Do you feel like you've overgrown pc games and rarely play anymore?

[Rafael Mestdag]

A couple of years ago I found myself not playing pc games as often as I used to up to a few months back. And it's been like that ever since. I started playing pc games when I was 13(1993) on my first pc. Games these days are way more developed in all areas, they are very realistic in every way.

But currently, at 37 years old I find myself spending more time reading books and watching movies for fun than actually playing games, and I have a machine capable of playing BF3 and BF4 at 40 FPS+ max settings at 1600x900 which is not bad these days.

I like to know the pc is there for when the sudden craving comes back even if for 20 minutes or so, but I used to play for hours and hours on end.

Has this happened to you too?

 

[neatfeatguy]

Not many people can stay focused on one thing their whole life. Their life around them changes - maybe you get married or had kids or moved states for a new job and your priorities shift. Next thing you know, what you used to like to do or had time to do isn't as important anymore.

I grew up collecting anything and everything Garfield - books, glasses, notepads, pez and so on. My interest in Garfield faded towards the end of high school and I think the last book I bought was the 37th or 38th book that came out around then. I haven't purchased anything Garfield since.

I used to love playing games on consoles as much as computers. Then one day the PS2 didn't interest me that much and pretty soon I stopped playing it. Only reason I have a PS3 is because I won it in a raffle. I only finished 1 game on that console - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I had maybe a dozen games in total and the others I dabbled with a few hours and I haven't played them since (it's been 4+ years since I played a game on it). It's now just hooked up to the spare TV in the workout area to stream Netflix and it's rarely used even for that since the smart TV has other apps/channels we can watch.

I used to help friends in high school "deck" out their cars. Swap out headers, exhaust, fly wheels, install short shift kits, suspension...I saved up what money I could so I could buy parts for my truck, but coming across money (even with a part time job) wasn't easy when I had a mom and step-dad that bought me nothing. I had to buy my own clothes, pay my own car insurance, buy school supplies and so on - they just didn't make me pay rent or for food. So my plans never came true for my truck....but once high school ended, none of my friends or myself were really interested in car stuff.

Life changes. Things that interest you will change, too.

I certainly don't play games as much as I used to, but I do still play. I have found a lot of my gaming is more enjoyable now that my younger brother picked up gaming on his PC. We spend usually 2 Friday (or Saturday) nights a month playing games co-op. That's when I have the most fun playing games.

I also went back to the old MUD game I used to play back in the early/mid 90s. I'm having a blast playing it again. You may or may not come back into gaming like you used to, it just depends on where things in life take you.

 

[offroadguy56]

When I was in highschool I dedicated a lot of time to a few specific games. As I'm older now with less time on my hands and more money so to speak I find my self experimenting more with various games.

In highschool I had a Nintendo DS and before that a Gameboy Advance. I bought myself a 3DS last summer to use at work (I interact with a lot of people daily and wanted street passes). However I hardly play it now. I've owned a wii but never really got into console gaming as much as I have PC gaming.

My biggest obsessions gaming wise has probably been Okami on wii, Mabinogi an MMORPG on PC, and Minecraft on PC with me running several servers for friends and total strangers.

I'm Only 23 but I feel like my gaming enthusiasm is slowing down. I'm getting to purchase a good proper mountain bike and what little free time I have will have to be split between gaming and biking.

 

[weberdarren97]

A couple of years ago I found myself not playing pc games as often as I used to up to a few months back. And it's been like that ever since. I started playing pc games when I was 13(1993) on my first pc. Games these days are way more developed in all areas, they are very realistic in every way.

But currently, at 37 years old I find myself spending more time reading books and watching movies for fun than actually playing games, and I have a machine capable of playing BF3 and BF4 at 40 FPS+ max settings at 1600x900 which is not bad these days.

I like to know the pc is there for when the sudden craving comes back even if for 20 minutes or so, but I used to play for hours and hours on end.

Has this happened to you too?

I know your feeling mate.

I used to play Doom (the first one) and Scorched Earth all day, every day. They were my life (outside school). Once I found out how much fun it was to play with computers and not just use them to game, that passion went away for me. I don't really like many newer games, I find that the devs spend too much time on graphics and sounds and destructible environments (the list goes on), but they don't spend as much time to develop characters so that you get a unique feel for them or even get very involved in the story. I think the only two newer games I enjoy would be Rocket League and War Thunder (WoT physics are crap IMO).

My brother also had an Xbox 360 when I was younger. I was introduced to the GTA series through it (GTA IV to start with) and was amazed for about a week, then I was bored with it. I saw some thing on Comcast On Demand showing people doing amazing things in Halo: Reach, so I bought Reach. I played it through twice and lost interest within a month. I gave both games to my brother for $10 total. He no longer plays on the Xbox, he now has a PS4. A built in capture card? Cool, when it works. New games now that the PS3 market is stale? Cool, I guess. I just don't get how he plays on that, seeing as its best attribute is its ability to sound exactly like a small jet engine.

Along the way, other phases came and went. I used to think I'd like to make videos for a living. I tried making videos of playing games but that died quickly. I tried making videos of me screwing with computers and that also died quickly. I'm not very good at making videos and I'm just not willing to invest the time to get better because my computer repair shop takes too much time as it is.

I used to think I'd like to play with drones and RC cars that are true to their real world counterparts, but that also died quickly. I wrecked the drones and crashed the cars.

Currently, I fix computers and that's about it. However, I have a new phase that's just getting started. My grandfather bought me a 2006 Chevy Cobalt LS and I just love messing with it. Coming from a 2008 GMC Acadia, I love the way the Cobalt hugs the road and I've gotten it to turn smoother and go faster. I probably can't expect much more out of its straight four engine, but I'll continue to play with it.

For me, the crazes that last are the ones where I learn things. Every time I try a new experiment with PC hardware, I learn something. Every time I make a change to my car and am able to observe how it changes the car in terms of performance, I learn something. When I played games, I got bored because I didn't learn anything.

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

For me, the crazes that last are the ones where I learn things. Every time I try a new experiment with PC hardware, I learn something. Every time I make a change to my car and am able to observe how it changes the car in terms of performance, I learn something. When I played games, I got bored because I didn't learn anything.

I guess for me, it's about the same, I've loved the car show Top Gear since about 2004 and have been collecting episodes since then. Recently the show ended and I found myself re-watching episodes without the same interest. So I finally decided to edit the episodes myself and re-watch them as edited by myself and I loved it.
It wasn't just the end result, it was what I learned in the process about editing and how much enjoyment you can achieve by doing it.

 

[MaxxOmega]

No...

 

[Nonpossible]

Sir,

I'm 26 and it's already started. I have a wife, a kid and different priorities now. I still enjoy games but not like I used to. Too many things to worry about these days. I used to play Halo nonstop when I was a teenager, even at a semi-professional level winning tournaments for cash. Now I just play on Friday nights with my wife.

To add to other points on here, I do get a lot more enjoyment our of learning something. Reading a book, or fixing things is a harder earned form of entertainment, which is why you might be seeking those more as you age.

 

[lakimens]

I started playing DOTA, before it was DOTA 2, I was 12 or 13 years old, after a year r two I started playing it for indefinite amounts of time, I'm talking morning to night, eating on the PC, just taking a break for WC, not going out much either. This put me on a very bad path, as I had started to learn HTML(I could make a basic website) some time before, DOTA set me off of that path, I was obsessed with it. Now, because of that I'm wearing glasses and don't know any HTML, because I didn't continue studying it, I forgot it.

That period didn't last long, I'm not sure how long it was(maybe half a year?), but I regret it so much. After that period, I continued playing for a few hours a day, but sometimes I still played all day, because all my friends were playing, I got pulled into this, I'm not saying I didn't like it at the time, I'm saying my friends didn't play so much, I wouldn't be playing, I didn't like to play alone. I didn't continue learning HTML, I was just living a more normal, just not doing anything productive.

Two years ago, I stopped playing it at home, I only play it with my friends in internet cafe's once a week at most. I started learning Android Programming, I dropped it a few times and now I am hooked to it, it's fun.

Games are fun, but they are a very costly kind of fun, all that time wasted on games could be put into something productive. This is the only thing I regret in my life.

 

[James Mason]

Your tastes in gaming have changed, while the games you've been playing have not.

Time to try out the other genres besides FPS.

 

[weberdarren97]

How about Undertale?

I just started it a few days ago and have completed a pacifist run, a genocide run, a run where I kill only Toriel, a run where I kill only Papyrus, and a run where I kill everyone except for Papyrus. I must say that the way the game reacts almost life-like to these different situations is simply amazing. Not to mention the Bullet Hell style fighting mechanics is just awesome.

Did I mention it'll work on old video cards down to 512MB and old SoundBlaster cards thanks to its amazingly simple nature? Because it's true.

 

[MaxxOmega]

I started playing games in 1987. Played ALOT of games over the years. Then, I started to slow down a bit as I got too busy with work....But now I am 60 years old and retired. When I retired, I ended up with a lawsuit against my former employer and walked away with a huge sum. I added that little info because with some of the cash, I spent almost $20K on new gaming hardware, building 2 new rigs loaded to the nutz with amazing hardware. Now, retired and disabled with arthritis, I spend my days watching Netflix and gaming more than ever....