Loss of interest on gaming

Jay Santos · Oct 12, 2016

Is this normal?

Early 40s.
Married with a child and a house to tend to.
Fairly high end gaming PC.
Tons of games on Steam, even new ones.

When I jump on my PC and start to play, I don't have the appetite anymore to sit for hours and play. I fire up GTAV or Project Cars and after about 15 minutes of playing I get bored. I prefer to watch classic tv shows from my media server.

I've been a gamer all my life. I use to write my own games on basic when I was a kid on my Commodore. But I just can't get myself to play longer than 30 minutes.

Anyone experience this too?

Wolfshadw · Oct 12, 2016

I'd say it's perfectly normal. You don't get the same enjoyment or escapism out of your games as you did previously. This happens. Give it a break and it might come back... or it may be time for a new hobby. Just give it some time and see what happens.

-Wolf sends

MrObjective · Oct 12, 2016

Not sure this is the right forum to talk about psychological questions, but yes, getting older results in loss on interest in hobbies had when younger, regardless of type. When I was 18 I valued highly competitive PvP-only games and loved twitch shooters. I used to spend all of my free-time playing video games, upwards of 40 hours a week. Now that I am 32, I can't stand multiplayer anything games because they are full of incompetent children, turning every team game into pure cancer. I rarely play video games more than 10 hours a week, despite owning dozens of them I haven't touched in my Steam backlog.

I spend most of my free-time watching current, stream-able media (tv shows, podcasts, streams). My skill hasn't regraded much over the years; I'm still top 1% in any competitive online game i try, but after I do it for a single season, I don't see a point anymore as bragging rights vs children has lost its appeal.

10tacle · Oct 12, 2016

Same here. I'm in my 40s (not married and no kids even) and have seriously diminished interest in both PC and PS3/4 gaming. Some of my friends are still at it of the same age range though putting in 15+ hours a week. I prefer watching educational, nature, and history documentaries on TV.

I will say on occasion I still like to sim race (DiRT Rally, PCars, Assetto Corsa) and Flight Sim (FSX). But no more than between one and two hours and only once or twice a month. I have a lot of money over the years in PC gaming, way more than PS3/4 combined, as well as hardware like wheels/pedals for racing and a flight yoke and rudder pedals for flying.

I've kept in the back of my mind the possibility of selling everything if my interest doesn't pick up again. Also, there just haven't been many new games I've been interested in, FPS shooters specifically. Like Wolf said, I'm just going to assume for now this is temporary. But if next year my interest is still low, I'll be selling some stuff.

junkeymonkey · Oct 12, 2016

todays games suck then you now got to deal with you don't own the game , got to deal with 3ed party malware clients [steam-uplay-origin]

poor single player its all about you connecting up to collect data - the days of great single player games are dead and gone like quake .

as far as personal enjoyment all my pre steam games I still enjoy and play and I hold the full software fully on a disk and like f.e.a.r 1 you aint running through it in 2 hrs sp .. lots of game play like quake 3 1000's of maps and as many bots as you can handle to fight ..

these guys who think todays games are so great aint got a clue .. just all they know is a buggy steam rental and there clients

[I AGREE]
To make use of the Content and Services, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.
For reasons that include, without limitation, system security, ect.....

For reasons that include,''''' without limitation''''', system security' ???? so I agree to let them ''adjust'' that on my computers ?? don't think so keep your games i'll watch some classic tv as well ..

Jay Santos · Oct 12, 2016

Whew, I thought I was alone.
Long time ago I would play ANY fps game that came out. They were so amazing. That time I was somewhat poor and the PC I was building were potatos compared to some of the others.

Today, I've put a good amount of money on my gaming rig. About $1,400 counting everything. Yet I play about 5 hours a week at most. I remember when I was younger I could play 5 hours per day. Now that I can afford a good rig, I lost interest.

At the moment I am watching Narcos. Starting season 2. What a great show.

James Mason · Oct 12, 2016

29 yrs old, gaming for... 27 years (Doom and commander keen count yeah?)
Full time job, own house, no kids or significant others yet, but I too am tired of lots of games, mostly interested in playing games I've played in the past, or slow unstressful games like Civilization and turn based strategy.
Can't really stand FPS games anymore, at your age you're probably playing games to destress from your daily life, racing games are decently stressful, so I'd recommend trying something slower and more calming, that keeps your mind occupied but your heart still.

Jay Santos · Oct 12, 2016

James Mason :

I have over 200 hours in it.
It too got boring.

James Mason · Oct 12, 2016

Jay Santos :

Because driving is mindless and puts your brain to sleep, you want "distraction" from your daily thoughts. Look into some strategy games where you have to think ahead a few turns.

Wolfshadw · Oct 12, 2016

No. You're not alone. I'm in my late forties and my gaming tendencies have always been somewhat streaky. I think the first PC game I ever played with tenacity was Lemmings my Psygnosis back in the early 90s. The game literally boasts on the game box, "Warning! We are not responsible for: Loss of Sanity, Loss of Hair, Loss of Sleep"

After a short break, I moved on to F/18 Interceptor (my first flight sim). Fortunately, I was still able to get enough hours of sleep between gaming and my job at the time (though sleep was seriously lacking).

Even at this point, I started to lose interest in gaming (mid 90s). I had Doom2 which was the rage around the dorms at the time, but I decided I had better things to do. When a new game came out that interested me, I'd play it most every day for a few months and then it would drop off (Warcraft I, II, & III, Starcraft I & II, Diablo I & II), beyond that, my game play just kind of dropped off... until....

April 28th, 2004 (Release +1) when City of Heroes was released. For about the next four and a half years, I played that game every day, two to four hours per session and two to five sessions per day. I literally was addicted to the game. After all that time and all that I put into the game (not to mention all the money), I burned out. I stopped playing. After a couple years away, I resubscribed and played a little bit more, but I was pretty much done.

In the seven years since I stopped my daily CoH habit, the only thing interested me was the Mechwarrior Beta. No game since then has really piqued my interest, though I do look forward to any of the CoH successors.

-Wolf sends

MrObjective · Oct 13, 2016

10tacle :

Back when I used to play vanilla WoW in 2003, I had met this incredible player while leveling. He knew everything about the game, had the best gear, and was one of the richest players on the server. Every day I'd log in and he'd be on before me, and still log out after me. He was also one of the coolest, friendliest, and most mature people I've ever met in any online game. One day I asked him, "Wow, you are such a cool and skilled guy, what's your deal exactly? How can you play as much as you do?" He told me, "I'm a retired IT consultant. I used to make 6 figures a year, then invested quite well in my 30s. Now I just play games morning till night here in my 50s."

To this day I still consider that the dream. He's still my true role model.

DSzymborski · Oct 13, 2016

Not sure it's so much an age thing as an "other interests and/or responsibilities" thing. I'm a sportswriter in my late-30s and mostly work remotely and have no kids, so I have the flexibility to still play games as often as I ever did.

But if I had more responsibilities fighting for my time, like a couple kids or having to get dressed in the morning for the 40-hour grind + commute, I can totally see gaming interesting me a bit less. And really, I never get gaming laptops anymore, since when I travel for work, I'm not particularly interested in gaming (I suspect the "more responsibilities" thing at the top of the graf).

USAFRet · Oct 13, 2016

Too old? No.
Life priorities take over. There is only a certain amount of time and energy available.

Plus, the game dynamics and interactions have changed. I no longer have the desire to listen to/read a 12 year old swear and curse and "u suk!!!"

However, as I turn 60...I still game. Ran through a couple levels of Portal 2 last night.
I do NOT, however, splash out $60 every week for some new crapfest. I'd rather spend that $60 in parts building a crosscut sled for my table saw.

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