Do you grow out of gaming?

I'm 22 years old and i love gaming, Its such a huge part of my life and i'm not sure what i'd do without it. I now have a full time job of 48 hours a week and also i have a girlfriend who also takes up her fair share of my time.......

my point in all this is how little time i have to game anymore....I mean as life goes on you'll settle down with kids, work, wife....all this stuff adds up, So what happens to my life syle/hobbie....was my mum right will i grow out of gaming?

There are even games that i would love to play but really dont have the time to go on, Also i'm stating to get bord of games faster than i used too.

I'm abit lucky in one way my missis love's to game, so i'm ok when she come's round because i go online with her.....but still when i'm 30-40 will i still game? ....I hope so.

I'm 22 years old and i love gaming, Its such a huge part of my life and i'm not sure what i'd do without it. I now have a full time job of 48 hours a week and also i have a girlfriend who also takes up her fair share of my time.......

my point in all this is how little time i have to game anymore....I mean as life goes on you'll settle down with kids, work, wife....all this stuff adds up, So what happens to my life syle/hobbie....was my mum right will i grow out of gaming?

There are even games that i would love to play but really dont have the time to go on, Also i'm stating to get bord of games faster than i used too.

I'm abit lucky in one way my missis love's to game, so i'm ok when she come's round because i go online with her.....but still when i'm 30-40 will i still game? ....I hope so.

corb77

good post!!

Am not sure myself. I would like to say i wouldnt but i think eventually you would, or only be able to play an hour a week or so (as opposed to my 3 a day).

What i would love more than anything would be to sit down one day with my (future) son (or daughter i suppose) and have a little gaming session with him.

Yeah, i would love to hear an professional answer, why older people don't like games anymore, i mean my father loved pong, and now when he's playing halo he just shoots in the air the whole time.

So, is it something in our brains that starts to give other things in life priority?

Yeah, i would love to hear an professional answer, why older people don't like games anymore, i mean my father loved pong, and now when he's playing halo he just shoots in the air the whole time.

So, is it something in our brains that starts to give other things in life priority?

MaxVanDenderen

that sounds like more of a problem with the controls... something like halo is a lot more complicated than pong... but anyway, I do believe that gaming becomes less of a priority as you grow older (unless you work in video game development of course) because more serious matters need to be taken care of than when you just have homework...

I think i will still always game but i do think that at some point in my life i'll have to take big time out with gaming to think of other things like house prices, kids and so on.

My biggist worrie is at the moment i could spend 200+ on game's a month! now thats alot of money but when you have a life of children and morgages.....makes you wounder what you can afford as well as how interested in gaming you are.

Sometimes I question myself as to what I really like about videogames.

Although I do think that I have 5 or more years of gaming life ahead of me(afterall im just 19). I do believe that someday soon ill lose my interest in videogames.

I'm 22 years old and i love gaming, Its such a huge part of my life and i'm not sure what i'd do without it. I now have a full time job of 48 hours a week and also i have a girlfriend who also takes up her fair share of my time.......

my point in all this is how little time i have to game anymore....I mean as life goes on you'll settle down with kids, work, wife....all this stuff adds up, So what happens to my life syle/hobbie....was my mum right will i grow out of gaming?

There are even games that i would love to play but really dont have the time to go on, Also i'm stating to get bord of games faster than i used too.

I'm abit lucky in one way my missis love's to game, so i'm ok when she come's round because i go online with her.....but still when i'm 30-40 will i still game? ....I hope so.

corb77

we are in the exact same condition, but I study during the night as well, I have around only 1 hour to game from monday to friday, but I can play more on weekends.

My xbox RROD' last week, and I was very upset (I'm waiting for it to return now), because how excited I am for Fallout 3, Gears 2, Far cry 2, Call of Duty : World at War... and others.

I think that as long as I have time to play, I'll play... I don't see myself ever growing out of gaming :)

OK I'm 30 and I have 3 kids (with homework), a mortgage, a wife, and friends but I still find time to game.

My oldest is 7 he asks his mum if daddy can play his 360 so he can sit and watch me play Star War LOL at least that way I don't have to ask the old ball and chain.

I dont stop gaming to worry about my mortgage, and most evenings I chat with my friends on live after the wife goes to bed so I get at least 2 hours a day right there.

You make time for hobbies my Grandad made time for his trains, my Dad DIY, I make time for gaming

I'm 22 years old and i love gaming, Its such a huge part of my life and i'm not sure what i'd do without it. I now have a full time job of 48 hours a week and also i have a girlfriend who also takes up her fair share of my time.......

my point in all this is how little time i have to game anymore....I mean as life goes on you'll settle down with kids, work, wife....all this stuff adds up, So what happens to my life syle/hobbie....was my mum right will i grow out of gaming?

There are even games that i would love to play but really dont have the time to go on, Also i'm stating to get bord of games faster than i used too.

I'm abit lucky in one way my missis love's to game, so i'm ok when she come's round because i go online with her.....but still when i'm 30-40 will i still game? ....I hope so.

corb77

You know, speaking from experience (not my own, but rather that of other family members), this is exactly what you must NOT let happen. you HAVE to make time or you will, no joke, come to hate your life and possibly suffer some sort of mental breakdown at some point...or at the very least, you will not live happily.

When I say make time, it doesn't have to be for gaming, but you have to maintain at least one of your own hobbies. If you just put all your time into work and family with absolutely nothing in good old, honest fun, your quality of life will decrease dramatically. You can say you enjoy your work or that you love your family, but at some level, your mind is aware of the fact that these things are OBLIGATIONS whether or not you enjoy them. It doesn't matter whether you love these items or not, you'd be doing them either way. You need to have at least one aspect of your life that is all for you, over which you have complete control of how and when you do it. Gaming is great for this, though there are other hobbies that can fill this hole. If you devote every last moment of your life to things other than yourself, you won't be happy. That's not called "settling down;" Rather, it's called deadening yourself.

Personally speaking, I am exactly your age (22). I had a girlfriend for a few years, but no one for the last year. As far as work goes, I've gone the academic route and am currently doing my Master's, on the way, i hope, to a phD. However, I've also held down a couple full-time jobs in the past. Thus, my situation is pretty darn different from yours. I'll tell you one thing though, there were two years of my life where I pretty much left gaming and they were two of the crappiest years of my life. I became depressed, literally, as in "mental disorder" depressed.

Now, I do think that losing my interest in gaming was just a symptom of my depression and not a cause...but I think it's very probable that at some point my symptom only helped to perpetuate my depression. I became absorbed in my girlfriend (which turned out to be a rather abusive relationship, actually) and my family obligations (my Dad had recently left and I was left in the unenviable and thankless position of holding the fort down). I lost gaming and in losing my favorite hobby, I became all the more lost in these other arenas of my life. Sure, i lost gaming due to the depression that resulted from these circumstances, but it only helped my depression as well, since with losing gaming, i also lost a big piece of myself, a self that is totally apart from others. I also lost the one consistent bit of fun that can always be relied upon as being nothing other than fun in a time where I was desperately in need of it.

Sorry for the rant. I hope it made some kind of sense. If it didn't, well....yeah, i'm tired, hungry, and don't know what I'm talking about.

I think I'll grow out of gaming for a period of time definitely. Im gaming now and college is getting pretty hectic. I can totally envision studying for the GRE, recruiting, and GF taking gaming out of my life. While I be sad then? Probably not, because right now I can still picture that I'll be able to pick up gaming again at one point in my time or another. =D

To be honest i think i will always game, I've gamed all my life since i could first hold a pad in my hand lol :) I think i just worrie that as you get older you just fade from gaming....which for me would be a huge shame because of how much i love it!

As some one said earlier, gaming is such a huge way to get away from real life and just enjoy yourself.

If i'm honest i'd love to see alot more older gamers gaming online and offline, I'm not big on night clubs and going out (though i do like a drink lol) so i game with my mates online to have a good chat and a laff.

I think the way games are going you will see more people keep gaming well into there adult life and i think thats the way it should be.

Long live the gamers

Our generation grew up with games so I'm possitive alot of us will still be gaming.

Still I agree that you probably must change your "type of games". For example I don't think it's healthy to play addictive games like world of warcraft when you have a family to care about. I remember back in the days me and my father was playing nintendo games togather and just having a blast. I like to think that I will be playing games with my future kids. But still I want to be able to just shut down the console and do something else.

You people are so lucky. 22 and just thinking about growing out of gaming. I'm 17 and I have to force myself to sit down and play a game.

I'm not excited for any games either, just Fallout, and that's because I still play Fallout 1 & 2.

GoW 2: Who cares, first one sucked

Re 5: ehh. I'll rent it, hopefully finish it, but I'm not making any promises

Fable 2: I LOVED the first one but I just don't care to play the second one I don't know why.

Also I was bored out of my mind playing GTA 4. Very repetitious. OHHH I can take my virtual friends out to virtual dinner, now I don't need real friends; because I have you Lil' Jacob, Roman, oh and I didn't forget you Brucie

Well, if it's possible to "grow out of gaming," - I hope to get as much in as possible before I reach that point.

I'm 37 yrs old and have been playing games I was a kid, since the Atari 2600 1st launched - before that, I use to beg to go to my grandparent's house as they had that huge conole that sat on the floor and you could play pong, tennis, squashe, hand ball, etc - basically the same game, just different positions for the 'bar' you contoled.

My wife finds it pathetic that I'm close to 40 and still get excited about games, I just tell her the same thing everytime - "I could have worse habits!!!"

One of the things that keeps me in the mix is the way games have evovled over the years. As an example, find screen shots of the 1st Madden football and put them side by side to the newest Madden '09 - it'll make you laugh. even worse is - I remember a game we use to play for hours on end on the Atari 2600 called "Maze Craze" You're character was nothing more than a colored cursor that you moved around thru a maze - there were different game modes like, tag, cops and robbers, and I seem to remember a time chalange mode.

Today, games have a much more realistic look to them and with games being made in Hi-Def, just makes them that much more attractive to me.

So - again, if it's possible to grow out of gaming - I HOPE NOT !!! Really want to see where it goes from this point !!!!!

I'm 22 years old and i love gaming, Its such a huge part of my life and i'm not sure what i'd do without it. I now have a full time job of 48 hours a week and also i have a girlfriend who also takes up her fair share of my time.......

my point in all this is how little time i have to game anymore....I mean as life goes on you'll settle down with kids, work, wife....all this stuff adds up, So what happens to my life syle/hobbie....was my mum right will i grow out of gaming?

There are even games that i would love to play but really dont have the time to go on, Also i'm stating to get bord of games faster than i used too.

I'm abit lucky in one way my missis love's to game, so i'm ok when she come's round because i go online with her.....but still when i'm 30-40 will i still game? ....I hope so.

corb77

Same age, same boat man.

Been a little worried about this the past year or so myself. The irony is I find myself getting into the casual/quick games more these days. The good news is, I still love gaming...I just don't get enough time for it anymore.

I will give you a little glimmer of hope. My friends dad is in his 40's, and he plays CoD4 and Halo religiously. I aspire to be like him, and odds are I probably will. I have too many good memories from gaming to just let it fade.

I'm 26 - the less time I get to game, the more I want to game!

I think I have an addiction now.

You can grow out of gaming just like you can grow out of anything else. Im going to be 37 next month and have slowed down a little, but not cause im growing out of it, but more like im just bord of most games. Plus , as of today, my 360 is on its way "4TH TIME" to MS to be repaired.

This gen has kind of ruined me on gaming from all the hardware problems. Other than that, im still good to go another 20 years or so..

I am having a hard time finding time for gaming, with just a job and a girlfriend. If or when I ever decide to have a kid, I can't imagine how I will have time. I love gaming, but I do have weekly dry spells from time to time; so I'm not sure of my gaming future. I do enjoy every moment and I hope I never stop.

Another issue with growing out of gaming, is your real-life friends. Just in original XBOX days, I had 10+ friends on LIVE. Now, only two still have a LIVE account, and they barely get online. This is a big disappointment. Luckily, I have found a good, small community/website to use to do gaming nights. I feel this is a big issue with people appropriating their hobbies to another issue.

Glad not alone in this matter and glad @crob77 brought this into discussion.

On my 23 now, i found that my gaming interest dwindled more and more even when i've a lot of free time, i picked controller and just played around 1 to 2 hours then automatically turned off. Back then when PS and PS2 at their prime time, i can play a game whole day.

I began to realized this and try to track what seems to be the caused. So far these might be the caused which are my opinion:

1. Change in life style like spend time more with girlfriend, work, keep up relationship with friends or any activities require you to do it in order to keep things smooth in life (i believe everyone just discussed this)
2. There are no games that can get your interested now just like the old days. Remember those times when games entered 3D world for 1st time.
3. You're gamer from PS and PS2/Xbox generation, you enjoyed old games from PS and PS2/Xbox more than nowadays. Why? graphic sufficient to represent visual like real life object, longer game length, more creative gameplay, more depth in story. I bet some of you still play old games while free be it emulator or old console, i myself found that i can spend more times play old games from start until end of game compared to my play time for next gen game.
4. You've reached your limit, game nowadays not much different from PS and PS2/Xbox generation. The difference maybe just graphic, gameplay pretty much same, shorter game length.
5. You're not online type gamer. Most games now require you to online to fully enjoy it but some gamers don't like online. They prefer spend time gaming alone or invite friends to their house and play together.
6. Games nowadays slower to develop than previous generation. As we can see heavy graphic, realistic, physic, etc....etc...etc. In the end, developer spend less time on game length or in create more creative gameplay.
7. Too realistic and realistic physic may ruin whole game because you know, previously you can just do whatever you like fast but with realism things can be slowing down and pain in the a**.
8. You prefer old school games like old Nintendo's Mario, Zelda, Contra, Sega's Street Knuckles (1,2,3), etc.

That's all i guess. Several points above are the reason why my game interest is dwindling even now. How about you?

Sorry for lengthy post and if any bad grammar or spelling.

EDIT : Forgot "Check Spelling"

It's called finding a balance. I've been gaming since since Pong, Arcade games (spending untold amount of quarters on a game), ninetendo 64 and so. As your responsibilites increase you find less time to play but you don't really lose the desire. There are so many games I'd like to play but have to pick and choose. Of course, I can't stay up to 2 or 3am in the morning playing games during the week like I used to. Life can't always be one thing, therefore when we progress in life we adapt.

I'd probably be gaming into my 90s. It's a part of me I can't ignore.

Gamer on brother, game on!

I'm sure it differs from person to person.

Gaming will always be around, constantly evolving and ever-changing, so even if you slowly quit playing because your life becomes to busy and you don't have time, you can always come back to it later on.

I started playing when the only game was pong. I am now 46 and still love gaming. I don't play as much but I play when time permits. I went form pong to the commodore 64, to snes, to pc to xbox and now xbox360 and mac gaming. The games I play now have changed also and your reaction time slows, so you die a lot but it still fun.wikkiwild1

46 years old and still game i guess the answer for the TC is no you will not stop gaming but my mums 48 she has played bejewled 2 for 221hours but its nice to meet a more mature gamer on here.