I've had similar experiences. The way I think about it, playing a game for long increases your tolerance to stimuli. That way, when you're not playing, the stimulation is way too low, even if you know it should be 'fun'. Personally, I have a very biochemical view of this, so what I did was just to stay away from gaming for a few weeks at a time to ensure that my brain's tolerance for stimuli could re-adjust.
Remember that if you take that step, all the issues that seem so overwhelming right now may actually turn out to be quite manageable. In many cases, your own thoughts are your worst enemy.
In my experience, gaming excessively could induce a kind of addiction. Essentially, I think the games increased my tolerance for stimuli, so when I was not gaming, everything felt kind of numb. Over time, this made me distracted and affected how I do my job, and gave me anxiety issues.
But then again, most depression is probably not triggered by our hobbies, so then the interaction between your condition is so much more complex.
They replaced Tyson and Rios with Alpha and Bravo...?
Really...?
So... someone looked at the two previous games and thought 'I think the two protagonists are a bit overbearing for this franchise. We should make them more... generic.'
And then, if someone asked them 'why?', I guess the reply went something like...
'Well, this game is about shooting guns. If they know the name of the guy holding the guns, the drooling idiots who are our customers may get confused and stop playing...'
I got a generally positive impression of this interview. However, one thing was a bit laughable:
"Before the release of Blacklist, such games as Dishonored and Mark of the Ninja revealed that asking the average player to play in a stealthy way wasn't such a tall order."
Oh yeah? So that finally sunk in. "Hey guys, here's a strange thought, but perhaps we don't need to make Splinter Cell more like CoD to sell more copies."
Here's the thing: CoD - and BF of course - already exist. They has the biggest player bases and (presumably) best tweaked combat system. If other developers try to mimic them, there is a very high risk that they will merely make a sub-par imitation.
A game needs to stand on its OWN merits, and appeal to gamers who (a) don't like 1st person multiplayer shooters or (b) do like those games, but are looking for a change of pace. From this interview, I got the impression that Patrick Redding (thankfully) gets that.
Freboy's comments