Anyone else 22+ yr old feeling slow loss of Interest in gaming?

[Tyk3]

Hi everyone, this thread is aimed at gamers who have a full time job and responsibilities and chores to take care off. I am 23 yr old, a full time programmer working at an awesome organisation. Really happy with the work culture, collegues and it allows lots of time to focus on my hobbies. ( Gaming is the most serious one ) We have a group of gamers in my office as well, great bunch and we often play games together after office hours as well.

But even then i am starting to lose my attraction towards games. I have been a dedicated gamer most of my life, from childhood till in job, have played games from NES,Genesis, PS1, PS2, at Arcade machines and then later PC became the platform since High school (2005 onwards) and it is the one till today.

But now with the new games coming out none of them appeals anymore. I buy something that i think will make me game again only to leave it after 2-3 hours as it fails to interest me. Latest one to do so is Castelvania : LOS and Monaco. Monaco is a good game should have kept me hooked but after 3 -4 hrs of gameplay i was like meh..... CLOS just plain failed on me.

I have a decent library of steam games (75+). i think of which i have a backlog of max 9-10 maybe, but that backlog has been there now for more than 7-8 months and although it has some titles i really wanted to pick and play. I just don't feel like doing it anymore. Off late (2-3 months) i have not even picked up TF2 / Loadout anymore.

All steam sales pass with me buying like 1 title at max ( and believe me i have plenty money to throw at sales ). I tend to buy the new releases in a series that i have been playing and those are the only ones that i play with same zeal like before. Say Crysis, Devil May Cry, Street Fighter, Batman Arkham series etc. And if some good FPS comes out. but they are too few and far between.

So now question, what i am really trying to find out is that is this a kind of phase which will go off and i will pick up my SP games again?? Or does this looks like i should stop looking at SP gaming and choose and keep in touch just with a couple of MP games for maintaing my title of being a "Gamer".?? Happened with anyone else out there? care to share the experince.

Thanks a bunch. ^_^

[TirithRR]

I'm 30 and have definitely slowed down on my gaming. But I'm still addicted to buying games. I don't get to spend 10 hours a day gaming anymore, now that for 12 hours a day I am either getting ready for work, travelling to work, or working.

[Tyk3]

I don't even buy them anymore.. :P i am in an even worse state as far as love for games is considered. I am just buying some occassional classics that i used to play in early days and have lost their installing Media. Bought a cpy of NFS underground 2 last sunday for eg. just to keep in my collection. Won't be playing it at all i think.

[Stevenson Family]

No.

I can't spend the amount of time I used to playing games because of kids etc, but im no less enthusiastic.

Guess it helps that my wife plays games and so does my father and brother. As well as still enjoying my own gaming its also a social thing for me now.

Im 32 btw.

[Tyk3]

Thanks for replying Gareth. I live alone. Family is elsewhere and even then no one else in family games. so maybe that could be the reason. Hope once i get married i can interest my wife in gaming :P. Highly unlikely though, gaming is not an everbody thing here in Indian society.

[Ineffable Anathema]

There's no requirement for the title of "gamer" other than a person who likes and/or plays games. :)

I've lost a lot of interest lately but it's due to personal factors such as my health and life situations, but I still find many of them to be an excellent way to blow off steam, relax, or even help cope with things that are out of my control through calming me and giving me something else to focus on for a while. I'd guess your interest will never really die, and you may find renewed interest at some point, but don't try to force it. Do what makes you happy, whether that is gaming, going outside and running around, reading, or whatever other hobby you might have. Always have a means to escape from stress as it is very bad for your body and mind.

[Tyk3]

Thanks guys, good to see that i am not the only one out there. And Shodan, Bro you just explained exactly what is happening around me and why i think i am loosing it in gaming. will try to follow your pointers.

[Kassutera]

I am 29 and I been slowing down a lot ith gaming too. I think it is because I grew up in the age of the NES, Genesis and Super Nintendo where simplicity of a 2D game is superior to me vs. a 3D aspect of a game. Don't get me wrong I still play games like Halo or Titanfall and plan on getting a PS4 soon but I find myself gravitating more towards 2D games Such as Terraria (and now Pixel Piracy as I plan on buying it in a bit.) As far as spending hours on games, lately I have not been playing much (which is odd considering I have a broken foot and cannot do much until it heals.)

Not sure if my slowdown is due to me losing interest or because I fall out of it with age though. (I hope it's not with age because I been a gamer all my life and love gaming.) Could be stresses in my life or maybe even having my mind elsewhere like focusing on the boyfriend or something who knows but I feel like I could be in a similar boat as you.

[TheStoryteller01]

Personally I'm playing, modding and small time developing games now for over 20 years.

I had times where I enoyed playing PC games more than anything else, then years of hiatus for job or relationship reasons. For 1 year I more or less played only to study the game I was modding for, then stopped playing at all to develop something myself with a commercial editor, for 3 years it was all MMO - and from time to time I shut the PC off for a couple of months to re-discover the fun of boardgames and pen & paper RPGs.

Gaming is just another aspect of life and subject to the same changes.

The only "advice" I could give is to start out modding or developing yourself. Most people from the scene say that it made them look at games a different way and often renewed their interest to their favourite games or brought genres to their attention they had dismissed earlier.

[Black Blade]

As 23 with almost no time to play i cant say i want to play less
Really just want to play more even that i cant

[Dop3y]

you like gaming less probably because you're a programmer. U spend all day at a computer so when you get home the last thing you want to do is more computer stuff. Do you mostly play console or computer?

I think you would have more interest in console gaming. Sitting on a couch with a controller in your hand instead of mouse and keyboard at a desk. Also, Try games that are more rewarding on a short term basis. Forget those games that take days to 'Max level' or complete. Play more arcade games or action/suspense/horror. You could also try to play with others. Playing alone can be boring if you are not sharing the experiences with other ppl.

These are just suggestions. I hope you find happyness in what ever you do. :D

[Set-115689]

I haven't been interested in many games in the last couple years because most are bad or the same thing. I wouldn't worry about it. Games just aren't improving each year any more and they are making more mistakes/the same mistakes. I blame consoles and the patent/copyright system for part of it.

[Tyk3]

@milkmate : well thought assumption on your part but I actually play games on my PC using a controller wherever applicable, i use Keyboard and Mouse only for FPS games. And i can see what you are suggesting but the irony is that i still spend a lot of my time on PC doing something else, just not gaming. And nice genre suggestions i do play fighters or MP (couple of matches) every once in a while. But see that is my point, gaming passion is reducing and getting lost. I am struggling to just keep a dying fire alive.

P.S : Nice gamertag you have... =D

[Tyk3]

@Set True that, i too feel the same. Games no longer have the awesome ness they used to have. Seems like industry is forgetting tried and tested formulas and just building stupid same run of the mill things that are getting sold. Like Zombie survival.

[Ineffable Anathema]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tyk3:

Thanks guys, good to see that i am not the only one out there. And Shodan, Bro you just explained exactly what is happening around me and why i think i am loosing it in gaming. will try to follow your pointers.

I've especially found that my life circumstances currently aren't allowing for the kind of deep immersion I so love in horror gaming, so I've switched to mostly playing games I can more easily pull out of and attend to real-life issues if need be. Casual games and online deathmatches and the like, and things where losing my concentration doesn't blow the entire session is what I mean here. I know that until things change I'm simply not going to be in any frame of mind to play the more intense ones very well. So I just set them aside for a while to focus on other things, more rooted in reality than gaming at this time.

[Akorlyn]

Hello :). Just thought I'd join onto this thread. I'm 22 in a few months and I have to agree with you. Well, it's not so much the loss of interest in gaming it's that I don't have time like I use to. I have a job and a 17 month old, so when I'm not working, I'm looking after and playing with him :). The only gaming time I get now is in the evening for a few hours or the odd day when he visits his grandparents. I still love playing games and gaming has always been a big part of my life. I remember the day my dad brought home a Mega Drive with 20+ games, I was over the moon. I would play it for hours on end :P.

Another reason I guess for the loss of interest is that there aren't any games that are being released that interest me. I hardly ever buy/play any big AAA games anymore. Since joining Steam I've taken more of an interest in Indie games and Binding of Isaac is probably one of my favourite games. Going off on a tangent here :P.

I've never been a big Multiplayer gamer, so I've always stuck with Single Player games. I've always found gaming more enjoyable on my own, but each person has different preferences :). Although the best multiplayer I've had was playing Golden axe and Streets of Rage with my dad; I was a big troll thinking back on it :P

At the end of the day, gaming will always be there and even if you try hard it will still keep bringing you back, and you'll start enjoying it again :)

My novel is finished... :P