped.
And that’s what it’s really all about – Im getting more Mature and excepting that my life means more than arbitrary values sent by a virtual world that knows nothing of me and my goals. WoW is a perfect example, no matter how good you are or whatever, there is always someone out there better or has more shit than you. What’s the point of owning 30 different rpg’s (20 of which have the same story basically anyway?) why am I spending so much time collecting experience points, when my real wife wants a child? And really when it’s all said and done, when I mastered the game, unlocked all the achievements, and schooled all the n00bs – what’s left? A bored man, on a coach holding a plastic toy.
Face it, you didn’t get bored of games, you just found more meaning to life. Consider it a solid indication that you’re doing something right. Games will always be there, and sometimes you can shut off and enjoy it but who says it has to be anything more than just good ol fashioned fun – take it or leave it – the game doesn’t care.
Well said, I believe Im about to go home and get rid of my emulators and list of old rpgs I wanted to go back and try to play. I have had this list for about 2 years becuase I can not sit down and stay interested. Who cares if I beat a fantasy rpg for snes or psx. I have beaten and played many of rpgs and games and loved them all. If I play a game now its with friends and an online shooter or fighting game. I dont have the patience, time or interest to be playing 40 hour games or even regular games anymore. It happens and I would rather be outside, riding a four wheeler or spending time with my girlfriend. I no longer look forward to late night gaming. id rather be up early in the morning doing something. Time goes on, life changes and for many of us, our interests, morals and forms of entertainment will change as well. Its just life. You dont have to just give up games all together, its just that the reason why we were all addicted at one point, that thing inside us, that urge has faded. Its burned out and now we look forward to other things. I have been feeling this way for a long time, and it is relieving to see other people who feel the same way. its not the games, its us. If anything the games have probably gotten better in many areas and worse in some.
NZ, i could not have said it better myself. Games just dont have that appeal to them anymore. I guess thats a good sign that im growing up, but i also feel that im losing a part of my identity by not playing as much. Im 18 and have been a hardcore gamer since i was 12,all that time playing games (sure i hade good times) just seems worthless now. i enjoy going out with friends more than getting to any new level or collecting god knows how many experence orbs.
And your right in that at the end of the day when you stop playing you just spent hours upon hours sitting in a coach holding a plastic toy wasting your time. My teachers dont care if im a general in halo or that im in my 4th pristige in call of duty. they care if im getting my work done. the way i see it, im not gonna wast any more time playing games that wont do anything for my future.
I spent many years playing games non-stop and trying to master them. I play the old ones now, I don’t follow the latest gaming news anymore, I think games are a waste of time. I usually play games during breaks from school. I do enjoy busting out diablo II over the summer with my real friends and just playing till we get bored around level 80, every year.
But its all fading, I’m getting older and I don’t care about games anymore. It’s wierd cause none of my friends believe me when I say I dont play games anymore, especially because I was playing one for a 4-5 days straight when I had my one week winter break. But I truely don’t give a f**k about games anymore.
Hmph, I seem to be the runt of the litter in this situation. I am currently 15, been a gamer all my life, hardcore gaming really came into play 4 years ago though.
It’s been about a year since i’ve had so much fun in a game that i’ve actually forgotten about the real world, or found myself saying “innovative” and “game” in the same sentence.
It is somewhat like an awakening, where you spend all your life doing something, then one day “Eureka!” it pops into your head that no matter how much you play it will never be what you are looking for.
Entertainment, love, materialism, all created to fill the void of “purpose” which many people have failed to find on their own. With a rise in divorce rates, decrease in real life social activity, and a sense of uselessness bestowed upon us via the education system, we find ourselves having to turn SOMEWHERE.
That is why so many people still accept the half-assed crap that gaming companies are spitting out year after year. It’s not about innovation, because innovation is shunned when it comes to investors. It’s about creating a new system of accomplishment, so people will treat your game as a competition. Thus, continuously buying the sequels.
1.Kill Rats
2.Take bodies back to npc
3.Receive tons of phat loot
Sooo many people think life would be the great if at the click of a mouse button, and in five minutes time, you could effortlessly get anything you want. (essentially) The sad part is, it wouldn’t. We’d just have another set of problems that are more difficult to solve then the ones that could be solved by the search for materialistic gain.
Religious Man: Work to lead a humble life, give 10% of your salary to the church, donate 30% of your salary to charity.
Gang Member: Work to get money, drugs, women and respect.
Average Person: Work just because it is “forced”, then spend money on entertainment.
But what is “Entertainment”?
According to the dictionary it is
“Something that amuses, pleases, or diverts, especially a performance or show.”
Interesting eh? Entertainment is solely a diversion.
This is where it gets sticky. How is grinding on a game for hours “Entertainment”, while making desks in carpenter’s shop “Work”? The only feasible answer that I have heard to that is “Oh, that’s because you HAVE to work.”
But that too is a misconception, for if you don’t work you can just get on welfare and get money for doing nothing. T.V., Sports and Video Games all receive the title of “Entertainment” or “Extra-Curricular Activities”, when they should be on the same plane as “Work” for they take the same amount of effort.
“Work” is a state of mind.
When that one day you realized that games were just as much “Work” as anything else, your drive to play them deteriorated soon after.
Sorry if I ranted a bit much,
you can contact me at loirnoir@gmail.com if you have anything to say to this.
When that one day **Comes** you realized that games were just as much “Work” as anything else, your drive to play them deteriorated soon after.
Of course I mess up the last sentence!
When that one day you realized that games were just as much “Work” as anything else **comes**, your drive to play them deteriorated soon after.
Of course I mess up the last sentence!
(Then I mess up the fix!) >.<
delete the above post if possible admin.
Well, as the older you grow u would feel more easy bored, you want to expand your social life, seeing people happy makes you happy like your kids, I too grew up playing video games, have no real friends or social life and now I am stuck in my room thinking am I going to play forever? am I going to be a loser forever? NO! I am spending all my money on lottery to win 2.2million, setup a business, live in the country side, drive car, having real close friends u could trust with your life and having a soul mate.
I completely lost interest in video games, though I can’t guarantee I have forever. I never play them anymore.
Growing up, the whole point of video games was this area of discovery and technological interaction and advancement that simply wasn’t comprable to anything else.
I was certain I would be a gamer my whole life. I want to go back and play them all the time, but they all look like horrible trash to me. The people I used to game with look at that stuff and either go “meh” or “looks good to me.” Can’t they see it’s all trash?
Gaming is like a graphical hand-me-down community. Same thing with plots, all the plots are hand-me-downs from other dystopic stories and things like that. And the more I grew up and got out of difficult situations in life, the more I could just have likely done video game-like things with my own body in real life.
I lost interest in games because they aren’t good anymore. They aren’t good anymore because I’m an adult and video games are for kids. It really is that simple. It’s an industry that doesnt market to us anymore, you grow up a little too much and it’s over for you. It’s really a shame because I love the actual interactive quality of the gaming, but the games are like silly little jokes. I was VERY into gaming, I always assumed I would always love them. They died for me.
I am going through the same thing. Back when I was gaming I was about 9:1 (rpgs to shooters,mario types,zeldas,etc..)
I don’t think its so much the quality (which is lesser) as it is me. I find myself having a hard time playing games that are high quality like mass effect/oblivion/fallout3/etc…
I even enjoy the classics LESS (considering the been there done that factor)(xenogears,chronotrigger,valkyrie profile). I swear I would slit my wrists befpre I got out of midgar in ff7 if I were to play it again.
It’s that they are “all” too kiddy/ unoriginal or anything even the unique ones with a good story (persona being good any ds rpg being bad) they all just don’t do it for me anymore and if I ever start one it becomes “forced” to finish it and I usually just say screw it 2/3′s way through.
I suppose its just that since I’m getting older and don’t have the social nazi’s (mom and dad) scarring off the fun to be had in the real world games just can’t compete.
However games like goldeneye or mariokart/party I find myself enjoying when in a social and relaxed state (drunk with roommates)
so maybe it’s just the solo-gamer dying off and a social one being born. If I ever find myself mindlessly enjoying a sports game like madden I’ll throw that damned box in the bathtub.
I totally feel you.
It’s not like there aren’t great games anymore, it’s just that i’m not interested in playing. Just…not interested.
I mean I could watch somebody else play and see how the gameplay mechanics and story goes, but if i were to actually play it myself? Nah, I’ll pass.
Anyhow, that’s good to know. There’s just so much more out there that is way better, waiting to be discovered..
You know i feel the same way. It seems that most of us that feel this way used to be big hardcore gamers or 2d players. I think part of it is very simple, we didnt grow with the games. Sure the new metroid primes look amazing but are they as fun as the one for SNES?
The only games that bring back fun to me are the old style ones on the DS. I hate feeling like this, it feels like part of my life is missing because video games where a huge part of my life and now its all empty.
It seems like there are so many of us out there like this that if someone where to start creating those games we loved but honest sequels without making them so freaking complicated that my head hurts i think we would find outselves once again absorbed!
I used to be a hard-core gamer, too. I used to spend most of my free time playing. Some days, I would start a new game at 9 in the morning and play until well after midnight. The next day, I would get up at 10 and spend eight hours finishing it. Then I’d spent a couple hours surfing the net, get sick of that, and start another game. I’d spend my entire vacation that way.
I think the fun part was actually feeling like you’d achieved something. I spent the entire day in school without learning anything I didn’t know already. When I read in my free time, I’d still end up frustrated, because I didn’t feel there was much actual info in the books – I wanted to, say, get a better understanding of physics, and the entire book would jabber on about pointless speculation and stupid anecdotes. And when I’d read a serious book, I often got bored with it. I also made 3D art that I was never really satisfied with.
Compared to that, the feeling of conquering Chiron with my Singularity Behemoths was awesome.
Fortunately, I finally managed to find more enjoyment in the things I made. I still wasn’t completely happy with my pictures, but others liked them when I showed them, and that made me happier. And thanks to StumbleUpon, I actually found some decent info without getting bored. And I went to college, which was actually interesting. After that, the games just started to become boring. Playing Civ4 was no longer the sheer thrill of running your tanks over the enemy’s spearmen and lifting humanity to the stars, it was the drudgery of spending four hours micromanaging cities for a twenty-second movie of a guy falling out of a spaceship. The boring parts of the games got really terrible when I stopped caring about the payoffs.
There’s still the question of what to do with all my extra time now. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll find something.
The world is big and interesting enough, after all.
I also think, I#m at the verge of growing out og video games.
I still think, they’re a pretty good time filler, but they’re not almost as thrilling as it felt, whren i played Fallout for the first time, completely forgetting time and space and wondering why the hell it was getting bright outside again.
I think the main point is that i just played so many games, that my standard about what i want from computer games has rizen to the unaccomplishable.
Also i was satisfied really easy, when i didn’t know many computer games yet. Eerything was new and interesting but after years of being a hardcore gamer it all just seems generic and dissapointing. I always want to recall i got from games when i was younger, but they just won’t work for em anymore…
Guess I’m a little late on this but was bored and somehow found your article.
I used to be a huge hardcore gamer. I still remember the first time I beat super mario 3 for the NES. It was the best feeling ever. I remember in 1997 when Ultima Online came out and revolutionized MMORPGS. I remember Duke Nukem 1 2 and 3d. The Orriginal Wolftenstein 3d. Those games were all fun. I think the major issue is back then those games were new. They were new and fun for us we got the sense of adventure into the unknown type deal. Most of the games I listed were also very innovative at the time. Tons of new concepts. Games like halo final fantasy 130 or w/e its up to now just don’t appeal to me. I have more fun playing those little time killing flash games than the new best console game. I believe its 1 reason and 1 reason only. Been there done that got the T-shirt. It’s simple really. Halo – aliens invade earth or whatever it is save the planet. Wolftenstein 3d aliens invade / nazi… same thing. Quake aliens invade blow em up. Duke nukem 3d aliens invade blow em up.Hell half life aliens invade blow em up. It’s the same game over and over again. Game innovation is 100% dead. And not dead in the sense of new stories but dead in the sense of new themes.
Anywho I’m done ranting
I feel the exact same way.
To those who think you are to old to play videogames, that is certainly not the case. I’m only 14 years old, and no matter how much I want to relive the feeling I got when gaming intensively a few years ago, I just can’t. And now my life feels completely empty. People ask me what I like to do, and I say videogames. But after I tell them that, I feel strange, because I remember that I haven’t played a videogame in months. I tell myself I SHOULD like videogames. I WANT to play videogames. I’ve been an addict for years, how can it just dissapear so suddenly? How can that amazing feeling of playing the elder scrolls oblivion into the wee hours of the morning just go away?
I thought it was just me going through a childhood phase, but after reading all of the above comments, I don’t really know what to think. Thank you for starting this topic.
I can’t believe so many people here are like me. I thought there was something wrong with me when I stopped enjoying video games. Used to played them a lot and thought almost nothing else besides games during my teenage years. I’ve tried many times to enjoy games again by forcing myself to play new and old games, but it didn’t work. The feeling isn’t there anymore, even when I managed to complete the games that I forced myself to play.
I’m glad i stumbled across this article because it describes perfectly what I’ve been experiencing for the past year(I’m 15).
I think that the factors effecting video game enjoyment for us are maturity and high expectations.
I too was a hardcore gamer, playing up to 8 hours a day (especially when i used to play WoW). I absolutely loved games and thought I would play them for most of my life. However, in the latter part of last year the interest just died, and was completely gone by my 15th birthday. This was also around the time where I was developing a lot more as a person. I was beginning to refine my beliefs, interests, passions and think more deeply about society and myself. Perhaps my new view on life is what sub consciously rendered video games as useless; realizing there were better and more important things out there.
Also, (seeing as most of us here were hardcore gamers) it could just be that are expectations of the good old days will never be met again. Playing games when you were younger no longer has that magical effect that entranced you for hours.
For a while now I have been desperately searching for a game that I might actually enjoy, but no luck so far.
I’m 15 too, and I have the same problem. Been playing Sega Saturn since I was 3 and have been playing games all through the years so much. Well the last year, just can’t play them anymore. I sit, play a game for 5 minutes, then turn it off and go surf the net or play my guitar. The only game that has held my attention is Street Fighter Alpha 2, but even then, only a half hour or so. I’m not sure if I should be disappointed, I have so much more free time for other things, hanging with friends, getting my band together, to read a good book. It’s just the natural progression of things I guess. You overindulge in your intrest and bam before you know it, you don’t find that thing interesting anymore because the novelty of it wears off and it just feels like you are going through a daily routine. Maybe in a couple years I will be able to play a game again, but for now, I don’t miss it.
SAME HERE! I’m 17 but before i would always be on my PS2 playing games like GTA Vice City, San Andreas, Simpsons, and then computer games like Sim City, Theme Park building, etc. GOD i miss those days! It just isn’t the same when i play them now, i get bored of them or something within 10 minutes
I’m only 17, but i miss being younger! T_T
You got old, man. Join the club.
Well you’ve come this far, you might as well read my post too
but after this one stop worrying and go have a chocolate bar or something
Im also 17. I think games just get boring because the same old cliches are used, the same storylines, over and over again. I used to love pokemon, I was so excited by it, thought it was the best thing ever like play all day and night but now it’s just less fun because the stories are the same.
Dosen’t matter how old you are. If the games were still interesting, different to all the others you’ve already played and had a point to them (when I was little they seemed to be a point in themselves, getting spyro to the end of the game WAS the point, now it just seems a bit silly when you relate that back to real life.
But the one thing I do still love about games is playing ones I haven’t tried before, with my sisters and my friends. Having friends round makes it fun, especially on games like new super mario bros wii, which you can work through together.
Hi All,
I am here like all of you, I am 32 and have a PS3 and Wii. The Wii is fun as I play golf and Tennis which are quick and interactive. But the PS3 is a dud.
I guess I first realised that I was over it when Guitar Hero came out. I thought “why learn to play a fake guitar when I could go and learn the real thing” And now I can play and I love it.
I feel like an old friend has moved state and when I try and visit it just isn’t the same anymore. Should we be happy we have ‘grown’ up? I don’t feel happy. Even movies and TV are starting to annoy me but I’ll be damned before I start going to bed at 9:30.
Anyway, cheers to all my Bro’s above, our gaming days may be over but at least we were there when it all began.
PS: N64 Wave Racer is still gnarly.
I have recently lost interest in games too. I’ve tried playing new games such as Army of 2 the 40th Day, Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands, Halo ODST, and none of it is making me feel the way i used to when i played video games. Now when i play i just feel disgusted. Even when i am absolutely bored with everything, i cant bring myself to play any video games. I used to love RPG’s, RTS, FPS, 3rdPS, arcade games but now its just not fun for me.
I think I might be starting to grow out of games. But i’m only 14. Thats the weird part. It feels extremely odd. I still enjoy videogames very much, but i’m just not as excited about them anymore. I bought MW2 recently, and I wasn’t remotely as excited about buying a new game as I used to be 2-8 years ago. Its like how there was always that one amazing game I wanted to always get when I was little. Meh, its 2:30 AM right now though, so I can’t really get to descriptive. This paragraph is probably really badly written :p
I feel the same way. After WOW all other games feel shallow, and pointless. I want to play games but there is no desire to. Because of that I even build a MAME cabinet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQuMA5LnFWU that has 5000 games. I am talking all the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, NeoGeo, and Original Arcade Games all at the tip of my finger tips but do I ever play them….no. I hacked an XBox360 and then I proceeded to download and burn over 80 games, none of which I played for over 5 minuets.
I blame this all on WOW, that game has ruined everything. No matter how many years go by it seems like no other game can surpass it; or for that matter even come close to it.
I am kind of surprised to see so many young people in their teens are losing interest in games. I am 37, and I found this forum because I have only recently really noticed my interest in games fading significantly. Video games have always been a magical experience for me. I have loved video games ever since I saw my first arcade machine around 1980. I received an atari 2600 for christmas at age 9 in 1981 and played asteroids until my eyes bled. In 1985 my dad bought me a commodore 64. Spending entire summers playing Ultima IV on the C64 was probably the most fun Ive ever had with any game. During my 20s, I enjoyed all-night marathons playing games like Doom, Battlezone, Homeworld, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. In the last couple of years I decided to purchase a PS3, an XBOX360, and then built a new powerful gaming PC in an effort to explore various games to hook me, to no real avail. Ive read reviews, and purchased many top-rated games… Metal Gear Solid 4, Modern Warfare I & II, Supreme Commander, Crysis, Fallout 3, Halo 3, Gears of War I & II, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, Grand Theft Auto 4. None of them really snagged my interest the way games used to and it is kinda depressing. Sure, Ive had some fun playing games recently, but about the same amount of fun you’d have popping bubblewrap for a few minutes. Nothing like the all-night marathons of the past. The appeal just isn’t there anymore. I think it’s many things. I’m old, not as impressionable as I used to be. Ive “been there”, I guess the concept just isn’t novel anymore, no matter how good the graphics. It would probably take something like a real-world star trek holodeck to amuse me now, and I even feel like that would get boring quickly, heh.
Hey I found this post just like everyone of you guys. In the last few years I’ve noticed I just don’t enjoy videogames, or even movies, like I used to. I’m 19 by the way.
When I was young I used to start playing a game and, specially in RPGs, it was amazing to get immersed in the story, like you were living those situations yourself, you even cried if one of the characters died, you spent a week trying all kinds of strategies to get through one boss then after you managed to beat him you felt really good and the whole rest of the game opened up as the story carried on, and that feeling was amazing. But then you keep looking forward to the other games, you keep repeating that experience until the time comes that you don’t feel like you’re really ‘there’ in the game anymore, you feel more like you’re sitting in front of a TV watching a story with some interactivity to it, analysing if the battle system, the characters and the other stuff is good or not. When you get older, your each the point that you know you’re actually trying to get entertained, to have, and that’s the reason why you can’t really have the same fun you used to have before. It’s like if you put 20 kids who don’t know each other in a room, they’ll quickly make friends among each other and talk and play, but if you do the same with 20 adults, despite being more developed and experienced in life and social situations, they’ll be ucomfortable with the fact they don’t know most of the people there, and they will all judge each other by their appearances and personalities. I think as we grow up we lose that instinct, and in a way we become too conscious and analyse everything, which ruins many of our experiences. Damn, I wish I was a bit dumber in a way, because if I didn’t understand many things as well as I do now I wouldn’t analyse them as much and then when confronted with some situations I’d just live them, without trying to control them or understand them. I think the dumber we are, the easier it is to be happy, which is why very very intelligent people are usually unhappy, antisocial, etc. I too have this problem, and am trying to solve it, in a way I have become awkward in some natural human aspects because I think too much about stuff, and I think this also reflects in the aspect of enjoying videogames and all that stuff.
For example, every time I play an RPG now, I am not living through a story, I know I am playing a game which combines exploration and battles, in a sotry with a few twists and turns in which someone is someones father or brother and someone’s gonna fall in love with someone, and in the end a group of heroes, in one way or another, will save the world. The same things happens to movies, how many types of movies are there really? You reach the point after you’ve watched so many movies they all fit into a certain formula, and you feel absolutely no connection to any action, love or dramatic scene. My solution is to try to do things you’ve NEVER done before, because you don’t understand them, and to define goals in life, setting up innovative projects to achieve them. Me, for example, I have a goal to become who I want to be, and I just don’t want to be someone like everyone else, I want to be better than everyone else, I have lots of projects, and I work everyday, to be the best, to get the best girl, the most money, and the happiest life I could ever have. I want to be perfect.
I know it all seems crazy, physophical, and maybe some of this doesn’t relate to the issue in discussion, but I’m anonyimous anyway, and I felt like talking about it, maybe some of you will think I’m crazy, but maybe I’ll inspire someone like me if anyone undertands what I’m saying. So if games don’t make me have fun anymore, I’m gonna do new things and have fun from them, I’m gonna make myself feel good. No matter how numb and oversmart my growth has made me, I’m gonna try to reverse it all, and I’m gonna keep telling myself I am the best until I prove it, I say to myself I am the best everyday no matter what they tell me, because I can’t fall into depression, I can’t let the world and my life not be fun anymore to me. I mean, I’m from a small European country I’m not gonna reveal, and I have never known ANYONE, any age, able of writing a fucking whole text in English with as much perfection as I just did. So don’t let yourselves get depressed people, I know growing up sucks sometimes, especially if you’re smart, but use your fucking smartness to be fucking great, don’t envy the dumb happy people because you have the brains to overcome your depression and achieve things others will never achieve, and not just be one more individual in this world.
futurelegend, the text you just wrote could very well be written by me. I feel exactly like you in every way you mentioned. So if you’re crazy, I am too.
I’m even from a small european (non english speaking) country too and I could, in fact, write a text that big with that kind of perfection. I’m not going to though, you said it all and I’m tired.
You seem to be a highly intelligent person.
Props to you mate! And keep in mind, you’re not alone!
I have a similar disinterest in games that came on rather quickly. Growing up, I used to play a lot of RTS and RPG games and when WoW came out, I played that (too much). Within the last year though, I’ve quit WoW and deleted my characters and I’ve been keeping an eye on the new releases, expecting the desire to play something to pop up, but it hasn’t. It really is like that part of me died. I don’t mind watching a trailer of a game here and now, and I think, “That’s a cool mechanic,” or “Those graphics look amazing,” but I just don’t want to play it. I can play games socially for a little bit, but I don’t know if I’ll ever play them on my own. I know part of it for me was WoW – the way PvP and raiding forces you to analyze gameplay and metagame ruins the fantasy of gaming. It’s just a lot of numbers, min/maxing and being able to quickly see what the game devs intend in an encounter. That’s a large part of it for me – I look at games that want you do run here or push this button and it seems kind of pointless – “Okay, I do that and now it wants me to run here.” Stories in games aren’t compelling enough and the gameplay experience isn’t rewarding enough to merit my time. I’ve been looking at fighting games (SF4, Tekken 6, BlazBlue) and FPS games in a competitive, skill-based light, but even those, I can’t find the desire to dedicate time to become good at. I LIKE being really good at games, but it’s not worth it anymore.
I think that tbh it’s just oversaturation of the market (but I could be very very wrong). To me games are also losing their shine a lot because there are literally like 2 titles a month of pretty much similair gameplay mechanics are being released every couple of months. When I was a lot younger you would hear word of mouth that a certain game was “absolutely awesome” and we all rushed out to get it and there was huge excitement. I also have to add, and this is the tinfoil hat stuff now
that there is also something much more sinister possibly going on. Ask yourself honestly now before I go on, does anything that you do these days give you a buzz and an excitement and a feeling of just being alive (no matter what age you are right now)? The reason I ask this is because on a near daily basis we are being sprayed (and this has been proven by the discovery channel) with heavy metals. These metals in turn are making us more susceptible to low emf waves from cell phone towers to calm us down. Want proof? Ask any house owner if they’re upset that their house has now depreciated more than 20% in the last year (and this is an asset they will be paying for, for the rest of their lives) and I’m sure you’ll get a similair response “yeah I’m upset but that’s just the way it is”. 20 years ago there would have been riots because the banks have literally forced everyone into huge debt and then bailed themselves with taxpayer money effectively doubling that debt. Now I know most people readin this at this stage will go “yeah, yeah, yet another freak making stupid comments” but maybe check the net to see if this low emf effect is probable (not possible) for yourselves. Anywayz, that’s just my 2 cents and the reason I thought I’d mention it is because I’m pretty lackluster these days and I dug deeper on the net and this info is exactly what I found. It’s not just video games that don’t give me a buzz anymore, it’s anything. Again, think of something that gives you a buzz anymore no matter what age you are. I wager that you will be shocked just how little anything moves you, no matter what age you currently are. So if you’ve read this far into my posting and ready to take the red pill, then go to http://www.chemtrails911.com/ , if not take the blue and enjoy the steak 
I feel you all. I am 29 and I am very close to just deleting all my games. The only thing stopping me is the fact that I still like GTR2 because it simulates driving pretty well and I will never be able to drive a Murcielago on a real race course (try the Machwerk ’67 course!) and another reason is I just starting playing New Super Mario Bros Wii with Dolphin at 1080p, 60fps on a 23in LCD and being a lover of the past Mario classics I find this game actually quite pleasing BUT….
I feel like this might be it for me. After I beat Super Mario Wii and master the Machwerk and LeMans courses then I am not sure if I will even play anymore. I actually already want to delete all this because I feel like I am wasting my time on these guilty pleasures. It’s like playing these help me ignore the real game of life and its challenges. There are so many real rewards out there.
I’m 39 and burned out on video games maybe 1-2 years ago. I’m not sure why. I was big into both half-lifes, and team fortress and cs, mostly FPS games. It would be weird playing online with 12 year-olds. Part of it might be that my kids are older (now 5&7) and so more interactive. Part might be work or other stress. Also, i just like to veg sometimes. I got a DS but have never really enjoyed that device, and i don’t care for the online arcade games.
One thing i remember was that on TF2 it tells you how many hours you’ve played each class. I counted up a couple of days worth of time and thought when I’m dying I will really miss those days I could of spent with my kids or living life.
I think maybe there is a certain part of the brain that gets really stimulated by these games, and one day it just gets burned out and you don’t get any more pleasure from them. What’s weird is i feel the same way about video games as i do about watching tv and pro-sports. I sort of like reading about them, and i wish i could muster more excitement, but i don’t really actually enjoy doing them anymore. I guess it’s like groups of friends that you just don’t hang out with anymore. You miss how great it was, but you can’t really re-create it so you just move on…
Seeing as the sentiment here extends beyond one age group (there are 15 and 17 year olds voicing the same feeling as 20- and 30- somethings) I wonder if the cause is external factors like internet, social media, and entertainment overload that’s doing this.
For me, it’s 2 kids and a job doing it (plus maybe the factors above), but I was able to go back and finish Oblivion this year and enjoy it, and I’m hugely into Atari and NES right now.
One thing I will never play again is an MMO.
This is an amazing thread with 1 1/2 years of comments! The ‘empty’ feeling we get as we move on from one experience to another…we all feel that. We try to fill it in innumerable ways; family, sports, video games, social events, politics, earning money, love; we are seeking to fill the empty space in our heart. We are born with this feeling…and most people die with it. Unfulfilled. Pray.
A feeling that is unwelcome yet familiar over the last 5 years. But I dont think this is entirely down too age and maturity, there are factors of frustration due to unoriginal video game core mechanics and the emergants of the format being embraced by the mainstream.
Now I am 26 with vivid memories of the Amiga 500, Neo Geo, Master System etc. I remember the excitement that each new generation of game and console carried with it. Who remembers the first sitting of Mario 64, C&C, FF7 games that pushed technology and originality. These examples offered a sense of privilidge that only the well informed and loyal will experience. Now we are bombarded by endless seguals and games that are barely stepping beyond the gameplay frontiers of my examples.
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I, too, have been experiencing this phenomenon in the last year or so. I think it is for a variety of concurrent reasons, which I will allude to in following points:
I have played a ridiculous amount of computer and video games over the years (almost all of them, give or take) and I think I may have just reached a plateau of cloying. I am ‘all-gamed-out’, so to speak, and games just don’t give me a ‘high’ any more.
Games, as with Movies and TV shows. just aren’t as ‘magical’ as when you were a child (I started playing computer games around the age of five) and I find it harder to suspend my disbelief than when I was a child.
An awareness of the cynicism and rapacity of the games industry, which, as with music and film, is dominated by transnational corporate giants who create products designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maximize profits.
Most new new games rubbish. Good-looking rubbish, but rubbish nonetheless; creativity is dead. The only recent game that has given me any kind of ‘wow’ factor was Fallout 3.
Video games are, really, for children and adolescents (unless you aspire to be a creepy manchild) and so I do feel that I have outgrown them like I have outgrown Lego and action figures.
I simply have better things to do, both in work and leisure, and video games just don’t compete for my attention like they did when I was thirteen.
As the OP says, listening to people talk excitedly about video games does feel bizarre and inexplicable; they just aren’t that important.
I used to play video games because they allowed me to experience some sort of heroism in my life. I have always wanted to be a hero. I got bored of them when I realized that I didn’t care about the video games but about the fact that they were about accomplishing fictitious tasks with a fictitious hero. I then set myself on a real life quest to become an actual hero. I tried becoming a catholic priest but the system is to corrupt. I now work with the church but not as a priest, trying to help people have better lives. That’s something Super Mario will never do.
Now I hate video games, they already served their purpose in my life.
I prefer reading since it’s a more laid back activity that can go way beyond mere entertainment. (don’t compare Tom Joad with Solid Snake because I will hunt you down and kill you and your family).
Ditto to most of this. Maybe I’m a bit different because lack of video gaming enthusiasm means I’ve lost a serious chunk of my escapism.
My life kind of sucks. I’ve played video games on a fairly consistent basis since childhood, but really was hooked since I was 14. Ive played every genre, built up massive space empires, mastered first-person shooters, created amazing cities and theme parks etc. Any and every game I could find that was well made (and even some that werent), captivated me. I think I may have relied on video games to help me cope with not easily making friends (I was a very awkward kid).
Now that Im an adult with a job and an apartment, I feel I should be enjoying video games on a whole new level.
Mom isnt around to ever tell me to stop playing. I dont answer to anyone, I can make the ultimate gamer pad if I want. Unfortunately, this huge part of myself is gone. I feel no desire to play a long RPG or RTS. Maybe its because im 25 and feel like Im wasting my time. Maybe its because I have so many other worries in my head about work. I dont know.
I wish I had the desire to play. I come home to my apartment and sometimes I just dont know what to do. Video games were the de-facto 4 hour evening activity for so long. I dont even own a television because I was always gaming before (PC gamer).
Maybe I’ve outgrown the desire to play games, but I need something else now that I cant bring myself to play games for more than a few minutes at a time.
I’ve been asking myself the same question for a long time. I was a hardcore gamer from when I was 5 til I was about 19-20. I had a lot of things growing up; NES, SNES, GENESIS, Game Gear, SATURN,PS1, PS2, XBOX, etc. Gaming was a huge part of my life. I loved it, and almost couldn’t contain myself during the week because all I wanted to do was go on 12-24+ hour gaming binges with my friends. I joined the military just before I turned 21, and kept buying software titles with the mentality of, “Man, when I have time, I’m going to play the shit out of this”. The time and the desire never really seem to happen at the same time. I’m out of the military now, and they still sit.
I bought a PS3 on launch day (still have it), and have a massive collection of old ps1 and ps2 games I loved to play… I’ve maybe played each title for 30-45 mins on the day each was purchased, and then… nothing. I have a great collection of games sitting here collecting dust. My PS3 is used as an overpriced MP3 player more than a gaming machine. Most of my favorite music of all time comes from video game soundtracks as well.
I just don’t feel the passion for gaming that I used to. I generally only do multiplayer games, and even at hat, only 2D fighters for the most part. I feel like a part of me has died, and I don’t know how I feel about it. I realize that it’s a combo of being weened off of it while I was on active duty, and growing up. However, each time I think about selling my electronics, I feel exteme nostalgia, and can’t bring myself to do it.
A part of me wishes I could go back in time and grab that passion I used to have, but, obviously that’s not gonna happen.
Think I should keep my gaming gear in case I have kids or something? Or should I just, sell it all?
:/ this is a very weird discovery. I thought i was the only one going through this phase.
I loved/played video games all of my life until a few years ago. I got with a girl that made me throw everything in my life away, friends, skateboarding, video games, just everything. Then a few months ago, after getting over the aftershocks of my ex, i bought a wii and a bunch of games that i thought i would love. I even pre-ordered zelda:skyward sword. But i can’t seem to fall in love with them again, i remembered all the memories of my childhood and felt very nostalgic over them but no matter how hard i try i can’t get back into them :/…..i hope someday i will be able to get back into my beloved pastime…
Hey everybody,
I had a good time reading your posts above. I’m 31 now, and I’ve also played videogames forever. I’m pretty hardcore. I’ve been fighting off my lack of game-hapiness for 5 years already. That’s pretty sick. I’m not a quiter and, if I pushed hard enough still some games were to be enjoyed. Especially, when AAA games introduced new game-mechanics I would feel again, the rush. But I cannot keep up anymore. Finally I have reached the bottom. It’s game over for me, I just can’t play them anymore.
I wanted to add to the concept of reason behind the finding. Why is this happening to us? Age doesn’t seem to be necesarilly it. I think one person said it right. It has to do with new experiences. After a while gaming is just routine. You see through the veil of better gfx, or even different gfx,the laws and possibilites of games are more or less the same. The insight can be compared with this scene from the Matrix , when Neo drives past that Noodle bar and says: I used to love that…
Another person spoke of the filling of emptyness. It’s quite a sad thing to see other people go bazooka over these things you just don’t feel anymore. It’s like I have to do now with things of little taste, mediocre pleasure. But somehow I believe, if I ever can get used to that, being happy with the little stuff, eventually I will find more hapiness, because of the absence of the completion aspect, as in videogames.
NOOO!
ha i used to be such a passonate gamer games like kingdom hearts and other rpg’s were just magical, but now i just can’t get into them anymore. its very sad, on account some of the happiest moments of my childhood/life were in front of a t.v screen playing these pieces of magic, this fairy dust for your brain. Yes, i feel like a part of me has died, empty inside blahg blah, kinda sucks..really sucks actually. Alas, all good things must end i guess (19 by the way). depressing.. i no. i recently played arkham asylum, it was enjoyable but not even remotely close to even comparing to what i used to feel. oh well, there is always a silver lining to these things, the key is to find it and be comfortable with who you are and to be happy with your place in life. “God grant me the serenity to accept things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference”
Ditto to a number of the posts here. I loved my games so much for so many years – Mario, Zelda, Sim City, Civilization, Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana – and the occasional sports game like Kobe Bryant or Madden. Now I am married with kids and a “real” job and every once in a while I try to play but it just doesn’t hold the interest any more. What’s weird is, I can enjoy wasting an hour playing mindless games on the iphone, but I can’t enjoy playing the massive games anymore. I guess there really is more to life than Final Fantasy.
I feel the same way. I like to play with a few friends if we have a LAN party or just playing on the one screen. But other than that I have no interest.
I guess because when I was a teen, I was obsessed with finishing every last little bit of the game, to get to 100% completion and then I was satisfied. But now it seems like a chore to play games and I feel I could be doing other things rather than spending countless hours playing and achieving nothing important in life like being one of the only people to have killed every pigeon in GTA 4.
Games have got pretty boring for me as of yesterday. I played the crap out of ME1, ME2, Fallout3, Battlefield bad company 1 and 2, MOH and 1943. I’m almost prefect online in them. Lately after finishing everything I own. I feel like games are just a waste of time. I think I’m ready to make something worth a damn out of this life like Military service or some other civic duty. Game cliches are crap. I played medal of honor and you get blown up by an IED point blank and get only a concussion. I’ve seen that so many times but for the first time in a long time in a game I thought the guy I was playing got his legs blown off or something. MOH was the last time I felt really immersed in a game. I thought I was in combat and had to walk away from the controller just to get a grip. Games are fun but they’re a waste of time. I really feel empty without games. Just don’t know what to do.
Hey everyone my name is Bryan and i was an mmo online addict for 3 years from 9th to 11th grade(lol I have the feeling I’m in a rehab facility). I use to play 16-18 hours a day when I had no classes,slept at 6 am and woke up at 10 am to continue,or sometimes didn’t even sleep. For those of you who are curious it’s called Dofus a french mmorpg. Now I’m eighteen and lately i have no desire whatsoever in video games,I even sold sold my xbox and I don’t give a *amn I have no regrets. I also somehow feel excluded from my friends now. They talk to me about frame traps,gimmicks,tournaments,new players in ssf4 or in blazblue and I just answer oh ok yeah cool,they link me videos and i almost sleep in front of them. I wonder why most of us just jump to these extremes; from no-lives to completely indifferent to video games? Are we now normal sane people now,were we sick(LOL) or is this what it means to grow up??
I was going to write something long and inspiring, but then i decided to just say f*** it
I feel the exact same way as you do.I used to be obsessed with video games but have gradually lost that over time. Its like you slowly wake up one day and realize you no longer care. I currently live with 3 gamers, have 3 X-Boxes, a PS3, and a WII (apart form my old N64 and SNES) and I still don’t play any video games. I waste just as much time as they do but over time I found other interests to occupy my time.
The thing is that you shouldn’t feel guilty about your interests, there will come a day when all gamers grow up and ask themselves if they will be buying that next system that comes especially once they finish collage. I’ve come to realize that i may not be the video gaming loving dad I thought I’d be. Just go with the flow man and see where life takes you.
As we grow older, we become more outward in our needs to be a part of the social fabric of the world. Think of it this way: in childhood, there’s an entire lobe of our brain that isn’t developed yet, so things are bound to be different when we grow older. I’m only 19, but I’ve shifted from worrying about how I’m going to get more friends on Facebook to wondering how I’m going to make the world a better place.
My brother is 21, and he’s still massively into games as he was, but it’s shifted to only 2 games that he was always good at growing up: Diablo 2 and Guilty Gear. Considering the fact that he’s addicted to drugs as well, and doesn’t give a crap about the fact that my mom is struggling while he does nothing, I can only come to the conclusion that video games are only satisfying to people of a certain age, or people who have surpassed that age and just refuse to let go because they don’t know what else they can do with their lives.
The only reason I would play a video game is if the story were good. I don’t care about completion, or being the best – I just want something that I can get into and learn something from. Art is supposed to be an imitation of life, and I still find some really important lessons in TV shows, movies, anime, and books. But, as a vehicle for expressive storytelling, video games tend to fall short. Much of the production costs are spent on mechanics that have become formulaic.
Consider this: Civilization made it through millennia without video games – you’ll survive the next few decades.
As we grow older, we become more outward in our needs to be a part of the social fabric of the world. Think of it this way: in childhood, there’s an entire lobe of our brain that isn’t developed yet, so things are bound to be different when we grow older. I’m only 19, but I’ve shifted from worrying about how I’m going to get more friends on Facebook to wondering how I’m going to make the world a better place.
My brother is 21, and he’s still massively into games as he was, but it’s shifted to only 2 games that he was always good at growing up: Diablo 2 and Guilty Gear. Considering the fact that he’s addicted to drugs as well, and doesn’t give a crap about the fact that my mom is struggling while he does nothing, I can only come to the conclusion that video games are only satisfying to people of a certain age, or people who have surpassed that age and just refuse to let go because they don’t know what else they can do with their lives.
The only reason I would play a video game is if the story were good. I don’t care about completion, or being the best – I just want something that I can get into and learn something from. Art is supposed to be an imitation of life, and I still find some really important lessons in TV shows, movies, anime, and books. But, as a vehicle for expressive storytelling, video games tend to fall short. Much of the production costs are spent on mechanics that have become formulaic. Just as you’ve outgrown the storylines of very limited children’s TV shows, you’ve outgrown the stories of games. The final nail in the coffin is when you outgrew the interactivity. I now find real human interaction much more engaging because it actually helps me learn about the kinds of things I’m going to be dealing with as I make a place for myself in the world.
Consider this: Civilization made it through millennia without video games – you’ll survive the next few decades.
I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree with certain people when they state “there is a certain age where people stop playing”. I have brothers and cousins who love to play video games. They have jobs, treat their family very well, and some are even fathers! They don’t have problems with society; they know how to integrate themselves very well. Some of them like to play just for the hell of it though. It’s what I used to do as well. I would literally play video games just so I could waste time. Of course, the prospect of forgetting about reality and focusing your mind on something else was also enticing. The graphics only made the desire to play stronger. Put yourself in the following scenario: you have finals coming up next week. You have been stressed out for the past days since you have been studying the whole time, while your teachers have been trying to pack in as much material as they can before the semester ends. In fact, two days ago you had to pull an all-nighter since you had that English essay with a number theory test due the next day! Now that the weekend is coming close by you want to unravel and forget about anything that has anything to do with academics. Well, what better way to escape the pressure from reality than incorporating yourself into a virtual reality? Ladies and gentleman, the answer other than video games are scarcely “none” for at least men.
While we can place attention to the men who do play video games, in this certain situation it’s more interesting, and pertinent to the discussion at hand, to focus on the reasons as to why certain people, who used to be enthusiastic gamers, just suddenly, or gradually, quit the world of video games. Admittedly I am one of those people. Before my little brother’s PS3 broke down 9 months ago, I would play Cod:MW 2 practically 6 hours per day during vacation and the weekends. Well, I had the chance to play CoD:MW 2 again about a week ago. To be honest, the game sucked after ten minutes. These are my primary reasons as to why the whole gaming experience was not enjoyable: 1) it’s all kill, kill, and some more kills, 2) more specifically from reason 1, there is no actual incorporation of intelligence and planning; keep smashing the shooting button and you’re good, 3) while there is a huge variety of weapons to use it is obvious which ones are the most commonly used, *cough*rpg and newbtube*cough*, 4) the old friendly atmosphere of video games quickly disintegrated when games with voice chat allowed people to talk, including 8 year olds who try to cuss any player out, while having an old guy breathing down your neck and screaming sexual innuendos over the microphone, and 5) my gaming buddies were too incorporated into the gaming experience, such that they would cease conversation all-together, while getting very competitive and yelling “rape”. In summary, society has changed a lot in terms of their views to what is considered as acceptable behavior in video games, while causing individuals to express themselves, emotionally and mentally speaking (thoughts), without concern as to how their form of self-expression might affect others’ gaming experience. I think it was that last thought that I mentioned that really turns me off to multiplayer games. Since the main focus of the video gaming industry has been shifting from a “solo-player” to multi-player, the notion of “just having fun” is slowly starting to diminish with the introduction of a term I call “constant competitiveness”, where the gamer is encouraged to always strive for the best that they can in video games. Seriously, the majority of games I know are transition from “let’s play!” to “let’s work!” type of environment. I’m the type of guy who dislikes being stressed, so it was about 6 months ago that I realized, “Hey, I don’t feel like playing video games anymore”. I’ve also picked up some more hobbies, so playing video games is just wasting my time, money, and the potential to learn something useful, like learning new words to increase my vocabulary or studying for a Chinese test due tomorrow
The main points I’m trying to make are that 1) the gaming environment has gotten stressful and competitive in the recent years and 2) the desire from wanting to play video games in the first place is dependent on what activities you consider as “useful” in using your precious amount of time. The points I offer might be a possible explanation as to why some people start to lose interest in video games after a while.
P.S. I am 16 years old, so it might be a tad bit presumptuous of me to publicly declare I don’t like video games anymore, but once you lose that gaming itch then you’re practically done for. I’ve been playing video games since I was 4 (I owned a super nintendo with Mario, so getting addicted was easy, ha ha ha), so stopping all-together has been a real change for me for the last 6 months. Obviously I’m not perfect either, so I have tried playing video games again, like Mass Effect, Starcraft II, Dragon Age origins, and Warhammer 4000, even to the point of building my own computer with a good graphics card in order to play Starcraft II at high resolutions! Alas, it was all a waste of money. At least my computer will be able to last me by the end of my college years
It’s not like I suck at video games either; I’m actually a beast in practically any game you throw at me. Over the months, my desire to be better than others just died off though, so trying to improve myself won’t give me a feeling of self-satisfaction.
I actually stumbled upon this site, because my gaming time is way down compared to the past. I hate the multiplayer component of games now as it is a very stressful experence. I am 25 and I actually find the FPS games now really violent. I have not bought a game in three years i think, nor do i plan on it. I looked at Starcraft 2 and it does not draw me.
I notice that there are two situations where i still play games
1) stressed out situations when i need to forget about the present ( and i usually play dawn of war for 30 minutes with the AI mod which improves the computer opponent, or battlefield 2142(no blood).)
2) I have 4 friends where we have FIFA tournaments once every 3 months roughly. But this is a semi social situation as well, but even those tournaments(5 hours) i find too long.
I think I am slowly weaning myself off video games and that in a few years time I will probably play FIFA from time to time. Ironically a good number of people at work are really big gamers.
Hey. I’m a 19 year old girl in my first semester of University and I have to say I was actually looking forward to becoming a hardcore gamer this year. But so far I’ve barely played anything.
This forum is massive, and I read every post. Wow.
I started playing video games when I was 5, starting out slow with Super Mario Brothers and Gizmos and Gadgets. I got an N64 when I was 6 and got addicted to Yoshi’s Story and Diddy Kong Racing, and got my first Zelda game when I was 7. I was only allowed to play 2 hours on the weekends, but I woke up every day at 8 just so I could get my full two hours of gaming in. I’ve worn the joystick on my favorite controller to dust from playing so much.
I grew a little older and once my parents got another tv and a computer I got alot more into games, more Zelda, Roller Coaster Tycoon. I played in my parents bedroom until I turned 13, when I got my own tv and Gameboy Advance. And boy, was that the best time ever. I could literally spend all day playing games, and when we got a Gamecube it was even better. I poured hundreds of hours into more Zelda, Golden Sun, Sims games, Animal Crossing…
I grew up and got a job, and started being able to buy my own games. We got an Xbox for free when I was 15, and I discovered Halo and Fable. A year later we got a Playstation 2 and I played a ton of Need for Speed. More time passed, and I somehow got my hands on a DS, Wii, and 360, all for free, getting addicted to Halo 3, Fable 2, Harvest Moon, Pokemon even more Zelda…
Packing up for University I brought all my games with me. It started out looking like an amazing year for games, looking super forward to Halo Reach, Black Ops, Fable 3… But, now that I have all those games, I don’t even feel like touching em. I sometimes play all-nighters on Halo when I’m drunk, but other then that, I feel like I’ve wasted almost 200$ and stuff I barely use. Now with Pokemon Black and White, Golden Sun 3 and Skyward Sword on the way…. I don’t even know if it’s worth it. I know I’ll probably get all of them, because a part of me wants to relive all the nostalgia I still have from all of those years of gaming.
I’ll never sell any of my games or systems, I want my kids to be able to play all the good games from way back when, you know? Before everything got so mainstream. I still play all my old N64 games at Christmas, and there’s no way I’m letting this depression keep me from enjoying that like I have every year. I’m not giving up without a fight.
I still sit down and try and relearn how to enjoy games. I’m waiting for the day when game companies look back and remember why they got all these fans in the first place. Please, fellow gamers, don’t give up. Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic, but I still believe there’s something to be enjoyed in junk-food-filled all-nighters and playing until your joysticks wear out.
Yea, thanks you guys for opening up. I just looked at 30+hrs of management…said, “Why?”….deleted saves, uninstalled game. The latest fps comes out, you start and go, “wow nice graphics…uhhh yea.” I can’t be bothered anymore, it’s all the same. It just looks better….big deal. Yea, no appeal anymore. False achievements and rewards, big whoop. Oh yea, being talked down to (online), by morbidly out-of-shape carpal tunnelers who would last a half second with ya…lol. Then you have this deal called ‘LIFE’…holy crap! Expansive, real sights, sounds, smells….real achievements if you work hard. This ‘game-world’, even interacts with you! For real! You use ‘english,’ or another language (depending on where you are in this game-world.) Another cool thing about this world, you can ‘Really, not Virtually’ learn how to fly, drive, all sorts of sports, instruments (Real Ones)…whoa, just name it. The experiences are so ‘REAL,’ so incredibly ‘Life-like.’ I’ve never seen better graphics either. I only lagged and DC’d a couple of times too! I was drinking though. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are some people who just CAN’T get out because of health issues, and such…I do not mean you. So having another accessible world is sometimes a GOOD bit of spice
. I used to love gaming so much….many, many hours of fun. Now I look at the ‘soon to be removed,’ icons on my desktop representing these titles. I have no urge to dbl-click anymore. Good games, just can’t be bothered. (Should I say ‘right-click’, Run as Administrator…heh heh (Vista). ) I do think that if any of you are feeling this way about gaming, it’s most-likely a good thing. One thing for sure is, if you even try a bit…you will be waaay more productive at anything you attempt! (How about that instrument, or other hobby you have always wanted to try?) All the best to you guys/gals, hard core gamers still, and the ‘less than-so’ now. Cheers 
…Canucklehead.
I’m glad I am not the only one who feels this way. (I’m 19) I remember back in the day, I use to be able to sit and play my SNES,Sega gen, N64 24/7. Recently, its been the opposite. I can easily turn on my PS3 or my other old systems and play all the old games that brought me that joy I use to feel. But the thing is, I just, don’t want to. And its a very strange feeling because I too use to be a hardcore gamer. I just don’t have that sense of caring for video games anymore and have been steadily branching off from them for quite sometime now. 2 reasons as to why I don’t really care much for video games now is 1) they just don’t interest me anymore in terms of being innovative and creative. And 2) I hate to say it but…….I’m getting older. I now have a sense of reality and becoming a much different person than I was a few years back. From time to time I can sit down and play a video game…that is…until I get bored of it 20 mins later. The truth is, I now have morals, a girlfriend, a heavy social life, a job, my own bills I need to pay, college, etc. I just don’t have time for them anymore, and its really sad since video games have followed me throughout the course of my life. I guess I’m just maturing and realizing what life is, and that’s a good thing. The golden years of gaming for me have been long gone for quite some time now. Its time to move on.
I am so intrigued by this thread…. like many of you who stumbled upon here, I thought it was just me.
I was a hardcore gamer from when I was maybe 10-12 till …well.. just this past year I’m 32 btw… I never had a NES System but man would I spend countless hours at my friends house playing. The first system I had was GENESIS (1989). I played the hell out of ESWAT and religiously played Sword of Vermillion, Shining in the Darkness Phantasy Star 4, Sonic..and the list goes on. Playing Genesis was all I really looked forward too many days.
Skip ahead a little to PS1/N64/PS2/ (Between 1995-2002) I can honestly say when these three systems came out my play went into overdrive.. The vast games and new concepts always had something for me to play. Gaming was a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember.. I would go play with friends, friends would come over.. but there wasn’t a weekend or day that didn’t go by where I wasn’t playing games… or at the least reading or thinking about them.
Keep in mind I graduated High School in 1996. I played some sports and have always had an active lifestyle… but I was always able to fit games in somewhere without sacrificing family, friends, exercise, work.
Gaming binges with my friends with Golden Eye for N64 and NFL2K are some of the most memorable social gaming experiences. Oh.. and the cabinet days of Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, and Super Street Fighter 2 come to mind.
During the years of 2002-2003 there was still gaming.. but it died a little. I finally decided to build gaming in late 2004/early 2005 specifically for the Sims 2. Gaming sprung back up and I was at it again.. nonstop… PC gaming was new/fresh to me. I caught up on old classics like Starcraft and Diablo… and Ventured into the new with Half Life 2. It was a whole new caliber and library of games at my disposal.
In 2006 knew I had to finish college. I was on/off Junior college for years… sometimes stopping for years completely. It was always work/gaming… talk about mixed priorities. Anyway.. I finally finished getting my Bachelors in 2008 since I transferred over as a Junior (Late as hell but at least it’s done).
During the whole time I was still gaming, working full time, gaming, friends, family. I don’t know how I did it. I really don’t.
I bought a PS3 and 360 on launch day and still have them both. Although I did play them, it was not nearly to the extent of PC gaming.. so they consoles where more like alternatives than my primary gaming. Believe it or not after I graduated gaming increased… and great games where coming out out on PC, PS3, 360.. and I also have a Wii/DS so there was no limit to what genre/game I could play. This lasted till about early 2010
Like many of you have said….I just don’t feel the passion for gaming that I used to. It is like it came out of left field. Possibly BURNOUT as some of you stated? Maybe I’ve over done it?
I generally play a mix of multiplayer and single player. FPS Wise.. I played countless all nighters with FEAR for the PC…and nonstop with games like BIOSHOCK 1 and Sims 3.
I’ve been in a relationship some time.. long before my so-called gaming fallout.… so it is not like a relationship changed anything… She is in fact asking me why I don’t play as much anymore. I have no answer. We should probably be married lol.. but we’re happy where things are.
Street Fighter IV/Super Street Fighter IV is the only game I’ve invested significant time in lately.. probably about 400+ Hours since the first Street Fighter IV Release.
Anyway, everyday a part of me wishes I could grab that passion I used to have and just play. I use to put a game in and play it till I beat it. Half Life 2, Crysis, pretty much any Genesis/N64/PS2 game.
There strange tren is . I find I DO get engaged in some games.. then stop cold turkey for no reason. I’ll play a game for 3-4 days… then day 5 I decide to take a break.. day 5 turns into 10..and so on.. until it’s months later.
Examples of games I stopped cold turkey
Red Dead Redemption: 14 hours in 4 days
Mass Effect 2: 20 Hours in a week
Lost Odyssey: 30 Hours in a week
Starcraft 2: 3 campaigns from finishing the game in a week.
The only games I really still play at this moment are Left 4 Dead 2, Super Street Fighter IV, and an occasional Starcraft 2 battle. When friends come over we hop on the Wii.. it’s fun when you play the wii with others.. I can’t deny that
I know my desire to play is diminishing. Sad thing is I don’t want it to. I probably play on average 5-6 hours a week total. That is not a lot considering I too had those days from 9am-midnight in my youth.
It isn’t like my life has become busier. I was gaming more when I was in College fulltime + working full time + gaming extensively.
Now it’s just work, family and friends.. exercise ( which has always been there)… and some days I’d much rather watch a movie than play a game. Window shop… hang out with friends for lunch/etc. Now although I still did many of these things when I was still hardcore gaming (LAN Parties and all) I just rather do MORE of something else…
For Example. I’d rather watch two 90 minute movies than with friends than play 3 hours of games. So given the option is there.. gaming is more-less a last option for occupying time.
This is NOT to say this is how I want it to be… I love gaming.. I do
I recently asked a friend who still games a lot. He is 31. I asked him how do you constantly stay interested in a game. He said he makes it a habit of never starting a new game until he finishes the one he is playing. I’m thinking in my circumstance.. where I have literally an overwhelming number of choices of games I have yet to start… it impedes my desire to play.
SO .. as an experiment.. I’m going to finish what was left ..starting with Lost Odyssey. It’s just a theory I have. I mean if you go to a restaurant that serves 100 types of burgers.. getting food and enjoying it may seem like more work than it should be. . . . as opposed to me going to In-And-Out Burger and either getting a Hamburger or Cheeseburger… both of which I know are great and I won’t be disappointed. It’s a pretty piss poor analogy….
I do agree with a lot of people though.. more flash than substance nowadays too. I lost interest in COD games after COD 2… and it use to be about making a good game that would sell itself…. The very first Tomb Raider or Golden Eye… now it’s about spamming sequels with very little innovation other than new maps from the original to the sequel.
Now there are many exceptions to this.. and many of you have already layed out those games above… but variety.. it’s something almost non-existent nowadays also… It seems all the good RPGs are on DS nowadays.. no wonder so many people have them.
In the end I agree with every pretty much everyone on here.. except those who say it’s just age…. It can’t be.. not when the range is from 14-40.
I read every post.. I’m on the same boat as many of you.
I can completely relate. Some time in my mid 20′s I just no longer received any pleasure from games that would normally dominate my existence. It’s a good thing I suppose – I can now lead a productive life with real people. I was warned by “adults” this day would come.
I’m so glad i stumbled across this article. It’s great to see im not the only one who feels the same. I’m 20 and have been playing games for years since i was little. But now it just does’nt feel right playing a new game(whether it’d be a new game or old) I’ve tried so hard to get back into playing the final fantasy series, but im not interested. I guess its because like so many of you have said, is we’re not kids anymore. Our minds are’nt simple to please. I think the memories of playing games as kids really makes us upset about not being able to get back into it. I’m having a hard time letting go, but i know they’re just a waste of time now. I have a life to live and my own story make. This world is so much better than any game a man can make. So thank you for posting this article, hope everyone finds what they’re looking for
I feel the same.
I was gaming for a few years now, and… i dont want anymore.
I tried to give myself “second chance” and play again, but, i feel nothing.
Its like… something missing.
But im happy that i quit.
Paul has completely put into words how I feel about games now.
Since I was 6 or 7, I was into videogames hardcore. I mean, gosh, it was so bad that I would imagine it actually being “awesome” to be a grown man and do NOTHING but play games all day. Heck, it used to be the only thing I would ever talk about. And the RPGs, oh man! You can go into most of your battles hitting the same button repeatedly WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED and still win; I don’t even understand now how that, on top of the endless grinding, didn’t make me go insane!!!!!
Regardless, probably around a year or two after I graduated out of high school, the desire just started to fade. Like some others here, I tried to buy more and more games and systems to try and compensate for the lessening desire, but nothing really worked. Even the high dollar titles like MGS 3, Jak 3, and GTA Vice City did nothing to reinvigorate my desire although all the prior versions of these titles were so enthralling to me previously.
Now the desire is just on life support. I could count on two hands all the systems I own and on all of YOU guys hands the games I have. I’ve only considered going next gen once or twice and the only game I really even play anymore is Battlefield:MC on my PS2. Even more so, I can easily go months without even thinking about playing a video game.
Like many others have said, it is a strange feeling to have about games now. On one hand, I hate to lose the desire for a pastime that bought me so many fond and happy memories, but on the other, I feel good about it. I mean, now that I’ve backed off, I’ve realized how much more I’d like to have an active social life over ALL the games I’ve EVER played and also just how much more invigorating it is to sit down and learn something new like a language rather than achieve nothing while idling for hours on a game.
All games made today ARE COMPLETE GARBAGE compared to games in the 80s!!
I love Atari 2600,Colecovision and several arcade games from the early 80s.. I have a SUPER pacman in my room (Arcade size).. I have an atari 2600 and i love every game!
You cant really say that, as with newer graphics comes newer Greater Games from the same old company. Look at Test Drive unlimited 2. yes the company is going out of business but they made a great game that i put over 500hrs on.
Arma 2 with DLC and MOD exp. Best Military Warfare Simulator money can buy. the list goes on and on.
but if you like the old Pong and pacman and sonic, then play on.
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its fully true todays games are not much fun from old days.i m now 19 nd i like to play old games like igi,max payne,gta,pop etc.when i play them i dont know what kind of interest i gain..i like to play games casualy but i never get boared and i like to know about new games their stories.i think from games i get consentration
I can relate. I’ve tried multiple times over the past few years to find a game that won’t end in boredom within a few hours. Torchlight actually lasted a bit, but most fall short.
Now that I’m older, and I realize what games are made of, they no longer hold any promise for me.
I think the internet is partially to blame… Not the online co-op or anything, but when you get a game, and look it up, you usually end up seeing some spoilers, and you don’t have anything exciting to look for… Before recent times, you played a game blindly and felt accomplished when you unlocked something. I still play games a lot, but don’t enjoy them as much (except for Pokemon, it still does it for me.) I also think that watching extremely good players on youtube and other video sharing websites lowers your own self-esteem, and you think “Wow! I’ll never be as good as them, so why try?!”
I was really happy to find this site and realize how others have gone through what I am going through. I read all the posts on this thread and can really relate to everything that’s been said. I’m 20 and when I look back at my childhood I have the fondest memories of games like Ocarina of Time, Pokemon, Halo, Diablo 2, Wow. I used to try to complete everything in these games and could play them endlessly.
A lot of people have tried to give reasons why some people just stop wanting to play games. Based on the fact ages seem to range from anywhere from 13-40 then it must be something other than age. In my opinion, it is a realization of the importance and value of one’s life. Once someone comes out of childhood and grows to a point where they can see life in the big picture, they will no longer be satisfied playing games and trying for achievements that have no bearing on the outside world. Granted, I also think that other variables are at play such as the repetitive nature of games but it’s honestly not worth trying to recapture that love for gaming. Instead, we should just accept how great those gaming moments were in our lives and instead of trying desperately to recapture them, move on with our lives and adapt ourselves to be happy without gaming.
I feel the same way, I think the problem is that we play for so long, we Master the game, we spank others on that said game, and we adapt to new games that may challenge us but only for so long. There is no Fulfillment, no Real awards. Nothing to stop and look back and say yeah i accomplished that. Like building a house. Its hard in the Tech world to get this, as many many things have a “just want the money and Forget about it honey” policy. I am sure that one day we will all crave that Fun blood filled bomb packed action filled game once again, and with newer graphics releasing maybe it will strike a new nerve string. we can only hope!
I too once lived to game. I started on 2600 at age 5, then had a NES, then SNES, then a PS1, then an Xbox, then a 360, then a PS3. Unlike many older gamers, I feel I hit my pinnacle of interest during the original Xbox era. I noticed I started to really love military games, ones where you had total control of squadmates and such. Fast forward to the 360 generation and there’s barely of of those types of games now. It’s all about online, it’s all about outplaying other people. No more control over what happens. The one type of game that still held my interest in my late 20′s pretty much no longer exists, at least on consoles. So I haven’t really liked any of the games since about 2005, yet still kept plugging away at something I really was no longer having fun with. And putting tons of money into all of it in the process.
Between the huge mainstream and casual movement recently, all the DLC, the scams, the politics, the lies and everything being about online I feel like everything changed and I wasn’t really done with what we already had yet. It wasn’t time for those changes yet, I say. Like I was left behind. I played online avidly from 2005-2007 to feel like a part of it all then it just faded out. I was never an online gamer and doing it for so long killed a part of my gaming spirit. It felt pointless and I felt nothing but being annoyed and frustration and I just no longer had the competitive spirit to keep playing.
So I go back to just playing single player games tinking things will be like they used to and got the same feeling. I feel I’ve seen it all before, it’s all been done a million times, the market is oversaturated with cookie-cutter me-toos and gaming as a whole has gotten too big to be any fun anymore. And the types of games that I lived for, not 20 years ago, but just 5 years ago, no longer exist so I feel I’m being forced to like what all the Call of Duty audience likes. It’s really insulting to someone that’s supported this industry since the early ’80′s and is being pushed aside for a newer, more gullable audience willing to throw their money at it. It lost it’s fun and I just don’t care about gaming anymore so the industry no longer cares about what I want.
I’m now 33, stayed inside playing games for so long for the past 10 years or so that all my friends moved on, got married, had kids and accomplished something in life. I have none of this now. Mostly because of games. My early 20′s were full of partying and hanging out with friends, girls, etc., but I gave it up for gaming. The one thing I thought I would always have that wouldn’t leave me, cheat on me, stop caring about me and would leave me with a feeling of accomplishment burnt out on me. I really have no other interests either at this point. I games for so long that I lost interest in just about everything else out there. Like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel and I have nothing to do with my time now but work, come home, sleep, get up, go to work. It’s really sad. Take special not of this, those of you in your teens or those of you getting older and heading down this same road. Find something else to do but don’t give up everything for these stupid games. It’s not worth it and you can’t get that time back. Once you hit 30, you’ll either look back and thing you lived life to it’s fullest or you wasted all that time. Your choice.
As it turns out, I’m giving up gaming because it’s no longer fun, it’s helped me push everyone out of my life, made me broke with barely any money to live on and I can’t be annoyed to keep up with it anymore. Kind of ironic since gaming is what I used for so many years to keep these types of things from happening to me.
Does no one read my reply? lol jeezus
Same with me, I can’t get into games anymore. I want to be able to but I just can’t. It really sucks. I think the reason is that we get older and realize that there really is no point in getting this or that sword or getting a certain number of in-game money. It’s all pointless, and the storylines are shallow. That’s why the only game I play is Call of Duty for it’s immediate gratification that comes from beating other real people in multiplayer online.
I see I am a little late to the party but I am going thru the same thing. I am 25 and going to college and working. A year ago I loved coming home to a good game. Now I just can’t get into them. Really anything. I have been playing Resistance 3 online, and while it is fun, at the same time tho I don’t feel how I felt when I was playing Resistance 1 and 2 online for months on end everyday. I have noticed that I don’t do well online anymore. Maybe its because I don’t care anymore or my brain is just fried from to much. I put 700+ hours into warhawk, about 500 into oblivion, probably 1000+ into fallout 3 and New Vegas(I haven’t finished new Vegas yet), and all the resistances and all the COD’s and Killzone 2 and madden 10 and 11 probably 5000 hours with all those. That is in four years of having a ps3. If you do the math that is almost a years time spent on gaming in 4 years. When I first got my ps3 the gaming was so awesome. It would spend days running when I wasn’t in school and wasn’t working( which was for a while. lol ) Now it spends weeks turned off and I watch TV. I log in and all my good friends have been logged out for weeks or months, its sad to me. But like someone else in this thing said I guess it is over saturation. To much of a good thing ruins it. I will not give up tho. Hopefully skyrim does the trick and I will improve in R3 and can get that feeling back that I miss so much. I feel like I am going thru a breakup or something.
its alot of the same for me i fill burnt out on games. i started playing back when the Atari came out so each new game and system that came out was new and inoperative to me now a days it seems like its just more of the same over and over and over and over….ect… theres the occasional game i can really get into which is usually one that takes it up considerably and trys something new or something along those lines.
as an example mass effect 1 and 2 were great games and i really got into them then there was dragon age origins i really got into other then that i find i play games out of shire bordem more then any thing and even then i find my self wanting to exercise or eve goto work *gasp* …
it could just be the age or at some point in our life we just grow past playing games all day every day, when we were little for example games and the world were new and fascinating now a days some odd years later and things just dont hold that luster they used to.
lol inoperative was a bad spell check its supposed to be innovative.
I’ve started feeling just like this, out of the blue, at the age of 20. I’m currently at the end of my military career and on the way to the ‘real’ world, with jobs and whatnot, and everytime I go to my base I just ask myself: what is there to go back home for? Without video games, which I have been dedicated to for quite some time, there is nothing I can do in the evenings other than think of sleeping early or surfing the web. I’ve honsetly enver felt such despair in my entire life and it’s only going to get worse once I’m out of the military – with all that free time in store, I don’t think I’m going to be very happy in the near future.
For me, solo-gaming died. I still can play hours and hours of multiplayer games (with friends) but solo games seem pointless.
Who cares if I 100% Ocarina of Time? or finally complete Half-Life 2? or beat all of the goals in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater? Only “I” do. That’s the problem.
It’s just the same with Zombies mode in CoD Black Ops. If I play with friends, we can go for hours and not feel a bit bored… but if I play solo, I feel like I’m wasting time.
If I can’t share the experience with someone else, what’s the point?
14 and 15 year olds are growing out of games? Something is not right about that…I think you young ones are just trying to believe you’re more mature than you really are, or you were never really into games to begin with and just played to kill time or avoid people and things, not for the love of the game. You kids were born the same year Final Fantasy VII came out. I was already 13 at the time. That is prime time for gaming. Maybe you kids are done with games because they’re technically old news considering every genre has been beaten to death over and over again. I have 8 games in my backlog right now, am currently unemployed, and still have no desire to open them up and beat them, as much as I told myself I would. I am just over it for the most part, just like I kicked my cigarette addiction. I have 40 PS3 games sitting on the shelf staring at me, and I can’t find one that I feel like booting up right this minute. I am done after PS3 becomes obsolete.
It is just the strangest feeling….. its as though there’s this huge hole where my video games used to be. Its close to the holidays for me now and I was hoping that MW3 would give me enough to do, but it seems that every game I play is just a let down. I mean its just sequel after sequel after sequel. I don’t get it. I figured from my friends advice that I could play WoW over the holidays easily, and I would get sucked right in, and enjoy it. But alas, I played for 3 hours and not even the most infamous hardcore game of the last decade could suffice. I just find them so boring, so suddenly! only last year I reached over 10 days play time on MW2, and now I’m not motivated enough to play WoW longer than 3 hours! I feel sad. I was hoping I would enjoy video game long into my 20′s, but I’m 16 and I’m already bored by them.
I’ve been feeling the same way recently about gaming. I’m 25 years old, and I’ve been playing video games pretty much since I was born. I remember getting that “Christmas morning” feeling whenever I would get a new game, or hear about a cool new game that was coming out.
A few years ago I was introduced to the world of web design. This was at a time when I was really into World of Warcraft. I studied web design on my own for about 3 months and built some first sites. I was having so much fun learning about web design and building web sites that I cancelled my WoW subscription. I suddenly had this realization that playing a video game which offered no tangible rewards was a waste of time compared to actually creating something. I thought about what else I was missing by spending so much time playing video games, or what else I could learn.
A few months later it was time to decide on a major in college, so I chose to study computer programming. Now I’m living and breathing programming. I’m obsessive with programming the way I would be with a video game. I have to force myself to stop studying and talk myself into taking a break to do something entertaining and give my mind a rest.
I try to play video games to take a break, but I simply can’t. If I play a game for 15 minutes I get this looming anxiety that I could be doing something more productive, so I stop playing.
Video games are good at giving you this sense of importance. They let you escape and become a heroic person; someone with a fantastic destiny, someone that other people depend on. It helps those who seek purpose in the world find it, if only briefly.
Recently I’ve realized my own potential, and that I’m capable of changing the world around me. I can build things. I can inspire people. People will look to me, and depend on me to change the world. I became someone else. I became a person with a fantastic destiny, and someone that people depend on. So if I’m the hero in real life, then it only makes the game worlds seem that much more artificial. If I have real purpose, then why seek a cheap replica of purpose? It’s not enough to just live vicariously.
This leads me to think that if I’m capable of contributing to the furtherance of the world then I am responsible for it, and to do otherwise would be negligent. I have made myself responsible for the future of the world. We are all responsible for the future of the world. It’s our responsibility to be the best people we can, and to build a future for our descendants. Sitting around clicking buttons and imagining we’re saving the world isn’t good enough. I can do better than just imagine.
I think many people (not all) have this same realization as they get older and start to find purpose in their lives whether it’s through a career, or starting families, etc. (whatever it is that gives you purpose). Everything else becomes less important.