# Has anyone else gotten 'too old for games'?



## levifig

evensen007 said:


> I've been thinking about this on and off for the last 5-8 years. I'm 38 years old now and have this strange feeling in my gut every time I visit this site or see an old email or post about a video game I used to play. It's an uncomfortable combination of nostalgia, sadness, and shock at how fast years seem to fly by. On that last point, I always have this sinking feeling when I get reminded of a game I used to play (Dragon Age: Origins and Baldur's Gate were recent ones) and then realize how long ago it was that I played and enjoyed those games. This might be something that only the older people on here may relate to, but it's something that happens to me often and tugs at my heart in a strange way. In some sense, I believe that those games are time markers that relate to a part of my life (I was only 20 years old when Baldur's gate came out!?), but they also make me yearn for a time in my life when I actually had the TIME to play video games for more than an hour every month or two. I imagine those of you with kids feel this sensation even harder than I do. I've been working on my life these past 8 years (which I have not regret about) and have dabbled back into games on and off during that time. I can't IMAGINE though sitting down to a game like Baldur's Gate again and actually being able to get through it and enjoy it. That makes me sad. I don't even really have any friends that play games or especially know games that I used to play back in the day that still give me such great memories. I had some friends back in my old state and job that used to get together for some Battlefield 4 and then most recently BF1. BF1 lasted about 3-4 months for us and then it waned.
> 
> I don't even really know what I'm trying to say with this post or if it even belongs in this sub-forum. Maybe I think I'm just trying to reach out to fellow former gamers my age that have felt this same uneasy feeling as you've gotten older. Maybe the broader sense and feeling is what most normal people recognize as getting older in general and becoming hyper aware of the shockingly fast passage of time. Sometimes I'll read my old posts from 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago and fondly remember caring about and putting quality time into gaming. Sometimes I'm scared that I really have outgrown games and it would never be the same anyway. There's a guy I talked to about the dream of having 6 months off of life so that I could go back and replay some of my favorite games from the old days, and maybe burn through some games in the backlog that I've always wanted to try. But maybe I wouldn't even want to once I did have the time. Who knows. Whatever the case, games will always hold a very dear and nostalgic place in my heart.


Yes... and no. I think what you’re going through is part of the process of maturing, as an individual, and, in part, “getting old”. I don’t mean that in the bad sense (I’m 36), but in the sense that you start looking at things for what they are and have grown past the age of following the latest trend and pursuing entertainment as a form of “occupation”. 

I remember seeing that anything (technological) that you experience and learn before you’re 35 (or so) is cognitively embraced by your brain and becomes part of your nature, and after that it becomes stuff “that kids these days do/use” (I need to find this quote). As part of that, you develop a lot stronger nostalgia. The problem with nostalgia is that it’s heavily biased and colored. The games that you *used* to play, especially at a different stage of your life, now hold a level of pleasure and satisfaction in your memory that newer games can’t achieve (this has to do with how our brain stores pleasurable memories). You become disenchanted with current trends/games, and nothing seems to reach that level of pleasure you had years ago. Even going back and revisiting some of those games won’t restore that because part of the pleasure was bound to that time/stage of your life, not just the game itself.

Another huge thing is how, as you age, the value of things changes from pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction to legacy and “mark in the world”. It’s pretty normal and a good thing, really...

All this to say: what you’re going through isn’t odd or a sad thing. It’s part of the human process of maturing and aging. It just tends to happen at a later stage in life nowadays (late 30s), which coincides with some changes in the wiring of your brain as well... Go back a few centuries (maybe decades only!) and you were a grown adult by the time you hit 16 or so. You’d have to face adulthood for about 20 years before all that crazy stuff started triggering in your brain. Now it all happens at pretty much the same time...

If games no longer bring you satisfaction, maybe it’s time to move on from games. On that same note, if the reason why you play games is to socialize or use some part of your brain that doesn’t normally get stimulated, than do it in moderation, and never force trying to enjoy games like you did 5-10-20 years ago.

Congratulations: you’re now a mature adult!


----------



## Blameless

I can still play games I like and enjoy them for protracted periods of time. Truly good games are nearly timeless, and I still regularly enjoy games that are more than twenty years old at this point. I don't imagine that I'll ever be "too old" (in my mid-30s now) for video games, but I do get the feeling that many recent video games are too new for me. Many current gaming trends (games being tied to limited distribution platforms/services, excessive DRM, DLC, rapid product cycles, overly derivative content, et al) actively annoy me and I'm becoming evermore alienated from mainstream gaming culture.

Newest game I regularly play is _Elite: Dangerous_ and I can look at lists of "top 100 most anticipated games" and not have much desire to touch any of them. Still game more than most people though, most of the games are just older than many gamers.

As for time seeming to pass more rapidly, I get that. I've gone back to some projects (gaming related and otherwise) that I've been working on, only to realize the last time I touched them was ten or fifteen years ago.


----------



## christoph

is not only that we getting older and slowly leaving the video games, it all has to do with the companies that NOW is all about money, they put no effort and making a video game with a good story and good enough visuals, you know a game with good graphics but not that you can't play it with your current PC, now is all about micro transactions;

I been playing video games my whole life, and I remember playing Resident evil 4 in the play, and jumping to Stalker COP (I played many games between them of course) and saying "oh man this games are great" and right after I finished Stalker I jumped to Fallout 3 ( I did not play them when they where release) and man, Fallout 3 was the best game ever for me (yeah, yeah you can say whatever you want, that the game is broken blah blah blah) and now where is Resident evil? Stalker? I wish they made another stalker, Metro was a real good game and actually looking forward to Metro exodus


----------



## jclafi

Ask youself this question, why do we live ? 

Don´t we live to enjoy what we like ? Some people like to play soccer, baseball, golf, we like to play games. It´s just a hobby ! 

See this 'age' thing does not exist! We are what we are and do what we like, that´s it !

Don´t bother with 'age', just do what makes you feel good ! Enjoy your life the way you like it ! 

I used to play A LOT until 35 years old. I mean a lot ! 

Now i´m married, go to the gim Monday to Friday, work, so don´t have much time to spend with games.. 

But when i can, game on !

=D


----------



## Lemondrips

Granted I am only 26, but definitely know what your talking about. I think the biggest downfall is nothing excites me like vanilla WoW/BC era, Guild Wars 1, Warcraft 3, and CS:Source. Most of those games are 10+ years old or aren't the same anymore. Most games you pick up now are watered down I feel or just not as good as they used to be.


----------



## Dasboogieman

Man, I still can't believe I played Dragon Age Origins for 3 days straight on an ancient CRT TV with the Xbox 360 in my early 20s. I read every single line of dialogue because I wasn't aware you could skip it. Nothing will ever reach the same levels of wonder and awe again. I couldn't even do the same thing for Skyrim, ME2 & ME3, hell, not even the legendary Witcher series and this was only a few years later when I graduated and had disposable income for quality PC gaming. It's been a downhill slide ever since and I find myself getting immersed more in to the "dad" activities like ARMA3, DDR4 overclocking or pickling veggies. I guess what they say is true, as you get older, it's harder for you to get a dopamine buzz from instant gratification and you gradually appreciate the stuff that takes time to age.


----------



## KC_Flip

Have I gotten too old for games? Nope. I still like to play when I have the time. The real question is, has a priority for gaming taken a back seat to other things? The answer to that is a resounding yes. Family, career, life in general - all of these take up a lot of time and playing games is easily pushed to the side. 

To add, my desktop is 7ish years old (still running the trusty i5-2500k) with only one upgrade in that time to a GTX960. The older tech limits what I can play anyway, so I stick to the classics or games that I can play for a bit at a time - RollerCoaster Tycoon, Morrowind, Dragon Age Origins, The Witcher (still haven't played 3 due to said ancient PC), Euro/American Truck Sim (such relaxing games), Half-Life/Portal series', etc.

I'm hoping to put together a new build later this year. My daughters are 6 and 4, so it will be the first time I can really show them the process and let them help. They may not enjoy it, but just the thought of being able to include them in one of my hobbies is so much more interesting and exciting then playing games.


----------



## The Pook

I still enjoy gaming but my tastes of what games I like changed.

Used to be a huge fan of RPGs and racing games and now all I play really are FPSes. Even that is limited to CS:GO and PUBG when I have time to game.


----------



## corky dorkelson

I'm getting too old to waste copious amounts of time on games. I'm primarily playing them only with my children. Minecraft is a huge hit with us, as are the Lego games. Long gone are the days when I would sit around like a turd and just game all weekend. Life is too short for that.


----------



## ixsis

Well, at 55 and still play a bit. I have a usual 'routine' as my wife calls it. I'll run through all three base Crysis games, sit through a few dozen hours of Civ V then a play-through of Skyrim. There have been times I'd through in a bit of HalfLife or F.E.A.R. After I make the rounds, I'll take a several week break then start the cycle over. I think I get about about 4 cycles in per year. What I no longer do is play anything for longer than 30 minutes at a pop. Just don't have the time (or interest). I guess the old games have become more of a wind-down than actual 'play' as the years have gone on.


----------



## evensen007

levifig said:


> Yes... and no. I think what you’re going through is part of the process of maturing, as an individual, and, in part, “getting old”. I don’t mean that in the bad sense (I’m 36), but in the sense that you start looking at things for what they are and have grown past the age of following the latest trend and pursuing entertainment as a form of “occupation”.
> 
> I remember seeing that anything (technological) that you experience and learn before you’re 35 (or so) is cognitively embraced by your brain and becomes part of your nature, and after that it becomes stuff “that kids these days do/use” (I need to find this quote). As part of that, you develop a lot stronger nostalgia. The problem with nostalgia is that it’s heavily biased and colored. The games that you *used* to play, especially at a different stage of your life, now hold a level of pleasure and satisfaction in your memory that newer games can’t achieve (this has to do with how our brain stores pleasurable memories). You become disenchanted with current trends/games, and nothing seems to reach that level of pleasure you had years ago. Even going back and revisiting some of those games won’t restore that because part of the pleasure was bound to that time/stage of your life, not just the game itself.
> 
> Another huge thing is how, as you age, the value of things changes from pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction to legacy and “mark in the world”. It’s pretty normal and a good thing, really...
> 
> All this to say: what you’re going through isn’t odd or a sad thing. It’s part of the human process of maturing and aging. It just tends to happen at a later stage in life nowadays (late 30s), which coincides with some changes in the wiring of your brain as well... Go back a few centuries (maybe decades only!) and you were a grown adult by the time you hit 16 or so. You’d have to face adulthood for about 20 years before all that crazy stuff started triggering in your brain. Now it all happens at pretty much the same time...
> 
> If games no longer bring you satisfaction, maybe it’s time to move on from games. On that same note, if the reason why you play games is to socialize or use some part of your brain that doesn’t normally get stimulated, than do it in moderation, and never force trying to enjoy games like you did 5-10-20 years ago.
> 
> Congratulations: you’re now a mature adult!


Man, this was such a well-thought out effort post. Kudos, and thank you for such a thoughtful response. You are right about the tinted aspects of nostalgia; there's so much more to it than just the subject of the nostalgia. When I was playing through the first Baldur's Gate at 20 years old, I had a job that didn't command much responsibility, a bunch of casual rotating girlfriend's (who also didn't command much responsibility), and the whole world ahead of me. Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE my life now. It's just that in the process of building this new life, gaming always creeps it's way back into my thoughts every once in a while. I think to myself that it must be important in some capacity since it happens so often, even if I don't have the time for it.

5 years ago, my wife and I visited the mountains outside of Asheville, NC and vowed that we would do whatever it took to get out of hot, humid Florida and find a way to make a life in the mountains. 5 years later, we just moved into this incredible house that we built on top of a mountain ridge that is a dream come true. It took tons of hard work and a lot of guts to make the moves we made to get there. But still... This feeling creeps back in. I know I shouldn't be 'sad' about it or anything close to that, but it's an indescribable feeling that has no other word I could use to convey. 

About 3 years ago, I picked up Dark Souls 2 for the first time ever. I had never played the first one and only knew that it was a really hard RPG type game. I somehow took to it and got through it in about a year. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wondered if I had caught lightning in a bottle, or if it was something that would be a catalyst to get me back into gaming again. Dark Souls 3 came out not long after I finished part 2 and I couldn't spend more than 20 minutes at a time. The feeling was gone. 

A lot of other things bring me satisfaction in life these days. Cycling, Hiking, being outside, going to the Gym, etc, it's just that gaming (or the idea of it) tugs at me more frequently than I can understand.

When Oblivion came out (and then the deluge of mods), I couldn't get enough. I played the Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul mod that added 100's of hours of gameplay and interesting side stories (I STILL don't know WHO the Sylvan Elves were or what their motives were!?). I look back really fondly on those times.


----------



## evensen007

Blameless said:


> I can still play games I like and enjoy them for protracted periods of time. Truly good games are nearly timeless, and I still regularly enjoy games that are more than twenty years old at this point. I don't imagine that I'll ever be "too old" (in my mid-30s now) for video games, but I do get the feeling that many recent video games are too new for me. Many current gaming trends (games being tied to limited distribution platforms/services, excessive DRM, DLC, rapid product cycles, overly derivative content, et al) actively annoy me and I'm becoming evermore alienated from mainstream gaming culture.
> 
> Newest game I regularly play is _Elite: Dangerous_ and I can look at lists of "top 100 most anticipated games" and not have much desire to touch any of them. Still game more than most people though, most of the games are just older than many gamers.
> 
> As for time seeming to pass more rapidly, I get that. I've gone back to some projects (gaming related and otherwise) that I've been working on, only to realize the last time I touched them was ten or fifteen years ago.


I feel the same. I see all these kids playing Fortnight and I'm just over here like 'wuh?'. I had backed Star Citizen but got a refund some time back because of what a train-wreck it turned out to be. I always did wonder if I would possibly like Elite. I bought it on Steam a while back but haven't tried it. 



christoph said:


> is not only that we getting older and slowly leaving the video games, it all has to do with the companies that NOW is all about money, they put no effort and making a video game with a good story and good enough visuals, you know a game with good graphics but not that you can't play it with your current PC, now is all about micro transactions;
> 
> I been playing video games my whole life, and I remember playing Resident evil 4 in the play, and jumping to Stalker COP (I played many games between them of course) and saying "oh man this games are great" and right after I finished Stalker I jumped to Fallout 3 ( I did not play them when they where release) and man, Fallout 3 was the best game ever for me (yeah, yeah you can say whatever you want, that the game is broken blah blah blah) and now where is Resident evil? Stalker? I wish they made another stalker, Metro was a real good game and actually looking forward to Metro exodus


I hear you. fallout, Oblivion, Dragon Age, Those games had a great story that dragged you in and wouldn't let go. Thing seem more tailored to twitch streamers with 13 year old followers (and no attention span). 



jclafi said:


> Ask youself this question, why do we live ?
> 
> Don´t we live to enjoy what we like ? Some people like to play soccer, baseball, golf, we like to play games. It´s just a hobby !
> 
> See this 'age' thing does not exist! We are what we are and do what we like, that´s it !
> 
> Don´t bother with 'age', just do what makes you feel good ! Enjoy your life the way you like it !
> 
> I used to play A LOT until 35 years old. I mean a lot !
> 
> Now i´m married, go to the gim Monday to Friday, work, so don´t have much time to spend with games..
> 
> But when i can, game on !
> 
> =D


I hear you. I'm mostly the same way. 



Lemondrips said:


> Granted I am only 26, but definitely know what your talking about. I think the biggest downfall is nothing excites me like vanilla WoW/BC era, Guild Wars 1, Warcraft 3, and CS:Source. Most of those games are 10+ years old or aren't the same anymore. Most games you pick up now are watered down I feel or just not as good as they used to be.


Man, glad to hear that even a 26 year old 'youngen' can understand. 



Dasboogieman said:


> Man, I still can't believe I played Dragon Age Origins for 3 days straight on an ancient CRT TV with the Xbox 360 in my early 20s. I read every single line of dialogue because I wasn't aware you could skip it. Nothing will ever reach the same levels of wonder and awe again. I couldn't even do the same thing for Skyrim, ME2 & ME3, hell, not even the legendary Witcher series and this was only a few years later when I graduated and had disposable income for quality PC gaming. It's been a downhill slide ever since and I find myself getting immersed more in to the "dad" activities like ARMA3, DDR4 overclocking or pickling veggies. I guess what they say is true, as you get older, it's harder for you to get a dopamine buzz from instant gratification and you gradually appreciate the stuff that takes time to age.


DA:O was the last game I truly loved. The story, inter-character interaction, quests. They were top notch. I even suffered through part 2. It wasn't THAT bad. Then I gave in an bought DA:Inquisition and put it down after 3-4 hours. It's a HACK n' SLASH game now!? HUH!?


----------



## ThisisEduardo

i dont play games much anymore. i think another issue is you cant just pick up and play a game anymore like you could with older games. now you have to not only wait through a bunch of splash screens or cutscenes to even start the game, but you also have a ton of controller/keyboard mappings now. where as old games were basically a few buttons/keys. sometimes i find myself playing older games just because you can get in and out of them so fast...


----------



## MNMadman

I'm 42. Stable career, stable relationship (but not married and no kids). I game about as much as I always have.

The only issue I run into is finding games that I like. I think it's a combination of me being pickier and game quality, in general, going down. My tastes have definitely changed, as I have gone back and played games I used to like and I couldn't stand them anymore (WoW most recently).


----------



## littledonny

No, but finding a game I'm willing to spend more than 20 hours on gets more difficult as time goes on.


----------



## Faded

not too old for games, but my gaming tastes have certainly changed. I will inherently avoid anything that needs 50-100 hours to really enjoy, i just dont have that kind of time anymore. I like to find things that my wife and daughter enjoy either playing with me, or watching for the story... MMO's and raiding are pretty much out of the question these days as giving up 3+ hours of my evening 2-3 days a week, is absolutely too much with a family.

Way back in the day, games were pretty cheap entertainment when you measure the cost vs how much time you spend playing/enjoying. Part of the decision to play video games was based on that... now, i'm not nearly as confined by circumstances and choose to spend more time getting out of the house. I will always be an avid gamer, but finding a game i am passionate about is becoming rare indeed.


----------



## Lady Fitzgerald

I was too old for games (my 30s) back when pong was still popular. I remember playing Pacman, Ms Pacman, and Frogger with my now deceased ex back when coin operated table top gaming was still popular but it quickly took a back seat to parenthood. Now, my idea of intensive gaming is playing XP Pinball for ten minutes or so once or twice a year.


----------



## Omicron

Between last year (when I was 27,) and this year (now 28,) I can't even play games anymore for some reason. They just bore me, or I get the feeling I have something better to do (even if I don't.) Something just changed and I'm not certain what.


----------



## Tadaen Sylvermane

I still play Minecraft occasionally with the wife. But on the whole, I don't game anymore and haven't in quite some time. Not like I used to. Long time ago was real big into World Of Warcraft. Gave it up, never looked back. I've found more interesting things in real life instead of fluttering away the day on my computer. Think about the good ol days sometimes, but doesn't last. I find something to do that keeps me far more entertained these days. 

Is that a sign of to old? 37 in July. Idk.


----------



## hout17

Ill be 37 this year. I have definitely toned it down on the games but I still manage to get on some sort of a battlefield game Whether it be bf2 yes you can still play bf2 online or any of the other bf games. Having a hard time getting in to pubg though. And skyrim is still awesome!

I've always loved computers from dosshell, Windows 3.1 to now and seeing how the internet and tech has evolved has been amazing.

I have a lot of hobbies and maybe game an hour a week if that. To give you an example I demoed my bathroom and redid the whole the thing for my wife last week. I love spending time with my family too and time management has been key for me. I don't think ill ever grow out of it and yes I have a full time job.

Keep doing whatever makes you happy. I don't think growing out of it is a thing I think people get tired of doing a particular thing and move on and that's ok.


----------



## Stiltz85

My main issue is I don't seem to enjoy any of the new trending games and genres. I mean, I love shooters and racing games but I just could not fall into the PUBG or Fortnite crowd as I simply just have no desire to play them at all.
another issue is I can dump 100+ hours into games that I like but I just simply cant find the motivation to play a game after a while. Even if I enjoy it.
Like breath of the wild on my fiances switch, I enjoy playing it but I just cant put in the time for some reason. 

Seems like browsing the web while listening to music is my most common go to thing in my spare time.

I'm going on 33 here soon.


----------



## white owl

I'm 26 or 27...I'm definately not too old for games but being old enough to see past the hype and gimmicks has kept me from finding many games I really like. I love big story games like Zelda but can't seem to find something like that but more modern. The witcher looked great but it was just cutscenes which ruined it for me.

I also love multiplayer FPS but there are only a few great ones. COD is broken every time, BF has lots of hackers...I downloaded Squad but haven't really tried to get into it yet because you can really mess up the game for people if you don't know your role.

Anymore I'm playing Fortnite, Warface or Doom. Might venture into Escape from Tarkov or anything I can find that really looks enjoyable.


----------



## pony-tail

I am definitely older than most here , I am retired ,My hearing is failing , my reflexes are too slow , and my eyesight is not really that good . I like shooters but I am no longer even close to competitive . I have a lot of time available , but if I sit too long my back gets sore .
But am I too old for games - Hell No !
I just have to find games that I can play .
There is no way I could play rugby ( in the real world ) anymore either but there are other activities I can get into . One just has to adapt . the same applies to pc gaming .
I am old , but that beats the alternative !
"Gray Power" and all that


----------



## Blameless

levifig said:


> The problem with nostalgia is that it’s heavily biased and colored. The games that you *used* to play, especially at a different stage of your life, now hold a level of pleasure and satisfaction in your memory that newer games can’t achieve (this has to do with how our brain stores pleasurable memories). You become disenchanted with current trends/games, and nothing seems to reach that level of pleasure you had years ago. Even going back and revisiting some of those games won’t restore that because part of the pleasure was bound to that time/stage of your life, not just the game itself.


While I'm sure nostalgia factors into many of my preferences, I definitely think the games themselves have changed and that this is the overriding factor in my dislike of most modern gaming.

The sort of games I enjoyed most are now virtually non-existent. There are no good analogs to the older Mechwarrior games (or even MWLL), the original Battlefield 1942, Tribes 2, Shadowbane, Privateer/Freelancer/Jumpgate (though Elite: Dangerous is in the same ballpark and thus one of the few modern games I really play), Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, SSI's AD&D titles, etc.

I've tried playing the modern incarnations and spiritual successors of these games and they all come up short for very concrete reasons that have nothing to do with nostalgia.

Try to find: a tactical shooter that can handle 64+ players that has no ranks or unlocks; any first person mech game that isn't ultimately just an arena shooter; any MMO with unrestricted PvP and significant death penalties/permanent losses, where that PvP component is an integral part of the core game content and not just a tacked on battleground that can be ignored; a cRPG where there are significant non-combat skills/spells and meaningful interaction; a real-time strategy game that isn't conducive to e-sports and where one's APM is almost never a deciding factor.

Daggerfall and Tribes 2 are prime examples of games that had major features that are generally absent from modern games in similar genres. The former had 1:1 scaling and near unlimited freedom of movement/exploration, often by means that don't exist in modern open-world cRPGs (climbing walls and flying, for example), while the latter had much strategic depth and control (via a real time battle map that integrated sensor information and allowed control over static and deployable assets) that I haven't seen since (several games use deployable assets, but none to the same extent).

Plenty of younger gamers would be astounded by the things one can do in some older games I enjoyed. To be sure, many of the same people would balk at the caveats that game with them, but many older games were often superior to todays mainstream titles in some very real ways.


----------



## bucdan

26 here, my tastes have changed also. I used to be about fast paced games with no depth or truly watered down like CoD, Quake, UT and other FPS that required fast reflexes (except CS, that will always have a place in my heart), now I'm into RPG games with a deep story that I can play like I'm reading a fictional book because those games appeal to me more, so I always look forward to playing it. Strategy games, I still enjoy every now and then because it makes me think. MMO games, because I use it to socialize and I can build something that is worthwhile. I guess more interaction and dialogue in a game appeals to me. But can't forget the Street Fighter, forever a classic.

I lorn for the days where I feel like you OP. I want to be the 65 year old guy that still games good story games.


----------



## HowHardCanItBe

evensen007 said:


> I've been thinking about this on and off for the last 5-8 years. I'm 38 years old now and have this strange feeling in my gut every time I visit this site or see an old email or post about a video game I used to play. It's an uncomfortable combination of nostalgia, sadness, and shock at how fast years seem to fly by. On that last point, I always have this sinking feeling when I get reminded of a game I used to play (Dragon Age: Origins and Baldur's Gate were recent ones) and then realize how long ago it was that I played and enjoyed those games. This might be something that only the older people on here may relate to, but it's something that happens to me often and tugs at my heart in a strange way. In some sense, I believe that those games are time markers that relate to a part of my life (I was only 20 years old when Baldur's gate came out!?), but they also make me yearn for a time in my life when I actually had the TIME to play video games for more than an hour every month or two. I imagine those of you with kids feel this sensation even harder than I do. I've been working on my life these past 8 years (which I have not regret about) and have dabbled back into games on and off during that time. I can't IMAGINE though sitting down to a game like Baldur's Gate again and actually being able to get through it and enjoy it. That makes me sad. I don't even really have any friends that play games or especially know games that I used to play back in the day that still give me such great memories. I had some friends back in my old state and job that used to get together for some Battlefield 4 and then most recently BF1. BF1 lasted about 3-4 months for us and then it waned.
> 
> I don't even really know what I'm trying to say with this post or if it even belongs in this sub-forum. Maybe I think I'm just trying to reach out to fellow former gamers my age that have felt this same uneasy feeling as you've gotten older. Maybe the broader sense and feeling is what most normal people recognize as getting older in general and becoming hyper aware of the shockingly fast passage of time. Sometimes I'll read my old posts from 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago and fondly remember caring about and putting quality time into gaming. Sometimes I'm scared that I really have outgrown games and it would never be the same anyway. There's a guy I talked to about the dream of having 6 months off of life so that I could go back and replay some of my favorite games from the old days, and maybe burn through some games in the backlog that I've always wanted to try. But maybe I wouldn't even want to once I did have the time. Who knows. Whatever the case, games will always hold a very dear and nostalgic place in my heart.


You are getting bored of it because you have woken up from your dream. Reality has struck that life isn't a bed of roses and things are just about to get a whole lot worse...


----------



## The Master Chief

hout17 said:


> Ill be 37 this year. I have definitely toned it down on the games but I still manage to get on some sort of a battlefield game Whether it be bf2 yes you can still play bf2 online or any of the other bf games. Having a hard time getting in to pubg though. And skyrim is still awesome!
> 
> I've always loved computers from dosshell, Windows 3.1 to now and seeing how the internet and tech has evolved has been amazing.
> 
> I have a lot of hobbies and maybe game an hour a week if that. To give you an example I demoed my bathroom and redid the whole the thing for my wife last week. I love spending time with my family too and time management has been key for me. I don't think ill ever grow out of it and yes I have a full time job.
> 
> Keep doing whatever makes you happy. I don't think growing out of it is a thing I think people get tired of doing a particular thing and move on and that's ok.



I agree quite a bit with you. I try to balance everything out. I find myself playing a game once in awhile if I have time. I'm 26 now, joined the Army, got out, became a commercial pilot, rebuilt a PC and now kinda am bored with most video games. I for whatever reason missed out on the whole Bioshock craze when it came out for some reason, so Im slowly playing that right now, very slowly. Just not into it anymore.


----------



## Penicilyn

I still play games, just a lot less than I used to. So it takes months to finish a game? Who cares, it's not going anywhere.


----------



## hokk

I do feel you, 28 this year and time does fly i've lost so much interest in pc gaming and overclocking or really doing anything a part from the odd new build.

i just don't feel the excitement anymore about new parts or new games, it is pretty depressing in a way even one of my favorite mmos i've been playing for 7 years i've just lost passion for it completely, id be pretty content in just buying a ps4 and be done with it my partner kinda feels the same she just plays a small amount RTS games.

So what we have been doing is playing "real" games like scrabble,monopoly ect with a glass of wine or two.

I do feel i just want different things in my life its not just my taste for gaming that has changed but my goals in life and they certainly don't include time for gaming or even sitting on the pc as made my money with bitcoin and cashed out i've left that time behind me now, while i see it was fun the feeling has faded.


----------



## Unknownm

Lemondrips said:


> Granted I am only 26, but definitely know what your talking about. I think the biggest downfall is nothing excites me like vanilla WoW/BC era, Guild Wars 1, Warcraft 3, and CS:Source. Most of those games are 10+ years old or aren't the same anymore. Most games you pick up now are watered down I feel or just not as good as they used to be.


27 here, yes 100% agree with OP and quote. I find myself playing the older games from 2000s (2004-2008) that required beefy hardware at that time [x1950xtx, 7900 gtx] while I had radeon 9600xt or 6600GT that could just push enough frame rates. [Doom 3, quake 4, Prey 2006, FEAR etc]

Now with my 980 Ti all these games run smooth with 4K or 1080p


----------



## Photograph

Life changes and you have to change with it or you get left alone and stuck living in the past. I'm 40, married with two young kids and don't game anywhere near as much as I used to and that's more than okay with me. Like a lot of others have posted, I play a lot of older titles that are familiar to me and they have long since been paid for which keeps my spouse happy. I have been doing a lot of collecting of retro console titles for the last few years and it is fun to go hunting for cool additions to the collection with my kids. The game I play the most by far is Zwift on my stationary bike, it keeps me in shape between bike racing seasons and satiates my love for racing games.

Really gaming has become about spending time bonding with my kids and outside of that it is used for simply relaxing on my own after a crazy day of being a real adult. Not having to be on the cutting edge with the latest systems and titles has many advantages such as being affordable, all bugs and patches are already finished and you avoid hype and marketing all together. 

Being a grownup gamer is fine by me.


----------



## xenophobe

I go through phases with all my hobbies. I don't game as much as I used to, but that's mostly because I'm jaded and cheap and won't preorder a new game, I'll wait for it to go on sale and there isn't a whole lot out that is really captivating for me. I could not load a game for 6 months, but if something comes out, I can spend my time with it. 

Dying Light, GTAV or Mad Max are the last games I spent more than 80 hours in. I haven't finished many games lately, probably Return of Tomb Raider and Doom are the two last I completed. I've got a bunch of games I haven't started or finished, but not a whole lot of motivation. 

I used to be in the closed Apogee 3D Realms beta test group for several years between Halloween Harry through Duke 3D, and played pretty much non-stop in those days, hundreds of hours on each of their titles. I probably have thousands of hours into PWI when it came out, UT2k4 and the original Quake were the 3 games I played the most. I can't sit there and play like that anymore though.

That immense AWE from launching the original Doom, Quake Half-Life, FEAR, etc... Or like the 3dfx enhanced Mechwarrior 2 just doesn't happen much anymore. Crysis 3 gave me that, so did Dying Light, but that's the exception....


----------



## Stiltz85

Starting to make me nostalgic. Reminds me of my first real gaming computer, Pentium III with a 3dfx Voodoo 3. I remember how excited I was to come home from school to play games like Doom, Duke Nukem, Unreal, Quake, C&C.. well pretty much any RTS. Oh man an a few years later when Vietcong came out! Man, I was really excited to game back then.. 
Now it seems I just build computers as a project and hardly game anymore. Been thinking recently about looking into the next big MMO and getting in on it early enough to not get _left behind_. So many knockoff MMO's out there I really don't know if there will ever be "the next big MMO" though..


----------



## ZakuII

While I do feel what you're currently feeling (Reeling back and forth in playing a game or not), I do not, however, feel that my age has something to do with me wanting to game or not.

In all honesty, it's just a phase of being burned out on something that you've been doing for a long time now. Being burned out may take YEARS. Your passion or "want" to play a game may come back, it may not. But the thing is, it's a normal phase of a person's life. 

As an example, I have a friend who is already in his mid 30's (I think), he has 3 kids, and sure enough got bills to pay. But you know, when a new game releases that he really likes, he plays the crap-ton out of it, to the point that he platinum's (PS4 Trophy system) the whole game. He has a stable job, and again, 3 kids. Kids that are still too young (around 1 year to 8 years old).

Another example, would be me. A 28 year old guy, who has a stable job but has no wife and kids. I don't play that much anymore even if I wanted to due to time constraints and me having a job, but when I have the time (thank God for all that consecutive holidays in my country), I play games like there's no tomorrow (like booting up a game from 8am until 3am the next day LOL). But when it's just the regular days, I can't even play for 3-4 hrs straight. I'll boot up a game for, let's say about 1 hr and 30 minutes, then I just watch vids on YT or do other stuff.

What I'm trying to point out here is, it's a normal phase of a person's life regardless of what situation in life they are in. You need not feel sad about it. It just so happens that maybe, you're not into that thing anymore. So you don't feel like doing it any longer. And that's fine. And once you get the feeling back again, at least you can jump right to it any time you want. 

Relax, man. Everyone has that phase. Good thing about it is that you don't need to force yourself to do it. You can do whatever you want regarding that issue, and nobody will even judge you


----------



## xxpenguinxx

I can't tell if I'm getting more mature with age or if the average gamer is less mature. I'm not even 30 yet. Often I run into players my own age and they're intentionally obnoxious over VOIP, and it seems their only intentions is to annoy everyone around them. I don't remember this being as much of a problem 10 years ago. 

As far as playing goes, I don't enjoy it like I used to. I work full time now so I have less time to play. I often feel like I'm forcing myself to play rather than enjoying it. I still have 6+ hours a day, but it just doesn't feel the same. I used to play shorter single player games strait through when I was little. I'd fake sleeping weekday mornings in the summer and hop right back onto the computer when my parents left for work. I mainly played shooters, racing, and other fast action games. I didn't get into RPGs. They have way too much grind with no payoff.

I really want to get back into Minecraft. I keep looking around for servers, but all the decent ones end up shutting down early or get overtaken by weird moderators. I just like to occasionally sign in and build small stuff to show off. I've started plenty of my own, but most people end up quitting within a week.


----------



## b.walker36

I'm just finding that I lose interest or get distracted to easily now. Like AC: Origins. I liked the game but stoped like 50% through it cause I spend so much time running around doing random world stuff then i get a little burnt. I find more linear games to better forme now that I'm older. But then it may also be that I have a kid now too lol.


----------



## NightAntilli

Interesting subject...

I myself have experienced what I would call for lack of a better term 'gaming fatigue'. I'm currently 30, and I don't play games like I used to. In my teens I had the time and will to play almost everything that came out. Shooters were always popular, but in the early 2000s they became REALLY popular. When Halo came out, console shooters boomed, and inevitably more also came out on the PC. There was barely anything I didn't touch at that time. MMOs, racers, shooters, hack & slash, adventure, fighters... But shooters were the most popular, and it's what I played the most. The only genre that I didn't really touch that much was RPGs. 

But there came a point where I played so many shooters, that I grew tired of them. It's not that I dislike shooters. But I've grown so tired of them, that despite how great Overwatch and PUBG are supposed to be, I didn't even bother trying them. My previous experience of new shooters were simply more of the same, a few differences here and there, but nothing substantial. So... That's when I made the jump to Mass Effect at the time. It was a shooter still, but different enough due to the story and RPG mechanics, so, I decided to try it, and man I fell in love with it. I shifted to wanting to try many RPGs. It started with BioWare's own games, and, even though the likes of Jade Empire were great, the similarities were clearly apparent. Story structure, the characters... I was even waiting for the obvious plot twist... And that's where this genre also started to feel too familiar... It didn't feel like it was progressing that much. 

So, I jumped to Elder Scrolls. I couldn't get into it really. It felt like an FPS without guns and without the immersive story of other RPGs. Played them for a while, but moved on simply because they are too much of a time waster. Mirror's Edge came out, and I became a shameless fanboy of that game, simply because it was a breath of fresh air in gaming. There was literally nothing like it. But it was short and had to go on to something else, so I moved on to focus more on fighting games. This never really dwindled as I still play them. For Honor also came out 'recently', which is a breath of fresh air in the fighting genre, since once again, it does things so differently. 

In any case, during my fighting game period I started to miss the stories in games, which is when I turned to Telltale stuff, and then Life Is Strange. Great games. That is practically where I still am now. I love fighting games, first and foremost. And I still love stories in games. But due to time constraints I really can't put as much effort in games as I used to. That either means I will only lose online, which is not fun, or I'll never finish 40+ hour RPGs. Episodic games are really great for me. Or games where you can have short sessions, like fighting and racing games, although I barely play racers anymore since there really aren't any that interest me enough. Back in the day, Need for Speed Underground was a great thing. You could for the first time change your car rather than simply using more expensive exotics as you progress. It was innovative. Today, what is there...? 

And this is where I go back to why I called it gaming fatigue... It's simple really. Games themselves have become less interesting to me. There are a few notable exceptions that I mentioned previously, and things like Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice are awesome. I really do hope gaming comes with more interesting games... But right now, most of gaming feels like the same with simply nicer graphics. 

Let me try and put it in a different perspective. When I finished Mass Effect for the first time, I wished I could erase all my memory of it and play it again, to experience it once more without knowing anything about it. That is of course not possible. I will never again get the same experience as the first time that I played it... So the memory of the first experience will always be better than whenever I play it again. And the more often I play it, the less it becomes like the initial impact.
And for gaming in general, it's really the same thing... Innovation has stagnated quite a bit, and we are playing the same concepts over and over. After a while, you start recognizing things everywhere, and the surprise factor is gone. And when you start to get the feeling that there aren't many new things under the sun, your interest dwindles, and you either shift to another genre within gaming itself, or to a completely new hobby... Doesn't really have to do with becoming too old. It simply has to do with wanting new experiences. The same thing happened to me with movies by the way. I watched so many Horror movies that I'm completely bored by them now. That doesn't mean I'm getting too old for Horror movies.

The whole 'too old' thing has a hidden premise that comes from the stigma that games are for children or teenagers. But that's not it.


----------



## Cloudforever

Lemondrips said:


> Granted I am only 26, but definitely know what your talking about. I think the biggest downfall is nothing excites me like vanilla WoW/BC era, Guild Wars 1, Warcraft 3, and CS:Source. Most of those games are 10+ years old or aren't the same anymore. Most games you pick up now are watered down I feel or just not as good as they used to be.



cant agree more!

it sucks lol, i want a badass RTS game to play like warcraft 2/3 and SC2 came out and really hated playing it. I havent played it since the release. SC1 on the other hand, crush some peeps lol


----------



## IMI4tth3w

Dang, i'm right there with you on this.

Most of my changes have happened in the last year. Got married (April 2017), graduated college (May 2017), got my first big boy job (September 2017), and had our first baby (Jan 2018). 

My wife and I still play some games from time to time, but free time is definitely a thing of the past now with the little one. The most gaming I've done lately is Overwatch with the wife on the rare occasion the baby is at the in-laws. I've also had a new found love for the nintendo 3ds as handheld gaming is the easiest thing for me right now. Just finished a play through of zelda: a link between worlds, which is a truly excellent game. I'm now onto Ocarina of Time 3DS.


----------



## Murlocke

I stopped hardcore gaming in my mid 20s. I am now 31 and still buy games but rarely beat them. It's annoying, they look fun but then when I actually play them I am always bored. I look at them as a job, where I must complete all these tasks to achieve 100%. 

There's a few games that still hold my interest. I always go back to Factorio, Stardew Valley, and Terraria. 500-1000 hours in each. I also put something like 200 hours into Breath of the Wild on Cemu emulator. Outside of that, gaming just isn't fun anymore. 

To be honest though, I don't really find anything fun anymore so it might just be me. I fully blame WoW for this. I played it hardcore for about 3 years, then on and off since. It killed all other interests in my life and I never got them back - even though I haven't touched the game in over a year.


----------



## NightAntilli

IMI4tth3w said:


> Dang, i'm right there with you on this.
> 
> Most of my changes have happened in the last year. Got married (April 2017), graduated college (May 2017), got my first big boy job (September 2017), and had our first baby (Jan 2018).
> 
> My wife and I still play some games from time to time, but free time is definitely a thing of the past now with the little one. The most gaming I've done lately is Overwatch with the wife on the rare occasion the baby is at the in-laws. I've also had a new found love for the nintendo 3ds as handheld gaming is the easiest thing for me right now. Just finished a play through of zelda: a link between worlds, which is a truly excellent game. I'm now onto Ocarina of Time 3DS.


Indeed. Handhelds become surprisingly handy in these situations. We also had our first baby in October of last year. Pokemon is quite handy to play now xD And reading books is a lot easier than playing games, due to the simple fact that you can take it anywhere stop at any time without issues. When you have a child, the more little things that you can shave off from your schedule the better.


----------



## microchidism

Some may call it Nostalgia but I think that back in the day things were a big better in terms of gaming and other hobbies/ activities.

I feel its because around the coming of the digital/ internet age no one knew what worked so there was a lot more creativity and risks. Now things are a bit more streamlined and the Indie games are the ones worth playing. The only prob is I don't feel like playing a game in 2018 on my rig that looks like it came out in 2003 or so.

I think in the future ill probably grab a console and play one or two story driven games a year.


----------



## TheCautiousOne

Ill be 30 this year (July) and I still play quite a bit. Mostly on Sat night and all day sunday. I am off tues so i play then also. I would and have played more, but now that I live with a woman (4 years now) she wasn't digging that too much. I had to back off. 

With the work schedule (Getting off at around 7pm every night, I really just watch shows with her in the week, then try to get away with it on the weekends. I used to focus on multiplayer games, but realized I just couldn't keep up due to the lack of time invested. 

So now I have been sticking to single player games that I can pick up and put down without having to worry if the guys are lightyears ahead of me because they had an extra day off or what not. 

For instance, played a ton of Monster Hunter when It came out, but it worked out that my boys dropped back a tad to keep me in the loop. After that wore off and we needed DLC to keep going in MH, I was like you know what I want to Play FF X Remaster. BOOM. Beat that while they hopped over to FF XIV Online (Which I refused because I don't have the time) and then once I beat FF X, I was like Ill grab FF XII On sale (Remaster) and am now almost finished with that. I am contemplating getting Ghost Recon, but am not sure if that is truly the route I would like to go. It's a shame that shooters don't keep my attention longer, but they are just not as fun as a good Rpg that you can invest some good time in. 

TCO


----------



## Falkentyne

Problem isn't age at all
The problem is:

1) parents dont raise their kids properly these days or teach them manners or how to respect others or even themselves, unless those kids happen to "Like" other people or "need" them for some reason. This persists through college and university age and only "real life" pressure keeps them in check.

2) kids and younger adults hate everoyne, including themselves, unless they have something to gain from someone else. All they do is insult people, flame and harass everyone. It's always someone else's fault when they lose at a team based game. And that's why they never get good. And the ones who "do" manage to get good are complete airheads who hate everyone around them and the ONLY time they start acting nice is when money is involved, e.g. when they start streaming, since then money starts making them act nice to others so they can get that sponsorship and subs. This doesn't reply to everyone but it applies to a LOT of people.
This causes a lot of hate and anger and flaming in online games and they rarely seek to make friends or associate with anyone who isn't extremely good at the game. And if they do, it's because of hero worship and because they want to get carried to a higher rank in games which support this.

3) the ones who are not are usually white knights, "holier than thou" players who dislike everyone who doesn't have their "positive" attitude, even though they won't say anything, and will still silently delete/remove anyone who isn't as good as them in games they play, except they won't argue or rage about it.

4) And as far as game and companies are concerned, everyone else nailed it. Loot boxes, pay to win, dumbing down and lowest common denominator syndrome. But this trend actually started in the late 90's.


----------



## stangflyer

I will be 54 this year. Started pc gaming in 1996. So I was already 32 when I started pc gaming. I got a PS1 in 1995 and started on that. I sit at a pc all day at work and most days cannot stand looking at a pc when home. I live in North Dakota so the winter here is 6 months long. (20 degrees and snow yesterday). I game maybe 2-3 hrs a week now. When BF1 and 2 were out I played a ton. Also, a flight simulator; European Air War hooked me hard for a solid 2 years. IL2 also. 

I finished Doom 2016 and single player Titanfall 2 this year. The last game before that I finished was Crysis 1-3 and the 1st Far Cry. 
I have around 75 hours in PubG but the game is not really for me. My winter hobby is starting to change to home theater. Have an nice 7.2.4 setup. In the summer I ride motorcycle. Try to avoid being inside as our summer is so short. May 20 or so to Mid September. 4 months of nice weather, 1 month spring and 1 month fall.


----------



## Dotachin

I'm 27 and I can't bring myself to start playing new games anymore, I try them a little and just leave them there. It's not like I have a lot of things to do either, I took special care to get myself as much free time as possible (as long as it's sustainable in the long term, job etc).

I thought I was losing the spark as well, but then The Witcher 3 came out and I found myself staying awake till morning again! just like the Diablo 2 days. 
Granted it only lasted a couple weeks this time. But now I know that if a really good game is released, I'll really enjoy it. So I backed Star Citizen lol. 

Just remember that if a game releases a new revision every 1-2 years, it isn't really a AAA game.


----------



## Unknownm

Dotachin said:


> I'm 27 and I can't bring myself to start playing new games anymore, I try them a little and just leave them there. It's not like I have a lot of things to do either, I took special care to get myself as much free time as possible (as long as it's sustainable in the long term, job etc).
> 
> I thought I was losing the spark as well, but then The Witcher 3 came out and I found myself staying awake till morning again! just like the Diablo 2 days.
> Granted it only lasted a couple weeks this time. But now I know that if a really good game is released, I'll really enjoy it. So I backed Star Citizen lol.
> 
> Just remember that if a game releases a new revision every 1-2 years, it isn't really a AAA game.


Same age and same feeling!!

My spark was gt6 online but sony decided to shut-it-down March 28th. Figures I own 4690k 980ti over 100 games in steam (10 uplay, 20 origin) yet I always revert to console and gran tursimo series this could be because in the past before getting into computers my parents bought me a ps1 (with rca Jacks in the back) in '98. A demo disk contained gt1 and it was amazing! 

Now it's hard to keep myself going to complete a game. The next day I forgot where it left off. Seems like online gameplay is my spark for now...



Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk


----------



## Prophet4NO1

I'm 35 and really do not play the major titles anymore. Gone are the days of kicking noobs in Battlefield or whatever other shooters I played at the time. Now I play things I can play for an hour or two to relax at night and then go to bead. Farming Simulator 17, Euro/American Truck Simulator (and I drive real trucks for work lol), and other similar games. Once in a while I drag out more mainstream titles for a bit but avoid online play. Can not stand the types of people you find anymore. The only real exception is World of Warships. That's the only competitive game I play any more. 

Outside of that, I am tinkering in the garage or on the house in some way. Or doing things with the family. I still enjoy my games. Just in a very different way than I use to. On the plus side, it makes my old 4930k and SLI Titan X rig still seems like overkill. lol


----------



## Mrip541

I still have the time but when I sit down with a new game I'm bored within an hour. Every new game feels like 10 others, but with slightly different graphics.


----------



## white owl

Mrip541 said:


> I still have the time but when I sit down with a new game I'm bored within an hour. Every new game feels like 10 others, but with slightly different graphics.


This happens when people whine about graphics....then we have a beautiful game but oops, we forgot to write a story!


----------



## MishelLngelo

I'm 70 and still like playing games. Flight and ship sims but also MOHA and CoD series. WoW and WoT are only online ones. When grand kids come we go crazy with racing games and although I used to drive rally and motorcycle races when younger, they beat the heck out of me, even 5 year old.


----------



## white owl

You're way cooler than my grand parents...or even just my parents lol. My dad got his first smart phone in 2015 haha.


----------



## megamatt

This is an interesting thread, although I'm 28 I understand how the OP and others are feeling. I've recently gone back to playing on the original Xbox (motogp1/2, PGR2/3, Halo series..among other greats) and it gives me a strange feeling almost which i can only assume is nostalgia. I know it's not THAT old but I get it when i play CS 1.6, PS1, Dreamcast and N64 and I was young when i played them.

I think the problem for me isn't 'maturing'. I've had the same partner for 11 years, we have a house and I enjoy my job but we have never had any interest in kids. I personally feel the games are watered down or maybe I just feel everything has been done before. I have the recent games such as FarCry5, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, PUBG but I still find myself going back to play the older stuff. I haven't enjoyed a decent racing game in years... I got Forza Horizon 3 and Motorsport 7.. what a let down they were and I'd played a few hours and it'd end up been an effort to even load them up with the bugs and shocking performance.

I used to be predominantly a console player up until the end of Xbox 360/PS3 to which I have been only PC gamer. I have no intention of getting a new console. (yes I've played on them)

It can't be that I'm bored because I still get the urges to play.. which is why i'm blaming the quality of games these days and after writing all that I'm also struggling to find what my point is.. but something isn't the same.


----------



## haavard

I can totally relate to what many people are sharing in this thread. I'm pushing 38 and I've been playing video games since I was 9 years old. I strongly identify with games, PC's, tech etc, it's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It has played a part in many of my key decisions in life such as eductaion and career choices. 

Now I'm married, have two kids, a house and a job which I love yet I still find time to play games at least a few hours every week. For me, it all comes down to priorities and logistics. I don't watch TV or a lot of series, I play games in stead. I don't do chores our housework after the kids go to bed, I play games in stead. Not that I don't do any work around the house, but I do these things while the kids are still up or on weekends. Kids need to see that stuff doesn't just magically fix or cleans itself while they are sleeping, it takes work and effort. Afternoons, weekends and a few evenings every week is family/spouse time, running a family obviously demands you put the time into it  I also find the time every now and then to grab a beer with some friends. Since I'm not on Facebook, I have no clue what's going on in their life from one meetup to the next which means we always have something interesting to talk about!

Having said that, the type of games I play has changed since I can no longer devote hours upon hours to uninterrupted gaming goodness. 50h+ RPGs are not an option any more. This bothers me since some of my favorite games belong in this genre (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Witcher 3, Divinity:Original Sin), but once you make the decision to not play these types of games it frees up precious hours for other games which can be enjoyed in smaller chunks. Contrary to some people in this thread, online shooters (tactical or not) still bring me great enjoyment. Luckily for me, I have a younger brother who also plays a lot of games and I've managed to elbow my way into his group of online friends. We've put a few 100 hours into BF1 and currently we are playing Squad and it's just the best time I've had in years.

In my opinion, having a family, a job and being a grown up (whatever that means these days) doesn't change who you are or what you enjoy. I refuse to completely let go of something which defines me so strongly. Hobbies are important. It's something which brings you purpose and enjoyment.


----------



## pony-tail

MishelLngelo said:


> I'm 70 and still like playing games. Flight and ship sims but also MOHA and CoD series. WoW and WoT are only online ones. When grand kids come we go crazy with racing games and although I used to drive rally and motorcycle races when younger, they beat the heck out of me, even 5 year old.


So there is someone older than me on here I am only a bit over 60 .


----------



## bking4266

While I don't feel I'm too old for games, I definitely feel more nostalgic for the games of my childhood. I love RPGs and my first one was Final Fantasy II on the SNES (which we all know is actually Final Fantasy IV). I have most of the Final Fantasy ports available for PC including FFXV, but none of them do it for me like FFIV. Although, much of the SNES version and the PC version is quite different. I would've LOVED to have gotten a direct port of the original version without the "updated" graphics and text.


----------



## termathor

Nice thread, indeed 

Dangerously approaching 50 myself, daughter now has a car and is often out at University, so I have time.

Too old for gaming ? No, not at all, and I do enjoy the remake of games from the past (Doom 2016, turn based games etc ...), but yes from time to time, I tend to find myself lowering difficulty which I would consider obscene before


----------



## KY_BULLET

I'll be 43 in July and cant get enough of PUBG lol! I can't wait to get home and get logged in. 

So for me, I'm still 100% in to it and hope that day never comes that I lose interest.


----------



## boredgunner

I've only gotten too old for poorly made games with no passion.


----------



## Unknownm

here's a question for all of you,

What does your partner think about you guys playing games more than the average person. I ask this because i'm 27 and I still play GT on my ps4 + steam games. I'm trying to get my girl into more video games while right now she plays sims 3 on her laptop (that I upgraded) and splatoon for Wii U (strange game for sure)


----------



## steelbom

I'm 27 and enjoy gaming still. However, I do relate to a feeling mentioned in this thread, that is being unable to find a game which is as fun as something I've played in the past.

When I was 8 I played runescape a ton, and remember it being an insanely fun game and part of my life, and during my teen years I was never able to find a game that interested me as much. Even runescape itself was now boring now that I was older.

Whilst I have many favourite games I've played over the years, I don't really invest much time in solo gaming these days. I only play multiplayer games with friends - Fortnite, League of Legends, DotA, etc., I enjoy the games but it's more about the people I'm playing with than the games themselves. However, I do hope that my future wife / children will enjoy some sort of gaming - no matter what it is, as I do enjoy it and would like to be able to do it with them as well.


----------



## SamuelL421

I love games, and they still hold a place in my heart, but I agree with most everyone here that something is different in the industry now vs 10, 15, or even 20 years ago...



Mrip541 said:


> I still have the time but when I sit down with a new game I'm bored within an hour. Every new game feels like 10 others, but with slightly different graphics.


I have to second this thought, I still get enticed to buy games on steam, sometimes out of excitement (or because of the hype) and sometimes just to support an indie developer producing something fresh. But overall, I find myself going back to older games most of time - the newer stuff, with a few exceptions, bores me in a few hours or disappoints for myriad reason (see every multiplayer game from the past 5 years...)

I really hope for a multiplayer game that "gets it right" again in my mind but the loot box / pay-to-win / streaming culture has overridden everything. I don't know that we will ever see another multiplayer game like Battlefield 1942, the original COD, or Tribes to name a few. For that matter, I would be happy with a new Battlefield bad company, but I'm certain that would also be ruined with the same trash DLC and loot box policies of the other recent EA shooters. I tried very hard to enjoy BF1, bugs and all, for the first 4-5 months. But I realized early last year, as DLC content and weapon skins continued to churn out, that EA cared little about lingering bugs/crashes or rampant cheating in public servers. My rambling point here is that I don't think we will ever have another big budget multiplayer game that cares about gameplay or fun, it is all about the extracting the maximum profit from players.

*sigh* I'm just fortunate my wife puts up with my occasional gaming, but I really wish I had more to look forward too when it comes to new releases. As it is, most of my gaming purchases are titles that GOG / steam resurrect from a decade ago or more.


----------



## zila

I will be 60 in July. I love playing games on my PC. Dirt Rally, Dirt 3, Tomb Raider, Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Thief, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Doom 2016, Doom 3, Metro 2033, World Of Warships.............Am I too old for it? Hell no!! It keeps you sharp, makes you have to think. I love it. The only way you will get my game pad from me is from my dead cold hands. Enjoy your life in any and every way you can. If gaming does it for you it's great. Whatever rocks your boat.


----------



## taowulf

I want to be her when I grow up. (I'm 43)


----------



## Streetdragon

Im 26 and also a bit junger. And the new games cant hold me longer too.
Software engineer here. No girlfriend or something. Only waifu but that wont count.

I really like shooter with ood story and ambient. But in the last years nothing came out that i played over and over in my free time.
Mosty i shuffle through my "old" games
Freelancer
Metro
Bioshock
And even Bioshock Infinit was not so great for me

I played for years "Cabal" till out of nowwhere i got bored too. Maybe its because i sit at work in front of a PC all the time..
The only game im looking for so far is Metro Exodus because i love th flair, the books, just everything!

Now i mostly listen to musik and i went from Hardstyle to "electro swing" or clean Jazz.
Look for my Koi pond and try to tame my Hamster ^^

I would say its less "getting old" more "mature". 
With my old friends its the same. They still wanna go out every weekend, where i just wanna rest a bit or go in a pub for a nice drink and a chat
Time runs by and i get slower. I like it


----------



## evensen007

Tested the waters this weekend and reinstalled Dragon Age:Origins Ultimate. I never played any of the extra content, so I'm looking forward to the added game-play. I also downloaded a few mods that bring the older design up to speed a bit. I tried an origin story I never played before (City Elf) and I really liked it. Only had a couple of hours to play, but I really liked getting back into it. Maybe it's not necessarily about age; it's more about just wanting to make the time to do it. I do enjoy reading everyone's experiences of gaming/not gaming/gaming again. I also agree that a lot of the newer titles just don't have any depth to warrant spending the hours in them. Lots of collecting 'items', killing the same thing over and over etc...


----------



## NexusRed

Pretty much just echoing most. I absolutely love to game. Don't have the time to do so as much as I could. 31, two kids (11yrs and 10 months). I can get in about an hour a day in the weekdays and 3-4 over each singular weekend day (1hr mon to fri, 3-4 sat, and 3-4 sun). I don't actually spend those times but that's my Window. I think our needs change as we grow older. Spending a complete work day gaming is not on the books anymore. I'm more into fitness (workout 3-4 times a week), dieting, buying a street bike (CBR 250r), getting into car tuning (seeing what the prices are for a RHD 2010 Subaru Legacy).

Have a friend who's the same age and gaming still defines him. The usual kids, house, cars, etc but still want to game every waking moment. I just don't have the time as we used too and I would rather spend 3-4 hours with my family, getting fit, riding, tuning, etc.


----------



## stangflyer

I feel like I put together my last gaming rig. Sold the Z77 mobo, 3570, Haf 932, 16 gigs DDR3, cpu cooler. Now I have a delidded 8700k with a Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4, 16 gigs pc 3600 ram, Asrock Taichi mobo, 1080ti, Corsair 600C case. 

I have a feeling that it will be my last cpu for a gaming pc. Turn 54 in a month but I sit in front of a pc 45 hrs a week for work. 

I can tell you the 8700k at 4.7 makes a huge difference in PubG coming from my 3570 at 4.2. Not so much in max frames but more in minimum and smoothness.

I still die all the time though!


----------



## termathor

SamuelL421 said:


> I really hope for a multiplayer game that "gets it right" again in my mind but the loot box / pay-to-win / streaming culture has overridden everything. I don't know that we will ever see another multiplayer game like Battlefield 1942, the original COD, or Tribes to name a few.


I agree some toxic gaming industry practices are spoiling it ... I think loot boxes will disappear, and I sure as hell won't miss them !

As for multiplayer, try Borderlands 2, mate, I found it to be really cool, even with anon people ...


----------



## f00b4h

Too old ?? Not on your nelly. 47yrs and currently #3rd world on PC platform Battlefield 1 SMLE LOA.


----------



## evensen007

stangflyer said:


> I feel like I put together my last gaming rig. Sold the Z77 mobo, 3570, Haf 932, 16 gigs DDR3, cpu cooler. Now I have a delidded 8700k with a Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4, 16 gigs pc 3600 ram, Asrock Taichi mobo, 1080ti, Corsair 600C case.
> 
> I have a feeling that it will be my last cpu for a gaming pc. Turn 54 in a month but I sit in front of a pc 45 hrs a week for work.
> 
> I can tell you the 8700k at 4.7 makes a huge difference in PubG coming from my 3570 at 4.2. Not so much in max frames but more in minimum and smoothness.
> 
> I still die all the time though!


I almost feel this way as well. I'm 38, and wonder if this latest upgrade I just bought will be my very last. Hell, I didn't even really NEED to upgrade; it was almost a primal urge to do it after riding my Sandy Bridge for 7 years. With a 1080ti, even a 7 year old i7 CPU still did just fine at 3440x1440 res. I do enjoy the upgrade process in general though, and I guess that's all that really matters. I'm really psyched that the new Battlefield appears to be goin back to WWII, which is where it all started for me with BF. It will be a strange sense of nostalgia and excitement as it's been 16 years since I stepped foot into BF1942.


----------



## Eusbwoa18

*Things change*

I'm in my 50's now and I have been playing computer games for a long time. I still do. 

I think there are a couple of things at "play" here for any of us that have been playing games for any significant part of our life. At one point in your gamer experience everything was new and different. I remember playing Zork and thinking it was cool. I also remember Wolfenstein, Ultima Online, and Everquest. They were the best thing I had ever played until they weren't. At this point I'm much more critical of what I play and my expectations are higher because I have seen so much and played so many games.

Second, I think the gaming industry as a whole has changed. Because expectations are so high, and attention spans are so low the gaming industry has changed their focus. Like any corporate entity, game publishers are under constant pressure to increase revenue and decrease cost. I think the days of games like Wolfenstein/UO/EQ/Doom/Quake.... games that established a genre or broke new ground are gone for now. There are some new ideas like Hunt Showdown that are a different look at an established genre but I don't see much these days that gets my blood pumping. 

I think we're going to have to wait for some significant jump in technology like some total VR ala "SAO" or "Star Trek" holodeck to really recapture that feeling of wonder and excitement that drew us to gaming in the first place. I just hope I see it in my lifetime.

Until then, it will be finding iterations of existing genres that catch your interest or keep you amused for a while.

Thoughts?


----------



## withnothing

There is no such thing as too old for games. In my opinion, this is blaming the age, not what we do with our own lives.

I'm young, and sometimes I feel like I'm killing time and doing nothing constructive.
When I was a kid, I could play for days. Now after a few hours I have enough and I do not feel satiety.

Only when I started to work more harder, go out to people, eat healthily, exercise and do anything else - then I regained my satisfaction from playing games


----------



## white owl

I thought I might be growing out of gaming but I was wrong, games are getting much worse. I'm not paying $60 for 8 to 20 hours of poor content which panders to the average gamer (a child).
I like a game to challenge me in some way, to make me feel like a pro for completing a task. Anymore the only way to get this is by playing online which is what I do. DOOM is great, Dark Souls was too but I haven't played 3 because I don't have the time to invest in it. The new Quake is lots of fun, plus my main squeeze which is Fortnite and Ironsight (both FTP). I miss RPGs and campaigns though, maybe I'll find one someday.


----------



## profundido

evensen007 said:


> I've been thinking about this on and off for the last 5-8 years. I'm 38 years old now and have this strange feeling in my gut every time I visit this site or see an old email or post about a video game I used to play. It's an uncomfortable combination of nostalgia, sadness, and shock at how fast years seem to fly by. On that last point, I always have this sinking feeling when I get reminded of a game I used to play (Dragon Age: Origins and Baldur's Gate were recent ones) and then realize how long ago it was that I played and enjoyed those games. This might be something that only the older people on here may relate to, but it's something that happens to me often and tugs at my heart in a strange way. In some sense, I believe that those games are time markers that relate to a part of my life (I was only 20 years old when Baldur's gate came out!?), but they also make me yearn for a time in my life when I actually had the TIME to play video games for more than an hour every month or two. I imagine those of you with kids feel this sensation even harder than I do. I've been working on my life these past 8 years (which I have not regret about) and have dabbled back into games on and off during that time. I can't IMAGINE though sitting down to a game like Baldur's Gate again and actually being able to get through it and enjoy it. That makes me sad. I don't even really have any friends that play games or especially know games that I used to play back in the day that still give me such great memories. I had some friends back in my old state and job that used to get together for some Battlefield 4 and then most recently BF1. BF1 lasted about 3-4 months for us and then it waned.
> 
> I don't even really know what I'm trying to say with this post or if it even belongs in this sub-forum. Maybe I think I'm just trying to reach out to fellow former gamers my age that have felt this same uneasy feeling as you've gotten older. Maybe the broader sense and feeling is what most normal people recognize as getting older in general and becoming hyper aware of the shockingly fast passage of time. Sometimes I'll read my old posts from 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago and fondly remember caring about and putting quality time into gaming. Sometimes I'm scared that I really have outgrown games and it would never be the same anyway. There's a guy I talked to about the dream of having 6 months off of life so that I could go back and replay some of my favorite games from the old days, and maybe burn through some games in the backlog that I've always wanted to try. But maybe I wouldn't even want to once I did have the time. Who knows. Whatever the case, games will always hold a very dear and nostalgic place in my heart.



Welcome to the beginning of your midlife crisis ! =P =P


----------



## termathor

white owl said:


> I thought I might be growing out of gaming but I was wrong, games are getting much worse. I'm not paying $60 for 8 to 20 hours of poor content which panders to the average gamer (a child).
> I like a game to challenge me in some way, to make me feel like a pro for completing a task. Anymore the only way to get this is by playing online which is what I do. DOOM is great, Dark Souls was too but I haven't played 3 because I don't have the time to invest in it. The new Quake is lots of fun, plus my main squeeze which is Fortnite and Ironsight (both FTP). I miss RPGs and campaigns though, maybe I'll find one someday.


I'm a bit in the same boat. I don't have enough free time to invest into very time consuming games. I tried Stellaris which is certainly very good but you really need to be unemployed to have that amount of free time !

So I tend to play games I can pause any time for real life. That makes me also stick to one single game for years. Borderlands 2 lasted me, like 3 years and Hitman 2016 has occupied most of 2016 and 2017 ...

I sometimes envy my 2 pals who broke their heel and were immobilized for 2 months at home. I could have done Stellaris  Of course, it's silly


----------



## silverh20

termathor said:


> I'm a bit in the same boat. I don't have enough free time to invest into very time consuming games. I tried Stellaris which is certainly very good but you really need to be unemployed to have that amount of free time !
> 
> So I tend to play games I can pause any time for real life. That makes me also stick to one single game for years. Borderlands 2 lasted me, like 3 years and Hitman 2016 has occupied most of 2016 and 2017 ...
> 
> I sometimes envy my 2 pals who broke their heel and were immobilized for 2 months at home. I could have done Stellaris  Of course, it's silly



"So I tend to play games I can pause any time for real life."


^^THIS. I'm 32 and have a ~3 year old kid and this is what my gaming life is all about (if I'm playing on my own). I used to play PUBG while my kid was snoozing in a carrier strapped to my chest, me looking all zach galifinakis like in Hangover with the baby, and I could pull off Chicken dinners all day. Now if I tried to play PUBG it'd be torture trying to win while a toddler runs around. 

On the other hand, a new joy I found in life is now showing my son the things I like with PCs and gaming. If you ever have that chance it'll help compensate for that strange changing feeling you've had with gaming. Hearing my little guy who only a year ago was wobbling around and crying now yelling things like, "ooh drive the car! playing games!", etc. while correctly holding a controller is just awesome.


----------



## Chargeit

The older I get the less I enjoy games that require a lot of grinding or mastering of systems to enjoy. I tend to play simple games that are easy to jump back into after weeks or months away. I also favor games with strong co-op that you can goof off in such as Gta V or GRW. 

One thing I will say is I recently picked up an Oculus Rift. Was an interesting experience since it's the first time since I was a kid that I felt so excited about trying a new gaming experience. The games themselves work well in short 30 min - 1 hour play sessions and usually don't require a lot of mastery to get the full experience out of. If you're burnt out on normal gaming and have a good system I'd give one of the vr headsets a try.


----------



## white owl

I may indeed. E3 showed some interesting looking robot game...can't remember the name but it looked like it had an actual story behind it. Sadly I barely have room as is though since getting rid if my old TV I could relocate to the living room. Hmmm. Food for thought.


----------



## Murlocke

I started exercising and lifting weights instead. It took a few months but I got addicted to the "high" I feel after these activities. 92 pounds loss over a year, in the best shape of my life, and prefer to go out and meet random new people instead of sitting at home playing games. I can't even stand being indoors anymore. Getting in shape will do wonders both physically AND mentally.

It's an improvement. You are growing up. Embrace it, find new hobbies and meet new people.


----------



## Blackops_2

27 and starting Dental School so i'm sure my playing time goes down a lot but TW3 i played for 3 months every day studying for the DAT, 170+ hours in that game. Now it's PUBG which i've managed over 150hrs this summer after work, lol. Honestly i've not had this much fun with a multiplayer game in some time. I replayed some old ones in the last year. Wolfenstein and Bioshock namely. I also try to stay active, eating right, going to the gym, and shooting competitively when i can.


----------



## termathor

silverh20 said:


> Now if I tried to play PUBG it'd be torture trying to win while a toddler runs around.


Ah ah ! Reminds me of that very Starcraft session some 20 years ago. I was on it, with my 6 months daughter on the bed behind my desk. 
This was when she was investigating creative ways to move (ie, rolling).
I caught her just before she would fell off the bed ...

Memories ...


----------



## xJumper

Man... I can pretty much echo everything in this entire thread, especially the OP. I was wondering where all the OG's went...

You look at some of your old posts here, you think back to those exact moments when you wrote those. One day you're on these forums talking about gaming, gaming out, later that night you're going out partying with your college buds. Now you're on that same forum, looking at that same screen, it could just as easily be that day... but it's not. You're 30, everyone is married, has kids, is fat and bald, everyone didn't turn out to be an astronaut billionaire mogul scientist. It's like damn... What happened?

One thing that's kept me off games is realizing just how little time you have and how fast it goes by. I'm spending it IRL now as much as I can, maximizing that time.


----------



## deafboy

I watch people play games more than I actually play them these days, lol


----------



## AndyG

*50 and still hooked!*

Well I am 50years old, became hooked on games with coin op original Space Invaders in 1979! Moved to Saturn - Xbox - Xbox 360, then (for over 7 years PC gaming)

My answer in that I am still just as interested, but I feel I am not as good at fast games. Still love them and doubt it is something I will "grow out of." Still Lovin it!!


----------



## Sir Beregond

I just don't play much of anything hard core anymore.

Most games I do end up playing now are all games to chill out to.

Otherwise, having a blast going and playing board games and pen and paper RPG's with buddies.


----------



## taem

Faded said:


> not too old for games, but my gaming tastes have certainly changed. I will inherently avoid anything that needs 50-100 hours to really enjoy, i just dont have that kind of time anymore. I like to find things that my wife and daughter enjoy either playing with me, or watching for the story... MMO's and raiding are pretty much out of the question these days as giving up 3+ hours of my evening 2-3 days a week, is absolutely too much with a family



This, I suspect, covers the 2 major hurdles for older gamers. I'm older than OP, and I too hit a point where i wondered if I'm losing interest in gaming, but for me at least, it was less that than the simple reality of getting older. When a game comes along that doesn't trip one of the hurdles, I enjoy gaming as much as I ever did. Wolfenstein New Order, Uncharted, Last of Us, Hellblade. And I just played the MW2 campaign for the first time -- fantastic. Even though I died like 50 times in a row on Loose Ends and almost gave up.

I'll add one thing. I don't like long games anymore, even when not grindy. At my age, with a longer lifetime's worth of ongoing impingements on my time piled up, there are always phases when I go weeks if not months of not gaming at all. I like games to be around 6-10 hours now, with a great story and presentation. Witcher 3 is the exception atm but I probably won't finish it, just like I never finished Pillars of Eternity or Dark Age Inquisition even though I was loving them.

Upshot of it all, perversely, my favorite genres historically are loot grinders and hardcore rpg's. Now I'm at the polar opposite end. Simply due to the passage of time. Weird how that works. I sometimes miss the hell out of on line gaming though; I was deep deep into Dark Age of Camelot back the day. But I can't go a full uninterrupted hour in front of a screen these days so on line gaming is a non starter.


----------



## mouacyk

Murlocke said:


> I started exercising and lifting weights instead. It took a few months but I got addicted to the "high" I feel after these activities. 92 pounds loss over a year, in the best shape of my life, and prefer to go out and meet random new people instead of sitting at home playing games. I can't even stand being indoors anymore. Getting in shape will do wonders both physically AND mentally.
> 
> It's an improvement. You are growing up. Embrace it, find new hobbies and meet new people.


Right? You could experience Farcry 5 rather than merely play it.


----------



## Mars73

Murlocke said:


> I started exercising and lifting weights instead. It took a few months but I got addicted to the "high" I feel after these activities. 92 pounds loss over a year, in the best shape of my life, and prefer to go out and meet random new people instead of sitting at home playing games. I can't even stand being indoors anymore. Getting in shape will do wonders both physically AND mentally.
> 
> It's an improvement. You are growing up. Embrace it, find new hobbies and meet new people.


Same here, I used to game a lot in the 80s on the C64 (yes I'm that old...well 45) and the 90s, but life changes, work, kids and exercising (running and gym) too.
I still do play games once in a while and if there's a game I really like, like Witcher 3, I tend to put more time in it if time allows. But not a whole weekend, thats impossible.
It's some sort of nostalgia feeling where you still want to play a game all day, but when you actually play, it's fine for an hour or so and then do something else. But in the back of your mind you still want to loose yourself in the game.


----------



## s1rrah

I'm 50, man and gaming tech, gaming hardware and games themselves, from the most basic of plaformers all the way to triple AAA cinematic RPG's are still my favorite thing to do with my free time; it's actually why I stay completely unshackled by marriage and "chirren" (my time, my money.) ... all so I can game happily on the weekends. It's also why I stay employed. LOL ... I was this way at 15 and I'll be this way at 80 (only 30 more years! [email protected]).

Have fun. 

Joel


----------



## spinFX

Murlocke said:


> I started exercising and lifting weights instead. It took a few months but I got addicted to the "high" I feel after these activities. 92 pounds loss over a year, in the best shape of my life, and prefer to go out and meet random new people instead of sitting at home playing games. I can't even stand being indoors anymore. Getting in shape will do wonders both physically AND mentally.
> 
> It's an improvement. You are growing up. Embrace it, find new hobbies and meet new people.


Sounds good, but you may still come back. I've been through the outdoorsy phase, the socializing phase, etc, and come back to games. I reckon there's just a limit (different for everyone) to how long you can do something before you want a decent change.


----------



## Jaju123

Murlocke said:


> I started exercising and lifting weights instead. It took a few months but I got addicted to the "high" I feel after these activities. 92 pounds loss over a year, in the best shape of my life, and prefer to go out and meet random new people instead of sitting at home playing games. I can't even stand being indoors anymore. Getting in shape will do wonders both physically AND mentally.
> 
> It's an improvement. You are growing up. Embrace it, find new hobbies and meet new people.


I have done the same, and am currently 24 y/o, and in great physical shape, but have not magically gone from being introverted to enjoying 'going out' or anything like that. I still get incredibly bored going out, meeting new people, and engaging in small talk. However, at the same time I am not able to play games and enjoy it for as long as I used to, either.


----------



## burning_ac1d

Such feeling catches me everytime I trying to play something on PC.. just, after playing 1-2h, I totally lose any interest or fun to the process. This starts to happen with me at 26yo, so now I'm completely switched to mobile gaming, which I can enjoy on the work, or on the way from home to work. As the years pass by, you can start to realize that there are a tons of things in life, which deserve your time, remember that and keep in mind life is shorter than it seems, at least when you was younger.

Cheers


----------



## The Robot

Now it seems that everyone just ran out of ideas, take Mario Odyssey for instance, it looks cool but the gameplay is almost completely rips off Spyro from PS1 and Sonic Adventure. I'm not even talking about Ubisoft or EA, it's just vapid money making games devoid of any soul. I can say the same about Witcher, everyone raved about W3 but for me it's just a pubescent fantasy romp with a naked woman in every cutscene, that said W1 which had truly immersed me in it's world and lore. So after 20 years of gaming I'd say my tastes become very picky, I guess the same happened with OP, we literally "saw it all" and nothing really impresses us. Same can be said about music and movies, "times used to be better when music was music and not computer toilet noise with people who can't sing" or "all movies now are bad remakes and sequels or some pretentious hipster crap". It's easy to virtually don an Edwardian suit with a top hat and pretend you have some fine taste compared to the mindless public, but it doesn't help when 99% of games out there just suck.


----------



## evensen007

I thought I would drop in to OC.net for my yearly visit. Going back to the 'time flies' thing: It's been one and a half years since I posted this. WTH!?

Since the original post I've gone through a phase of hardcore Dark Souls 3 (and then off after a few months), trying the Witcher 3 which I thought I'd love (lasted 1 hour), Battlefield V (lasted about 1 month), and various tinkering on my PC. Strangely, I found that old RTS style games suck me in like crazy - just as they used to. I re-found Majesty 1&2 on my PC and can spend hours on that stupid game. I'm thinking maybe I need to see if some of the old RTS games I used to love have been updated, and if not just buy the old versions. I'm talking games like Age of Empires 2, Civ, Rise of Nations, Stronghold, Homeworld etc. 

Real life has still been the main draw and the mountains never get old. The wandering and discovery it entails replaces that feeling I used to have in games. 

The other thing I'm interested in is re-building my PC for the first time in 8 years. I was super proud of my water-cooling rig I setup in 2012ish, and I've recently gotten very excited about doing a brand new build in a new case with hard tubing. I'm really looking forward to that - the process of designing, building, tinkering, failing, drawing board, rebuilding is such a draw for me. I've already been using new PC parts in my old loop and it runs great; I just want a new project. The 8700k and 2080ti are fantastic and I shouldn't have to upgrade hardware for quite a long time. 

Anyhow, I guess the point is that I still feel the same way as in the original post; it's just that I'm more comfortable with the way things are. Hope everyone is well.


----------



## bucdan

Since my last post, been the same except work has become more important as I moved up in the ranking. Just want to go home, grab a beer and game after work, or even just listen to music and work out. Going out, that time has come and gone from my early 20's (mind you that I'm 27), because going out means spending money... and it usually ends up being a lot. I would much rather host a beer and BBQ session at home with my friends, and maybe upgrade it to a LAN party. But going out, bars, drinking watered down cheap liquor, no thanks. A brewery trip here and there, but nothing crazy. Mix in a couple of outdoor activities like hiking, shooting sports, fishing, grill at the bay/beach, or any other friend/family hosted event, life is good just like that for me.

Find what's comfortable for you, and what brings out the extra goodness in you while you still feel comfortable. Gaming is comfortable, but doing other activities that doesn't involve big crowds of strangers is fun for me as well. Should I ever go out, once in a blue moon, it'll be for an event, and not out of the whim.

Feels like I went off tangent, but I guess what I'm trying to say is I just extended my reach further than just video games. Added more to my activity list with video games still being #1!


----------



## treetops422

evensen007 said:


> I thought I would drop in to OC.net for my yearly visit. Going back to the 'time flies' thing: It's been one and a half years since I posted this. WTH!?
> 
> Since the original post I've gone through a phase of hardcore Dark Souls 3 (and then off after a few months), trying the Witcher 3 which I thought I'd love (lasted 1 hour), Battlefield V (lasted about 1 month), and various tinkering on my PC. Strangely, I found that old RTS style games suck me in like crazy - just as they used to. I re-found Majesty 1&2 on my PC and can spend hours on that stupid game. I'm thinking maybe I need to see if some of the old RTS games I used to love have been updated, and if not just buy the old versions. I'm talking games like Age of Empires 2, Civ, Rise of Nations, Stronghold, Homeworld etc.
> 
> Real life has still been the main draw and the mountains never get old. The wandering and discovery it entails replaces that feeling I used to have in games.
> 
> The other thing I'm interested in is re-building my PC for the first time in 8 years. I was super proud of my water-cooling rig I setup in 2012ish, and I've recently gotten very excited about doing a brand new build in a new case with hard tubing. I'm really looking forward to that - the process of designing, building, tinkering, failing, drawing board, rebuilding is such a draw for me. I've already been using new PC parts in my old loop and it runs great; I just want a new project. The 8700k and 2080ti are fantastic and I shouldn't have to upgrade hardware for quite a long time.
> 
> Anyhow, I guess the point is that I still feel the same way as in the original post; it's just that I'm more comfortable with the way things are. Hope everyone is well.


 I've felt this way for awhile, 36. Chivalry medieval warfare has been the last game to keep my attention. I feel like I'm waiting for a new genre to popup. Lately I've been tinkering with my PC instead of gaming. It's my new hobby. I'm using a 40 gallon tote to water cool, I have a extra bedroom and my girlfriend gave me the go ahead to clutter it up all I want . I've been taking off old pc parts, like my 2009 mobo heat sinks and putting them on my GPU with thermal pads. Using a hybrid watercool\remade blower fan design. Challenging myself for the fun of it to implement a fanless case design I thought up while initially pouring over all the old innovations on this forum. Comparing wattage of water heaters, engines n such. Learning about how gravity affects loops, basic, experimental and advanced cooling in almost all regards. Starting from the ground up, but not with hardly any normal parts. It's been a real treat. Alcohol was the only thing keeping my gaming interest at even a mild level. But I cut that out for the better.


Maybe it's something I'll come back too. I'd love to design a game, it's to bad small teams of game devs is kind of a thing of the past. And I would be starting from the ground up. Anyways life goes on. A Diablo 2 mechanic hack and slash MMORPG would be epic. Picture hundreds of barbs\sorcies etc attacking a giant beast. Even dota style maps with your diablo 2 characters, your own items etc as pvp matches. Equip sigon set at lvl xx on and on, with your endless stash against lanes with tons of varying ai combined with players. No gold you can just equip what you previously farmed at different levels. Or both. Seems like everyone is afraid to create anything innovative. Warcraft 3 custom maps rip


----------



## mouacyk

evensen007 said:


> I thought I would drop in to OC.net for my yearly visit. Going back to the 'time flies' thing: It's been one and a half years since I posted this. WTH!?
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Since the original post I've gone through a phase of hardcore Dark Souls 3 (and then off after a few months), trying the Witcher 3 which I thought I'd love (lasted 1 hour), Battlefield V (lasted about 1 month), and various tinkering on my PC. Strangely, I found that old RTS style games suck me in like crazy - just as they used to. I re-found Majesty 1&2 on my PC and can spend hours on that stupid game. I'm thinking maybe I need to see if some of the old RTS games I used to love have been updated, and if not just buy the old versions.
> 
> 
> I'm talking games like Age of Empires 2, Civ, Rise of Nations, Stronghold, Homeworld etc.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> Real life has still been the main draw and the mountains never get old. The wandering and discovery it entails replaces that feeling I used to have in games.
> 
> The other thing I'm interested in is re-building my PC for the first time in 8 years. I was super proud of my water-cooling rig I setup in 2012ish, and I've recently gotten very excited about doing a brand new build in a new case with hard tubing. I'm really looking forward to that - the process of designing, building, tinkering, failing, drawing board, rebuilding is such a draw for me. I've already been using new PC parts in my old loop and it runs great; I just want a new project. The 8700k and 2080ti are fantastic and I shouldn't have to upgrade hardware for quite a long time.
> 
> Anyhow, I guess the point is that I still feel the same way as in the original post; it's just that I'm more comfortable with the way things are. Hope everyone is well.


You should know that AoE2: Definitive Edition (2nd official remaster) is releasing in November, this time with fully reworked graphics for 4K! And Homeworld 3 is being worked on, courtesy of Gearbox Software backing the original developers.


----------



## skupples

IDK about too old, but I've definitely gone through phases of too busy / too much important stuff to do instead.

IE: sit up all night playing new title, OR sit up all night studying AZURE? 

hmmm.


----------



## Snyderman34

I don't think I'll ever be too old for video games. Less time to dedicate to them, definitely. But I get too much joy from them currently. Helps I have a spouse who is a big Nintendo head. lol. Just gotta do what makes you happy and what you enjoy.


----------



## iamjanco

While I work from a home office as a freelancer/consultant, I'm old enough that I could apply for social security if I really, really wanted to. I'm not there yet though, and Doom still draws me in. 

It probably will continue to do so until someone pries that hot, hard mouse from my cold, dead hands.


----------



## evensen007

bucdan said:


> Since my last post, been the same except work has become more important as I moved up in the ranking. Just want to go home, grab a beer and game after work, or even just listen to music and work out. Going out, that time has come and gone from my early 20's (mind you that I'm 27), because going out means spending money... and it usually ends up being a lot. I would much rather host a beer and BBQ session at home with my friends, and maybe upgrade it to a LAN party. But going out, bars, drinking watered down cheap liquor, no thanks. A brewery trip here and there, but nothing crazy. Mix in a couple of outdoor activities like hiking, shooting sports, fishing, grill at the bay/beach, or any other friend/family hosted event, life is good just like that for me.
> 
> Find what's comfortable for you, and what brings out the extra goodness in you while you still feel comfortable. Gaming is comfortable, but doing other activities that doesn't involve big crowds of strangers is fun for me as well. Should I ever go out, once in a blue moon, it'll be for an event, and not out of the whim.
> 
> Feels like I went off tangent, but I guess what I'm trying to say is I just extended my reach further than just video games. Added more to my activity list with video games still being #1!


I'm with you on the going out. Much rather have the friends over. Even when we do go out, it's usually much more low key hitting up the breweries. They're endless in Asheville! Awesome Bengal; I've got one too! I guess I'm enjoying the pacing and relaxation of these RTS' again. 



treetops422 said:


> I've felt this way for awhile, 36. Chivalry medieval warfare has been the last game to keep my attention. I feel like I'm waiting for a new genre to popup. Lately I've been tinkering with my PC instead of gaming. It's my new hobby. I'm using a 40 gallon tote to water cool, I have a extra bedroom and my girlfriend gave me the go ahead to clutter it up all I want . I've been taking off old pc parts, like my 2009 mobo heat sinks and putting them on my GPU with thermal pads. Using a hybrid watercool\remade blower fan design. Challenging myself for the fun of it to implement a fanless case design I thought up while initially pouring over all the old innovations on this forum. Comparing wattage of water heaters, engines n such. Learning about how gravity affects loops, basic, experimental and advanced cooling in almost all regards. Starting from the ground up, but not with hardly any normal parts. It's been a real treat. Alcohol was the only thing keeping my gaming interest at even a mild level. But I cut that out for the better.
> 
> Maybe it's something I'll come back too. I'd love to design a game, it's to bad small teams of game devs is kind of a thing of the past. And I would be starting from the ground up. Anyways life goes on. A Diablo 2 mechanic hack and slash MMORPG would be epic. Picture hundreds of barbs\sorcies etc attacking a giant beast. Even dota style maps with your diablo 2 characters, your own items etc as pvp matches. Equip sigon set at lvl xx on and on, with your endless stash against lanes with tons of varying ai combined with players. No gold you can just equip what you previously farmed at different levels. Or both. Seems like everyone is afraid to create anything innovative. Warcraft 3 custom maps rip


Dang! You're going way deeper into tinkering territory than me. I appreciate what you're doing though; the discovery of trial and error is a lot of fun. 



mouacyk said:


> You should know that AoE2: Definitive Edition (2nd official remaster) is releasing in November, this time with fully reworked graphics for 4K! And Homeworld 3 is being worked on, courtesy of Gearbox Software backing the original developers.



That.... Makes me very excite. AOE2 and Homeworld have to be 2 of my favorite games of all time! AWESOME! Now if someone could update Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends, that would be amazing!



skupples said:


> IDK about too old, but I've definitely gone through phases of too busy / too much important stuff to do instead.
> 
> IE: sit up all night playing new title, OR sit up all night studying AZURE?
> 
> hmmm.


I've been there studying for MS certs. VMware certs etc. If I decide to change my current role, I would definitely be looking into Azure, AWS, nutanix or the like. Luckily I'm pretty stable right now and probably won't think about that for a while.


----------



## tpi2007

If games are properly made, regarded by the developers and publishers as an art form, with good gameplay and something interesting to share in terms of story, there is no reason to "grow out" of games, as if it were a phase in life.

The problem nowadays is that the mainstream gaming industry is in its last phase. Greed all around. Games are not built to be rewardingly fun, they are made to maximize profits at the expense of everything else, just 0,1% shy of a totally scorched earth approach. There is no respect for consumers at all. Games are rushed out, they make people beta testers and then they load games up with microtransactions (sometimes after launch so as to not affect review scores), loot boxes and season passes that fundamentally alter the design phase of games to make them grindier and with storylines butchered to sell the rest to you later, and even in terms of games that are not free, there's also this crap, in addition to several tiers of purchase prices that bump up the price to $100+, etc, etc.


The latest aberration is this (NSFW language), but I could post here about 50 other games where this happens:




Spoiler

















TL;DR: Play the classics, and otherwise look very carefully at who is developing (edit: and publishing) the game, where it is sold, whether it has draconian DRM and whether the game is actually meant to be played and not to play you. There is still plenty of great stuff being made, just not by the big developers, they are 'playing' a different game by now.


----------



## The Pook

tpi2007 said:


> TL;DR: Play the classics, and otherwise look very carefully at who is developing the game, where it is sold, whether it has draconian DRM and whether the game is actually meant to be played and not to play you. There is still plenty of great stuff being made, just not by the big developers, they are 'playing' a different game by now.



If the game is good enough you can overlook all those things  

BL3 has super terrible DRM and it's optimized poorly and it crashes to the desktop regularly and it's on a terrible platform (EPIC) and DX12 is broken and doesn't work at all but it's probably the game I dumped the most time into this quickly in a long time.


----------



## charlesclay

Yes. I always have to play alone because my friends aren't into my favorite game types. Now I have to spend most of time to work and just have some rare moment to relax with some mobile games (lab escape, talking tom gold run, tap tap dash game)


----------



## Redwoodz

christoph said:


> is not only that we getting older and slowly leaving the video games, it all has to do with the companies that NOW is all about money, they put no effort and making a video game with a good story and good enough visuals, you know a game with good graphics but not that you can't play it with your current PC, now is all about micro transactions;
> 
> I been playing video games my whole life, and I remember playing Resident evil 4 in the play, and jumping to Stalker COP (I played many games between them of course) and saying "oh man this games are great" and right after I finished Stalker I jumped to Fallout 3 ( I did not play them when they where release) and man, Fallout 3 was the best game ever for me (yeah, yeah you can say whatever you want, that the game is broken blah blah blah) and now where is Resident evil? Stalker? I wish they made another stalker, Metro was a real good game and actually looking forward to Metro exodus



This. The games these days frankly suck. They put all effort into making a game eye catching but the actual mechanics are the same.


----------



## tpi2007

"spending their hard-earned Atoms" - that right there summarizes the current triple-A gaming scene, games that feel like work and then the company sells you more stuff (Atoms in this case) besides the price you already paid for the game to make it feel less like work. 

This is the antithesis of gaming. When will the mass market realize that they're not playing a game, they're being played.


----------



## iamjanco

A bit OT, but generally speaking, it could always be worse...

*Cards Against Humanity*


----------



## rluker5

Somehow I'm not getting too old for games. TV- too old. Movies - for the most part. I don't even follow what is coming out that much. For the most part just try to watch something my daughter will enjoy. Games are still fun. Maybe I have low standards, but they seem to be doing better than tv or movies. I mostly play rpgs/action but the story and character development has to be better than movies or tv. I don't expect them to beat classic scifi or anything and they can't replace exercising outdoors but I can still sit down and enjoy them. I play them on my schedule though. 
Currently enjoying Tales of Berseria, was going through the updating dlcs in AC Odyssey (played the dude, reminded me of Kevin Sorbo from Hercules) before that, SOTTR before that, some Serious Sam3 vr and Hellblade before that, liked the whole Dishonored series (the more parts I played the better it got), Mass E.A was fun after you changed how some looked, Wolfenstein N.O. was fun enough that I will play New Colossus when I get time, even though it seems not quite as good, l ofc had a great experience with W3, ok with W2,W, Prey was decent, Endereal off of Skyrim was refreshing, there are lots more. These are all pretty decent at least imo and more worthy of my free time than most passive recreation.
I probably just have more free time than a lot.


----------



## Prophet4NO1

I game more than any other entertainment any more. At least when home. But, I am playing basically no online games anymore. The only competitive game I play regularly is World of Warships. I play a few co-op games with some friends. But that is about it online. Single-player is less and less shooters. I only fire up the great ones once in a while. Last new one I grabbed was DOOM 2016. Instead I have shifted to Euro Truck / American Truck Simulator and Farming Simulator. A few years ago those games would bore the hell out of me. Now, I find them to be good fun and most shooters boring. Guess all this comes with age though.


----------



## looniam




----------



## skupples

- update - 

switch lite in hand, and I keep playing it till the battery dies. definitely not too old. You get over the fact its probably costs nintendo $20 to produce them. I'd most definitely pay the price for a switch with top of the line graphics and oled. I'm completely on board for their next gen console refresh, if I can play my switch stuff on it. 

StarLink is an awesome game, so awesome that i wish ubisoft had some sorta key upgrade fee so I could play it on my PC as well.

I also picked up gamestop used wii U kit after some research on home brews. Seems like the wii platform is amazing for it. I want ONE box that'll play 99% of the classics, and easily. Wii U conforms to this requirement & then some. ($120 for best kit, no games)


----------



## looniam




----------



## tpi2007

These companies really are at the end of the line in terms of greed, aren't they?


----------



## Mjolnir

I'm 45 this year and I have 5 kids. FIVE! And I love to game it up, but honestly the time just isn't there anymore. Also I work a professional job with pretty demanding hours. My usual MO is when at home I help with dinner, get the younger kids bathed and bedtime stories and into bed and then I get to retire to my computer desk and fire up a game for an hour or two. Every great once in a while, I'll pull a long night sesh while the family sleeps. But typically the days are spent working or family stuff. It's kind of sad, because now I finally have the money to have a high-end whatever-I-want setup, but not the time to enjoy it.


----------



## steelbom

Mjolnir said:


> I'm 45 this year and I have 5 kids. FIVE! And I love to game it up, but honestly the time just isn't there anymore. Also I work a professional job with pretty demanding hours. My usual MO is when at home I help with dinner, get the younger kids bathed and bedtime stories and into bed and then I get to retire to my computer desk and fire up a game for an hour or two. Every great once in a while, I'll pull a long night sesh while the family sleeps. But typically the days are spent working or family stuff. It's kind of sad, because now I finally have the money to have a high-end whatever-I-want setup, but not the time to enjoy it.


Pretty impressive juggling all that! Maybe when they're a bit older they may get into gaming - could find a good RTS or shooter to jump in with em. What kind of games are you into?


----------



## RamenRider

Yes. I'm less than half as old as most of you, but I'm getting that feeling too. Life is hitting hard. For the past decade at least, games were pretty much boring. Not much innovation or anything tbh. So many boring new games, only a few MOBAs/ FPS MOBAs caught my attention. Which is probably mainly why I prefer retro. All game companies are basically Tencent garbage now, but luckily I tried out this new game on XB Game Pass that gave me hope for the future. 




My first introduction to the Ace Combat series and I'm hooked. Most AAA games bore me to tears but this one is insanely exhilarating. Try it out, Ace Combat 7 on steam, like a mixture of MGS and dogfights. This is the only game where I want to push my 2k rig to the max limit on my 1440p 165hz monitors. When you play, you really feel you are getting your money's worth. It just screams excellence.


----------



## Mjolnir

steelbom said:


> Pretty impressive juggling all that! Maybe when they're a bit older they may get into gaming - could find a good RTS or shooter to jump in with em. What kind of games are you into?


My youngest and I put together a Raspberry Pi and I still have all my old roms that I must've downloaded back in the 90's, so we've been playing through the old mario/zelda games and such. Still in the NES era. Will eventually play some SNES titles with him. 

One of my older daughters and I have had quite a bit of fun playing through the original and sequel Borderlands together. My oldest daughter could care less about video games since she turned 15 and got her first smartphone. 

Mostly shooters and action games. I am a sucker for Bethesda titles. Fallout 3 and Morrowind era were the gateway drugs. Before that I had a serious affliction for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. Probably my favorite thing of the past few years was the Outer Wilds and Horizon Zero Dawn.


----------



## bkrownd

I stopped playing PC games in 1990 when I got on the internet and started programming on Sun workstations (linux starting around 2000) and didn't touch a PC for most of the 1990s. I didn't own a desktop Windows PC or play PC games again until 2015, at the age of 45. I skipped the whole Windows PC gaming and hardware thing from 1990-2015.


----------



## Doba

Hellz No.. Im going on 42 and I love sitting down and killing kids as I like to call it in Warzone. I've always had a competitive edge because of playing sports still do in golf. And gaming provides that whenever I want. 
I rather play games during my free time away from real life than a minute of the BS thats on the tv.


----------



## Tadaen Sylvermane

I posted in this thread a year or 2 ago. an update. I've slowly started to drift back into gaming a bit. I fiddle about with Wow, Skyrim recently. Mainly looking for a time killer these days with mostly being stuck at home. I'm not sure if I play because I enjoy it or rather I have nothing to do. I can't generally sit in front of a game for longer than 45 minutes, maybe an hour and I lose interest. I think a lot of it has to do with my venturing into open source over the last few years. I only recently discovered the Steam remote play feature, and I've been enjoying my Windows games on my 55" in the living room quite a bit via my Xubuntu 20.04 based media center. At this point I think I play just to push my knowledge on optimization of the clients and such sometimes.

Still haven't found myself sitting in the couch / chair at desk with a game for longer than an hour or so. As I generally take care of my house while the wife works I'm up and down constantly doing laundry and cleaning and such. It fills the down moments nicely.


----------



## mouacyk

Doba said:


> Hellz No.. Im going on 42 and I love sitting down and killing kids as I like to call it in Warzone. I've always had a competitive edge because of playing sports still do in golf. And gaming provides that whenever I want.
> I rather play games during my free time away from real life than a minute of the BS thats on the tv.


Nah you ain't, not if SBMM has anything to say about it. Kids are fighting back with the system.


----------



## Knoxx29

I'll 43 in a few months and honestly i still have a lot of fun playing Games and isn't in my plans to quit, the only thing that it bothers me and of course i feel like i am kinda old for Games is the fact that my reflexes are slowing down and i am not that fast as i used to be but hey i have to accept that i am not 20 anymore


----------



## evensen007

I've come back to necro my thread from 3 and a half years ago. I truly enjoyed reading all of the responses and how everyone else has gone through this journey of getting older and gaming. At the time, I was feeling nostalgic and like time was moving so fast. To think that I wrote this over 3 years ago blows my mind, and to think I joined this forum over 10 years ago... Sheesh.

I wanted to come back to say that I have had a kind of revival/renaissance when it comes to gaming in the last couple of years. One of the things I was most fearful/sad about was that I had moved past that part of my life and I truly didn't enjoy gaming at all anymore. I am very happy to say that those fears have been put to rest and I have been enjoying gaming as much or more than I ever did. Maybe it was just that short 2-3 year period where my mind was too active and I never could truly feel immersed in a game because I always had real life stuff lurking and pushing into my thoughts. I have a really healthy balance of outside life/friends and gaming now.

Recently, I have been REALLY enjoying Chivalry 2 (I never knew about this genre before), MSFS2020, Dark Souls 3 again, and _just_ started to dabble in DCS (holy cow - this one is gonna take a while to understand). The other thing - and this is crazy - is that I got back into Skyrim after not touching it for almost 10 years when it launched. I, like a lot of other PC Skyrim players, played 'mod skyrim' more than the actual game itself. This always left the game buggy, even more broken, and put me in an endless loop of starting over and over again with new mods.

The incredible invention that changed everything for me with Skyrim was an application called Wabbajack. This application allows mod curators to create a huge modded Skyrim instance that's already been programmed to work properly and distributed as an installer through the Wabbajack app. It is absolutely unbelievable that they were able to come up with this. I have a Skyrim install called "Trawzified/Skyrimified' that has over 1000 mods and makes the game look like it was made in 2021. Unreal. There are about 10-12 official Skyrim SE modded installers that have different flavors. Some have higher graphics than others, some have very specific goals (one basically turns Skyrim into Dark Souls), and some just give the vanilla a little extra. Really depends on what you're after. Join the discord and see what's what.

Anyhow, the other thing that got me back in was upgrading and re-building my water-cooled PC. I went with Hard acrylic tubing which I never thought I would be able to do. It was a challenge and really, really fun. Rocking an RTX3090 and really enjoying the new Lian Li case. Re-building helped spark my love of the PC again a bit. Thank you to all who replied - it really meant a lot to hear other's experiences on this journey of life. That group of friends I talked about that lives all over the country and plays new BattleField releases together is about to re-activate for BF2042. We're pretty excited about it after the lackluster BF1 and BFV. I hope you are all well, and I hope to hear updates here on how your gaming and life journey is coming along.

Oh, and if you REALLY want your nostalgia feels tugged on hard I've been listening to certain looping tracks by Jeremy Soule that did the Elder Scrolls soundtracks. Secunda in particular hit me hard - almost teers. Music definitely teleports me instantly back in time and it is a moving experience:

Skyrim - Secunda

Chris


----------



## evensen007

looniam said:


> View attachment 302716


OOF. This hit hard.


----------



## steelbom

evensen007 said:


> I've come back to necro my thread from 3 and a half years ago. I truly enjoyed reading all of the responses and how everyone else has gone through this journey of getting older and gaming. At the time, I was feeling nostalgic and like time was moving so fast. To think that I wrote this over 3 years ago blows my mind, and to think I joined this forum over 10 years ago... Sheesh.
> 
> I wanted to come back to say that I have had a kind of revival/renaissance when it comes to gaming in the last couple of years. One of the things I was most fearful/sad about was that I had moved past that part of my life and I truly didn't enjoy gaming at all anymore. I am very happy to say that those fears have been put to rest and I have been enjoying gaming as much or more than I ever did. Maybe it was just that short 2-3 year period where my mind was too active and I never could truly feel immersed in a game because I always had real life stuff lurking and pushing into my thoughts. I have a really healthy balance of outside life/friends and gaming now.
> 
> Recently, I have been REALLY enjoying Chivalry 2 (I never knew about this genre before), MSFS2020, Dark Souls 3 again, and _just_ started to dabble in DCS (holy cow - this one is gonna take a while to understand). The other thing - and this is crazy - is that I got back into Skyrim after not touching it for almost 10 years when it launched. I, like a lot of other PC Skyrim players, played 'mod skyrim' more than the actual game itself. This always left the game buggy, even more broken, and put me in an endless loop of starting over and over again with new mods.
> 
> The incredible invention that changed everything for me with Skyrim was an application called Wabbajack. This application allows mod curators to create a huge modded Skyrim instance that's already been programmed to work properly and distributed as an installer through the Wabbajack app. It is absolutely unbelievable that they were able to come up with this. I have a Skyrim install called "Trawzified/Skyrimified' that has over 1000 mods and makes the game look like it was made in 2021. Unreal. There are about 10-12 official Skyrim SE modded installers that have different flavors. Some have higher graphics than others, some have very specific goals (one basically turns Skyrim into Dark Souls), and some just give the vanilla a little extra. Really depends on what you're after. Join the discord and see what's what.
> 
> Anyhow, the other thing that got me back in was upgrading and re-building my water-cooled PC. I went with Hard acrylic tubing which I never thought I would be able to do. It was a challenge and really, really fun. Rocking an RTX3090 and really enjoying the new Lian Li case. Re-building helped spark my love of the PC again a bit. Thank you to all who replied - it really meant a lot to hear other's experiences on this journey of life. That group of friends I talked about that lives all over the country and plays new BattleField releases together is about to re-activate for BF2042. We're pretty excited about it after the lackluster BF1 and BFV. I hope you are all well, and I hope to hear updates here on how your gaming and life journey is coming along.
> 
> Oh, and if you REALLY want your nostalgia feels tugged on hard I've been listening to certain looping tracks by Jeremy Soule that did the Elder Scrolls soundtracks. Secunda in particular hit me hard - almost teers. Music definitely teleports me instantly back in time and it is a moving experience:
> 
> Skyrim - Secunda
> 
> Chris
> 
> View attachment 2524092
> 
> 
> View attachment 2524091
> 
> 
> View attachment 2524090


That case is absolutely awesome. I love the purple and cyan theme. Glad you're enjoying it again!



> >>>>


Some of the best times I've had was playing Runescape when I was younger. It was the bomb. Been dabbling in League with mates. Played a lot of Genshin Impact lately -- actually has been a blast, haven't had this much fun in a single player game like this in a while. (For me, Cyberpunk, Witcher, Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Dragon Age were all games/series I enjoyed a lot.)


----------



## denchikchyb

Н стоит


evensen007 said:


> I've been thinking about this on and off for the last 5-8 years. I'm 38 years old now and have this strange feeling in my gut every time I visit this site or see an old email or post about a video game I used to play. It's an uncomfortable combination of nostalgia, sadness, and shock at how fast years seem to fly by. On that last point, I always have this sinking feeling when I get reminded of a game I used to play (Dragon Age: Origins and Baldur's Gate were recent ones) and then realize how long ago it was that I played and enjoyed those games. This might be something that only the older people on here may relate to, but it's something that happens to me often and tugs at my heart in a strange way. In some sense, I believe that those games are time markers that relate to a part of my life (I was only 20 years old when Baldur's gate came out!?), but they also make me yearn for a time in my life when I actually had the TIME to play video games for more than an hour every month or two. I imagine those of you with kids feel this sensation even harder than I do. I've been working on my life these past 8 years (which I have not regret about) and have dabbled back into games on and off during that time. I can't IMAGINE though sitting down to a game like Baldur's Gate again and actually being able to get through it and enjoy it. That makes me sad. I don't even really have any friends that play games or especially know games that I used to play back in the day that still give me such great memories. I had some friends back in my old state and job that used to get together for some Battlefield 4 and then most recently BF1. BF1 lasted about 3-4 months for us and then it waned.
> 
> I don't even really know what I'm trying to say with this post or if it even belongs in this sub-forum. Maybe I think I'm just trying to reach out to fellow former gamers my age that have felt this same uneasy feeling as you've gotten older. Maybe the broader sense and feeling is what most normal people recognize as getting older in general and becoming hyper aware of the shockingly fast passage of time. Sometimes I'll read my old posts from 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago and fondly remember caring about and putting quality time into gaming. Sometimes I'm scared that I really have outgrown games and it would never be the same anyway. There's a guy I talked to about the dream of having 6 months off of life so that I could go back and replay some of my favorite games from the old days, and maybe burn through some games in the backlog that I've always wanted to try. But maybe I wouldn't even want to once I did have the time. Who knows. Whatever the case, games will always hold a very dear and nostalgic place in my heart.


You don't have to worry too much about it. If it's a kind of relaxation for you, if you play and rest your body and soul, why should you stop doing it? 
I have many acquaintances who play, and they are old enough. But they love it.


----------



## bigblueshock

evensen007 said:


> OOF. This hit hard.


Reminds me of a game called EverQuest I played for many years throughout Middle School and High School, even a little afterwards. For better and/or worse, never got into another game like I got into that game.

MMO's are very addictive. Not sure if I just grew out of them, or just have no time especially with a wife and a kid.


----------



## Ormy

I'm in my mid 30s, been gaming my whole life.

Does my age affect my motivation to play videogames and how much I enjoy them? Hell no. I still enjoy playing games like Red Alert 2, Kid Chaos (Amiga), Far Cry (the first one) etc as much as I ever did. Plus new games with their fancy graphics and such are great too as long as I avoid anything with microtransactions or anything that smells of pay-to-win. Some modern games have even captured my entire life just as if I was still young, notable example is Factorio, such a good game. However most of the MMOs that I really enjoyed as a kid are now gone, even if they still technically exist the community is long gone. Games in particular where I really miss the online experience are Jumpgate (MMO space combat sim), Time of Defiance (MMO-RTS) and Neocron (MMORPG with FPS elements). Anyone else remember those?

Does my age affect my ability in competitive shooters? Yes! My reaction times and eyesight have declined quite badly, where I used to be pretty good, almost semi-pro level in my late teens I'm now struggling to stay at above-average level (mostly playing Halo Infinite these days). The fact I spent most of my 20s drunk probably doesn't help either. Fortunately experience helps me beat a lot of youngsters (except the ones with super-human reflexes and aim) just by having muscle memory/instincts for certain movements and I'm still quite accurate with grenades. But then many modern games feel completely different to how FPS games felt 15 years ago, I feel like my instincts are all wrong in games like Apex and Tarkov.

Something which has really helped me continue to manage longer gaming sessions is my Azeron. I started getting bad aches in my left wrist and fingers after 2-3 hours of keyboard use, with this thing I'm back to tiredness being the limiting factor on the length of a session, it's extremely ergonomic and customizable with a healthy community of modders supported by the manufacturer on the official discord.


----------



## zzztopzzz

I am very old and still play games. That includes vintage stuff right up to my big gamer.


----------



## z390e

not too old just the game studios are all corporate bloodsuckers now and instead of trying to "make great games" they want to "make lots of $" or other stuff


----------



## Bugmanscj

I'll be 70 next month and still play some games. Was hooked on pinball and video games as a kid (no consoles back then, but feeding machines a quarter for 3 games, LOL). I like FPS games as I can keep my reflexes up to speed...I'm likely the oldest dude in this community by a long shot. I started in computer science and build my own rigs.


----------



## votix

evensen007 said:


> I've come back to necro my thread from 3 and a half years ago. I truly enjoyed reading all of the responses and how everyone else has gone through this journey of getting older and gaming. At the time, I was feeling nostalgic and like time was moving so fast. To think that I wrote this over 3 years ago blows my mind, and to think I joined this forum over 10 years ago... Sheesh.
> 
> I wanted to come back to say that I have had a kind of revival/renaissance when it comes to gaming in the last couple of years. One of the things I was most fearful/sad about was that I had moved past that part of my life and I truly didn't enjoy gaming at all anymore. I am very happy to say that those fears have been put to rest and I have been enjoying gaming as much or more than I ever did. Maybe it was just that short 2-3 year period where my mind was too active and I never could truly feel immersed in a game because I always had real life stuff lurking and pushing into my thoughts. I have a really healthy balance of outside life/friends and gaming now.
> 
> Recently, I have been REALLY enjoying Chivalry 2 (I never knew about this genre before), MSFS2020, Dark Souls 3 again, and _just_ started to dabble in DCS (holy cow - this one is gonna take a while to understand). The other thing - and this is crazy - is that I got back into Skyrim after not touching it for almost 10 years when it launched. I, like a lot of other PC Skyrim players, played 'mod skyrim' more than the actual game itself. This always left the game buggy, even more broken, and put me in an endless loop of starting over and over again with new mods.
> 
> The incredible invention that changed everything for me with Skyrim was an application called Wabbajack. This application allows mod curators to create a huge modded Skyrim instance that's already been programmed to work properly and distributed as an installer through the Wabbajack app. It is absolutely unbelievable that they were able to come up with this. I have a Skyrim install called "Trawzified/Skyrimified' that has over 1000 mods and makes the game look like it was made in 2021. Unreal. There are about 10-12 official Skyrim SE modded installers that have different flavors. Some have higher graphics than others, some have very specific goals (one basically turns Skyrim into Dark Souls), and some just give the vanilla a little extra. Really depends on what you're after. Join the discord and see what's what.
> 
> Anyhow, the other thing that got me back in was upgrading and re-building my water-cooled PC. I went with Hard acrylic tubing which I never thought I would be able to do. It was a challenge and really, really fun. Rocking an RTX3090 and really enjoying the new Lian Li case. Re-building helped spark my love of the PC again a bit. Thank you to all who replied - it really meant a lot to hear other's experiences on this journey of life. That group of friends I talked about that lives all over the country and plays new BattleField releases together is about to re-activate for BF2042 epoxy flake flooring san antonio. We're pretty excited about it after the lackluster BF1 and BFV. I hope you are all well, and I hope to hear updates here on how your gaming and life journey is coming along.
> 
> Oh, and if you REALLY want your nostalgia feels tugged on hard I've been listening to certain looping tracks by Jeremy Soule that did the Elder Scrolls soundtracks. Secunda in particular hit me hard - almost teers. Music definitely teleports me instantly back in time and it is a moving experience:
> 
> Skyrim - Secunda
> 
> Chris
> 
> View attachment 2524092
> 
> 
> View attachment 2524091
> 
> 
> View attachment 2524090


Hello. I don't know what it is, but I feel like I am too old for gaming already. I don't know if WoW ****ed me up for FPS games, but before WoW I remember being ace at FPS games. Now I am just ****. Getting raped by 13 year olds n **** constantly. I use to CARE a lot about how I performed in games (I couldn't give a **** now) - Maybe me not caring like I use to has something to do with my ****tyness. Either that or back when I played FPS games late 90's, early 00's most people were just plain **** I thought I was amazing. Also feels kinda weird when I join a BC2 server and most of the people in it are teens. I don't hang out with people 5 years younger than me let alone 8-10 years younger than me in real life @ 23 so why would I do it online? just feels weird now. I can't play CS anymore, playing COD ****ed me up completely. Playing WoW didn't help either. Even in SC2, I just can't keep up with the speed people playing (WoW probably messed me up here) Just makes me re-think my life when it comes to gaming, is it really worth me bothering when my gaming ability feels like it's dog **** compared to what it use to be 5+ years ago? It's getting time to completely buy a new gaming rig for games like BF3 and future games after that like D3, but right now it just feels like it would be a waste - I wouldn't enjoy it like I use to. Is it really worth continuing to spend money into doing something you enjoy a lot less than what you use to? Never thought I'd say this but I am kind of starting to regret all the money/time I've sunk into gaming and wish I spent that time and money in something like a better education or things that could of been better for me in RL, spending more time working n ****.


----------

