Anyone else trying not to fall out of love with gaming?

Is it me or does every year it get harder to keep up with the medium. I'm 26 and know a lot of people in their 20s fall out of love with gaming and come back in their mid 30s or early 40s. But right now all I can think is, its e3 and I have zero hype.

Time to find another hobby.

I love gaming and can't even keep up so don't think because you don't follow everything or play everything that it's a lack of commitment on your part to the hobby. Also, not buying into hype is smart, just leads to disappointment more often than not. Just play what you wanna play while you got time to play it. Still, if you simply cannot find anything to play, tons there but nothing interests you, well, sounds like somebody who might be done with gaming.

I will certainly say this generation really pushed the idea of padding games to take 40-100 hours each to the point I avoid long games, even well celebrated ones, and instead enjoy the cheaper shorter games that are lots of fun. But yeah, those shallow padded cookie cutter games just aren't as enjoyable. Games are also pushing a lot of competitive online, I do enjoy a few of these but no desire to go playing the rest.

Nope. I’m 48, been an avid gamer for over 40 years and still love it.

It's not just you. I feel somewhat the same. The marketing campaigns for new releases and events have gotten so cliche and generic to the point where even if they're not about the same game, it all swirls into the same shit experience. I'm better off just going through my backlog and keeping an eye on the weekly PSN sales for the occasional $20 game because I just don't care about gaming like I used to.

I can't get enough. I want to play about 4 hours every day, but my family life usually only allows me 1 or 2 hours.

I once took a brief pause from gaming. That helped spark my interest. Look, if you don't want to game, don't do it. It shouldn't be a chore.

PS4 and PlayStation in general gives me constant pleasure for the past 25+ years.

I can’t stop loving PlayStation and it’s awesome game library every gen where they create and push new franchises all the time. Constantly evolving.

Meanwhile Xbox and Nintendo push rehashes and the same 4 franchises every gen. I understand why Xbox and Nintendo fanboys are sick of gaming because they lack games. That sucks.

I suggest more indies in your life. The big AAA EA/Ubisoft/Activision type games are woefully uninspiring, but gaming remains creative and surprising if you don't restrict yourself to certain budgets/development styles. Variety is the key

Its important to pay attention to more games than just the ones that are soon fed on mass media. Try big games, small games, weird games, is it even a game type of games?

I find when I feel similarly, something comes along and sets fire to my imagination all over again. I hope you find that game. Something that makes you fall in love all over again.

I started growing habanero's and vegetables, good hobby.

I still love gaming, especially retro games. But I'm not excited about gaming anymore. I remember how exciting gaming was between 1988 to 2005. Every single new upgrade was exciting and felt like a big step forwards. Games were so exciting. I enjoyed the 7th gen a lot, but after that, my interest is at an all time low. I'll never stop gaming though. There's still about twenty five years of games from before the 8th gen. I'll still see what's going on and pick up a new game or two, but I'm not in any hurry to do that.

Last new game I got was Ace Combat 7 and it was so bad I went back to Ace Combat 6. Now I'll explore what PC gaming has been offering.

As for E3, I couldn't care less. Let's say MS show some new console. It's just new hardware. All their games are still multiplat, so the hardware is quite meaningless to me. It's like someone going up to me saying 'look, there's a new DELL'. I'm not particularly excited about new graphics cards unless I'm in the market for one.

This weekend I was just starting and closing games on my console. No interest to play anything.

Nope, I don't try to love anything, I either do or don't.

If I fall out of with gaming I'll move on and game again if something draws me back rarther than forcing it

Not really. It's more about time constraints, so i'm starting to appreciate more jump-in and play games. I still like to go nuts every so often, and Yakuza 0 has been holding me over plenty.

I'm still in love with games. Probably more so than ever. But, each year I don't have a huge backlog of newly released games I'm going to play. Plus, I don't keep my expectations too high.

I have stopped buying games and started focusing on finishing, or at least playing more of, what i have. i was in a bit of a rutt there as i was just jumping from one game to the next so I'm now sticking more to a game and ignoring the new shiny things as i try and take a lump out of my backlog.

so far tomb raider, sotr, F1 2017 and pillars 1 are done. up next are doom and pillars 2. it's going to take a while though as many of the games in my backlog are huge.

I'm also looking into a different facet of gaming which i haven't tried before: VR. bring on the index.

i don't have a huge amount of hype for E3 at the moment either. that's primarily focused on the AAA sector and i don't think i am the target demographic for that part of the industry any-more (i have no interest in MP or loot boxes or gaming as a service). i will keep an eye on it (looking forward to cyberpunk...looks awesome) but it wont dominate my thoughts as it once did.

but plenty of AA and indie games to play. loads of areas of gaming to check out. we are on the verge of next gen consoles which will hopefully be interesting and deliver a great experience. no idea what nintendo is up to which is always cool.

I'm in my 30's and still enjoy it there are times of course I get bored but great singleplayer games keep me gaming. To be honest I have a hard time enjoying alot of things in life I'm not your happy go lucky person but gaming hasn't gone to complete garbage yet like music has. If I was you I try to find different hobbies and take a break and see if your passion for gaming comes back whatever makes you happy is all that matters.

I am 29 and I basically only play Tekken and 1 side game at a time

I actually find that I'm enjoying games more than ever. The PS4 has delivered the best generation of gaming I've played since the Super Nintendo. However, what you're feeling isn't a bad thing. Sound a little like burnout. Maybe it's best to step away for a while.

I appreciate all of your comments. It seems we fall into different phases. Yeah I think I’ll finish the games I had when I fell off(red dead and diablo 3). Then buy new ones

I'm always buying new games and trying different genres, I'm normally behind too as I take awhile to finish games and I'm constantly buying new games because I am a collector.
I've set out certain collector goals such as attaining complete PSP, PS Vita and Xbox 360 physical collections. I also follow lots of Youtube gamers, they give me new ideas.

I'm in my 30s now and with work and other stuff going on I was finding that I didn't have a lot of time to play video games. There was a lot I wanted to play, new, current and old and I got this feeling in my head where if I wasn't playing one thing or if I played one game over another then I would be 'missing out'. I found myself weighing up the amount of time involved in playing a game and making progress in that game with the amount of time I had spare to play that game. I found myself avoiding playing some of my favourite games and genres because of the demands on time they require (RPGs and Strategy games) but I also found I didn't have much long term interest in playing other kind of games so I found myself not really playing any games at all. I would come home from work, have dinner, sit online talking to people, looking at new content/news, watching some videos and going to bed. Essentially I had stopped gaming almost completely.

It's not so much that I fell out of love with gaming but rather I felt like I should be playing this game and that game and that I should be keeping up with the trends and buying the latest games like I used to be able to. That kind of mentality was probably the hardest part to change on how I viewed my hobby. Accepting that I couldn't approach gaming with such abandon anymore. Instead I chose to focus more on the games I really enjoy playing. Focusing on one or two games at a time whether they were old or new, prioritising those games by how much enjoyment I get from them and spending whatever time I can with them.

Taking a different approach to gaming is what rekindled my love with it. I may not be up to date with the trends, playing the most current games or playing a whole bunch different games in to the wee hours of the morn but the games I do play I enjoy all the more for it and I get a better sense of fulfillment from gaming as a result.

I am kept engaged thanks to some genres still churning out wonderful experiences but yeah there are times I felt that. Gaming is a hobby and you will get bored by it sometimes.

32 here. Thought I fell out of love with gaming 3+ years ago....then I went and dug up my old consoles and older games I played. Fell back in love with it again. Going back now and playing games with lower budget, indy titles or didn't have much hype and I am hooked. I realized that I didn't fall out of love with gaming. Gaming today is just targeted towards a whole different demographic. And that's cool as long as I find the odd game here and there that has that purity I fell in love with to begin with.

I just turned 27 and I'm extremely busy with work. I'm not sure if games are becoming worse or if I'm really busy and have priorities instead of gaming 24/7.

Video games will always come around in my life regardless of how long I might spend not playing them. It's because I have a multitude of interests, hobbies and drive in life that's not solely depended on video games 24/7. I guess if your life really was that dull that you had nothing else going on but playing video games, I can understand such a psychological derangement but the reality is yourself and not the games.

Falling out of love with the game is entire feels different. It might feel like less of a calm and more of emptiness, andfew things are as sad as looking at someone who you used to be crazy about and feeling nothing at all

I'm 44 and the family say I game too much :)

But I think I know what you mean. For me I either go big or find another hobby. The plan is to go big for next gen, big TV, big surround sound, big console/pc including all the extra's.

But the wife might have other ideas, like a 4 week trip to Orlando :)

Haven't fallen out of love, but definitely far more weary about what I pick up.

@Mercenary848:

I got no shortage of that. Final Fantasy VII Remake, Halo Infinity, Last of Us 2, there's a LOT to forward to! My wallet is ready to go for broke!

Don't try. Take a break.

The hype is definitely gone for me. I've been disappointed far too many times. I still play and check out new games but I'm certainly not up to date on what's out there.

Nah.

I'm 30 and still enjoy gaming.

I find myself playing Indie games such as metroidvanias or Shmups. These games are engaging and they are pick up and play as well!

Love me some dead cells right now.

But I'd really love to look in the psychology of gaming today. There is sooooo much choice right now in games, back in the day you had a console and that was it! And usually just one console! (For the most part, there were exceptions)

I feel overwhelmed with choice TBH, I'm a collector and I have multiple consoles, and I find myself playing new games for only a few levels before losing interest and playing something else. Especially AAA games, there are exceptions like God of War and Spiderman, both I completed and did a lot of extra in.

One thing I need to do, like others have said in this thread, is to focus on games I want to play, and not worry about new releases, or finishing games quick.

I've found that if I play a game I like and play at my own pace, I enjoy myself more.

Its harder and harder to like gaming these days. Nothing new comes out that's interesting. All the same rehashes of try hard games. I was really waiting for age of empire 4 and even that they pushed off with a remaster of a already remaster game.

it's a joke.

The only games i play these days are years old or 10+ years old as result.

No, but I'm trying hard to cope with all the recent bullshit like lootboxes, microtransactions and the generally downgraded AAA scene.

Back in the day it was normal for a game to contain one SP mode and about 8 different MP modes. And you could unlock everything in the game without paying extra. Now people are fine with only 1 MP mode (like Fortnite) littered with microtransactions on top of that. Why bother putting effort into games when people are fine without it, right? And that is why AAA sucks today.

Every time I think I'm falling out of love with gaming, Nintendo comes up with some fresh and innovative idea that makes me fall in love again.

My hype for e3 is dying as it has become more about spectacle and mainstream. There are plenty of legacy stuff that I haven't got around to. I suggest not keeping up with the latest stuff and play something older or deep in your backlog. It feels great.

Yeah definitely

Video games are just another thing it's easy to go wait a minute does this all just plain suck?

Maybe it does.

I fell in love with gaming a long time ago, when I was a little child, and made my first house in Minecraft.

tell me about it ! i sometimes feel like im just wasting time while not even having fun .... and im getting vision problems as well

I do find with the constant game releases and massive games that come out now it is near impossible to keep up with and still have a life outside of gaming, but I do enjoy it

I have been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and I am still a diehard gamer. The love and passion is still very strong. :)

Necro thread anyway. Lock incoming,..

Yeah, this thread was over a year old before it got bumped. Going to have to lock it, but you're all welcome to make a new one if you have any other thoughts to share on this subject.