I’m 40 yrs old. I’ve been into video games since I was an early teen. My gaming hobby never interfered with my social life or pissed of my GF but it was something I enjoyed during my off time. Games I was playing before my interest plummeted was WOW for about 4 years but wasn’t hard core about it , more of a casual player but enjoyed it immensely . I picked up BFBC2 awhile ago, typically this type of game would keep me entertained for a year or so after awhile, bored of that too. Even new games like SC2 which I would want to typically pick up. I looked at videos of game play and reviews all I could muster was a … meh, ain’t going to buy it.
For a couple of months now my satisfaction from PC gaming has dropped drastically. It’s started gradually and eventually to the point where I’d log on play for a couple of minutes then suddenly say to myself. This shit is as boring as hell .
I’m not depressed as I’ve always had other interest which I still pursue such as music, painting and sculpting. But I always thought of myself to be a gamer for life. Maybe it’s my age.
Not I, but there are times when I play more than others. I have a DS &Wii too, and also an iPod touch. What I play most is mostly a matter of my mood. Having the Japanese systems has been neat because it’s opened up a whole different style of games than you see on the Western PC scene. I love the strategy RPG’s and the odd combinations of childishness and weird mechanics that the Atlus games tend to have, for example.
But there’s a whole world of other things to do if gaming doesn’t do it for you anymore, so no need to stress about it.
The only PC gaming I ever did was the games available on Facebook, and after a few months, it became obvious they were designed to give a miniscule payoff just often enough to keep me playing - like a rat at a pellet lever. I’ve got so many other, better ways to completely waste my time.
Kinda. I just find myself no longer willing to spend the time needed to overcome games with large learning curves. I put some time into Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 4 and got reasonably good at them. Problem is, as games get more involved and complicated it takes more and more time before you can really enjoy the thing.
Same reason I’m debating on whether to get Madden '11 here in a week. I’d love to play football and used to put DAYS into the old Madden games on X-Box and N64, but I bought Madden '09 and what with requiring defensive shifts, changing blocking schemes, hot routes, lead blocking, I only played for a couple of hours and never touched it again. I got too much other shit to do, I just want to sit down and play the fcking game. Granted I’ve heard many thought 09 was a pretty pathetic effort, and EA has specifically addressed the issue of possible over-complication but I’ll probably take a “wait and see” approach."
*They mentioned something about how they’ve made efforts to add tons of different plays, then they found out the vast majority of online players use only a few (<10 IIRC).
I’ve actually got a couple of games that are still shrink wrapped, and I received them a couple of years ago. Every now and then, I think about opening them, but the thing is, I don’t want to learn a new battle system, and I especially don’t want to learn any more goofy side games. And I don’t want to have to check for updates and download and apply patches. Don’t produce and sell the game until it’s actually WORKABLE, dimwits!
I was fairly ill for about 3 years finishing up with a final surgery last October. During that period I was still able to lead a mostly normal life but I was exhausted all the time so unless I had to go out I did not. As a result my EQ2 time gradually increased until it was just this side of insane. I started a new job in May of this year and have been cutting down ever since. A couple of weeks ago we decided on a 2 month hiatus to do some other things and see just how much we would miss it.
I’ve logged on twice in that two weeks, and it’s a whole lot nicer wanting to log in and connect with people rather than feeling like I’m letting them down if I don’t.
Not sure what’s going to happen mid September when my break is officially over but I can tell you I will not be going back to the same old schedule. I do expect to spend more time online during the winter, but not as much as I was before.
Yeah, my gaming starting to wane when I got married 10 years ago (at 31 years old), just because my social life was fuller. Gaming never did interfere with my social life, and as my social life got fuller I just played less. Then came kids (7 years ago) and the quantity of my free time continued to shrink as did the time I spent playing. Now, at 41, I still play some, but there are so many other things that I would rather be doing. Usually I have the same experience as you, I turn on the console (or computer) and after 5 minutes realize that I am bored already and turn it right back off. Meh. I have some games I bought several years ago that I have not opened yet…
Yeah. Dark Age of Camelot was my gateway game. Played on a roleplay server, and loved it. (Erm, there’s an NPC in Midgard named after my main, heh.) I played that for years, like 5ish. Then EQ2 became my game of choice–played the hell out of that, but I’m not at all a power gamer, and hate the grind, and with a game like EQ2 that’s been out for ages, there’s SO MUCH to do to be viable at the higher levels. Again, I played on a RP server and mostly logged in to RP and chat with friends. Then they move the level cap. Oy. I tried out WOW and it didn’t grab me, though I did just try it again with some friends on a RP server. I’ve played EVE, City of Heroes, and Guild Wars, but just to try them out more or less. I find I’m just not into it anymore, so I cancelled all my subs. Maybe it’ll come back, but eh. I’m 34, and female, for the record.
I’ve never been heavily into gaming, but there were a few games I used to play somewhat religiously 15 years ago, like the single-player versions of Diablo, Diablo II, Doom, and Doom II.
My first multiplayer game was Earth and Beyond, and when that died I went to EVE and City of Heroes.
Last year, I finally canceled my subscription to EVE. I didn’t even sell my stuff. I was told that if I reactivated my account, all my ships, weapons, ammo, equipment, and cash (isk) would still be there. Novel game and all, and beautiful, but basically it was just the accumulation of stuff, and when you had all the stuff you wanted, you worked to get more stuff. And once the game mechanics made it so you couldn’t travel freely without your corporation being a member of one of the large alliances, I simply lost interest.
I stuck with City of Heroes (COH/COV) longer, and actually still have an account, but I log in perhaps once every month or so. All my characters, except one, are at level 50. I have about 2 months left in my current subscription and I won’t renew when it expires.
When I reached my mid 40s, the appeal of gaming began to diminish quickly. Once it began to feel like a chore, I knew I was done.
I’m 43 and I def. don’t play with the same intensity as I used to, but I still play. My interest goes up and down. Recently, I’ve been playing Dragon Age and APB and really enjoying it.
I’m certainly a lot pickier. PC gmaing used to be one of my favourite pastimes. Now I can’t say it’s a pastime at all. I do like playing very specific games. If one really captures my imagination I’ll play it to death.
I expect I will play a lot of Civ 5, for instance. But only if it’s good. If they came out with a KOTOR 3 I’d play that sucker to the end twice.
As I get older, I find myself with less time and more picky over games. The game has to be good right off the bat,: good pacing, suck me in and provide a good time. Little things like frequent crashes (come’on, PC games are expected to crash right? But at least once per night?), poor UI, dull pace of gameplay and such will totally kill it for me. This applies to console games as well.
For instance, I find myself wasting more time with Trine and Fabled Lands gamebook application that King’s Bounty or Armored Princess. I tried Prototype for a while and get bored with it. Total Annihilation 2 has such a formulaic mission structure that I get tired of it during the demo.
And so on and so forth. Come to think of it, I haven’t touch a PC game (besides Fabled Lands) for at least 2 months.
In my case, I had this window between 1992 and 2003 where my gaming tastes were set. I still own most of those games (Master of Magic, Master of Orion 1 and 2, Mame, etc.) and I still play them. However, newer games just don’t interest me like the older games. Nowadays, it seems like beating other people is the main point of the game, but I like playing against the computer and trying to reach goals I set for myself.
One of my older games, MechCommander, doesn’t work on newer computers. The last time X-com worked for me was back in the 90’s. Master of Magic still crashes just like it did before. Some of my games don’t work with Vista. As newer technology makes the older games unplayable, I pretty much stop playing them. I don’t think I’m growing out of them, I just can’t play them anymore.
I still want to play games, but heck if I can find one that catches me like they used to. I enjoyed Dragon Age, so much that I bought the expansion, which sits on my desk unplayed. I sorta kinda want StarCraft 2, but I’m afraid I’ll drop $60 on it, it’ll run crappy on my computer, and I won’t get into it. I’ll definitely get Civ V, but I’m worried that it won’t catch me.
I blame the games, not myself. Those young whippersnappers don’t know how to make games the way they used to. That’s the ticket.
Like others in this thread I probably play less than I used to, but I wouldn’t say significantly so. I still very much consider myself a gamer but I’m definitely a lot pickier about what I’ll play and generally I will research a game quite heavily and require a strong consensus from the critics that it’s worth bothering with. That said I’ll occasionally see a game on Steam or Impulse that is on sale and looks interesting and I decide to give it a go.
I tend to prefer to sink my time into games i know I’ll like now, rather than trying lots of new games that I don’t know if I will. My next major purchase will definitely be Civ 5, in fact I’m taking time off work to play it That mother fucker will keep me going for a good couple of years.
I am a bit burned out, yes. In an attempt to do something different, I got Oblivion last week (I very rarely do CRPGs anymore)-was fun for about 2 days, then the endless dungeon grinding got to me. I’ve DLed that Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul mod, perhaps that will provide more “meat” (other than zombie cutlets that is). But I keep hankering for something fresh and brand new, be it strategy, RPG, action shooter, or whatever, but I’m not very confident I’m going to get it in today’s market.
I used to play games – I wouldn’t consider myself a gamer, though.
I wish I had more time to play some games. I started playing Dragon Age: Origins several months ago, and liked it, but haven’t made much progress. I played Call of Duty 4 for like 1 week, thought it was really cool, and haven’t touched it in ages.
I have never been into online gaming – something about it seems very intimidating (not having as much skill in gameplay as a 13 year old) or very annoying (playing with a 13 year old).
When I hear stories about people who play games for a couple hours on most days, it is as though I simply cannot understand where they get the time. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
I was just thinking this the other day. I bought Dawn of War II six months ago and booted it up a grand total of two times because I didn’t feel like learning how to play another game and don’t have the time to devote to it. Same with Civ IV, which I may have played 8 or 9 times…I used to spend entire days playing massive Civ II campaigns when I was a kid, but now I can only stomach pick up-and-play crap like Peggle.
That mother fucker will keep me going for a good couple of years.