The Gaming Fatigue

[Yian]

How many people here no longer play as much games as they used to?

Is it because of work? Family? Or because the games just aren't as much fun? O they are just too expensive? Or because we played so much games in the past that we aren't as excited about new games and even when they come out, we don't feel the need to buy them?

How many people here still enjoy video games regularly, and still have fun while at it?

[Fatty]

All of the above

[burnart]

Actually, when I did long stretches of gaming it was together with friends equally nerdy and with no life just as me.
Since then I have found other interests and gaming isn't as much part of it anymore. Still I occasionally game, just not as much.
Today I played Frozen Synapse witch is a pretty good game actually. Hard as fuck tho..

[RacerX]

I still have friends over every month or so. We play Flat Out 2 and Titan Quest. Sometimes there are 8 of us. We make an evening of it and have dinner and catch up on life.

Other than that, I play a few PC and Xbox 360 games now and then. But it is basically all of the reasons you mentioned, Yian. Life gets busy.

[Rhenna]

How many people here no longer play as much games as they used to?

Is it because of work? Family? Or because the games just aren't as much fun? Or they are just too expensive? Or because we played so much games in the past that we aren't as excited about new games and even when they come out, we don't feel the need to buy them?

How many people here still enjoy video games regularly, and still have fun while at it?

I don't believe my gaming routine has changed much over the years. One must, or, at least, should, take care of Real-life demands. But, for me, time spent gaming is time spent relaxing; it isn't any sort of "guilty pleasure." Neither is reading, another form of relaxation for me.

If millions upon millions of people watch television each day, and that is considered OK, (or, at the very least, normal), my feeling is being seated at a computer playing something more thought-provoking than Space Invaders should be equally acceptable. As it turns out, the television reception at my location is quite poor, but it seems that isn't relevant, as almost everyone I've spoken to who has access to 900+ channels tells me that there is *still* rarely anything worthwhile to watch.

I'd say that current games *can be* just as fun as they were in past years. And, of the games that I consider fun, I'd say they aren't any more or less common than in years past.

Except for the independent titles, games have often been too expensive. There seems to be more and more pressure to unify the price of a title released on both PC and console platforms, and the historic price demanded for console titles is flat-out outrageous. $59.99 USD for a supposed "A" title game is a no-go for me. Anyone still paying that to play something on their X-Box 360 or PS/3, with their respective ATI X18xx or nVidia 7xxx level graphics, has my sympathy. Not to mention the whole quality issue of porting a title among both the PC and consoles, diluting it to the level of the weakest platform.

Regarding being excited about buying and playing a particular game? Well, there are some future or proposed titles I've decided I'll purchase without a second thought; Mass Effect 3, or, a new STALKER or MechWarrior title, for example. But, that *doesn't* mean that I'd purchase them when first released, at their originally asked-for price. I replay titles I enjoy so frequently that, in essence, I don't have the need for constantly increasing my library. (For example, I'm approaching 350 hours of STALKER: Call of Pripyat, all of it single-player.) A "good game" will still be so, a year or so after it's release, when it's price is much more reasonable.

What will totally suck the "fun" out of gaming for me, is the ever-increasing use of, and the more troublesome and pervasive nature of, DRM. Some publishers are really playing with fire when it comes to this stuff.