Becoming less interested in gaming as time goes on?

I felt the same way as well for a while until I started getting more DS games for Christmas and got a Wii.

First time we got the Wii, we played Wii sports for 10 hours straight. Sooo much fun. Currently playing Kirby, Mario, and FFIII for DS Lite, plus GoW/Fight Night 3 for 360. That's gaming bliss!

I hear what alot of you guys are saying and I feel like I'm getting really picky about the games that I play. I absolutely will not buy a game unless I read 3 or 4 great reviews about it, or somebody here at Sharky's goes on about how good it is. I'm not going to drop $50 for some piece of crap just because it's hyped commercially.

I really enjoy finding older, classics and play them. Within the last 2 years I've picked up System Shock 2 and Baldur's Gate 2 and I probably got 6-7 months of gaming out of them, and they were around $10 each.

FIFA 07 has got me hooked now.

^^^I went through that phase too ... playing old games again. I'm over that as well.

I just like how some of the new games are. Totally different from the stuff I played growing up (control-wise and how you interact). That's mostly the only thing that's keeping me entertained now as the regular stuff just bores me.

The reason that GoW rules is the co-op play (haven't gone live). I can't seem to play a single player game for very long, 'cause it's boring playing alone. Only exception being Fight Night ('cause I love the Rocky movies) and DS games (done perfect, easy to play, and you can take it everywhere you go).

My glory days of endless gaming are over. I remember many countless hours and allnighters spent on GS2000, the Ultimas, JA2, UFO, BG2, MM3, Falcon 4.0, etc....
Nowadays, with a full time job, school, a wife, two kids, and other hobbies, I don't have as much time. But that actually means that I am now VERY picky about what I play.

I think another aspect of it for me, in addition to being interested about a lot more about the video game industry than just playing the games, is sheer experience. I used to love playing almost any game I could get my hands on; heck, when I was little I even liked the X-Men game on the NES, which is one of the worst games of all time. Now, it's just not enough for a game to be generic shooter #80 this year, or generic japanese RPG #56. Games generally have to bring more to the table than that. There is just so much variety in games out there, and such a large volume of alternatives, if there is something about a system in a game that I don't like, I can just shut it off, put it away, and try out one of the other games in the same genre.

Something else interesting that I've noticed (that somewhat contradicts my first paragraph here) - as I've played fewer games overall, the term "generic" is starting to lose some of its weight. For instance, I used to play through several FPS per year, several RPGs, etc., so I could really tell when a game didn't bring something new to the table. Now, considering I haven't really played any, say, japanese style RPGs in the last few years (except the outlandish stuff like Shin Megami Tensei), even the ones that are generally regarded as pretty generic now still seem new to me, since the genre as a whole has moved forward while I've been away from it (though angsty pre-teens with amnesia seemingly never goes out of style). I first noticed this when all I heard about Black from the critics and game enthusiasts was that the game was basically totally unoriginal and lifted from other games, but when I talked to my friends that don't play too many games, they all loved it.

we are all getting older and have other responsibilities..
and less time

I don't play much game anymore of any. but I keep up with news and get games but I probably put in a few hours per game and never touch it again. it's more of a collecting it to me now.

I think I probably spend quite a bit more time online in forums like these just talking about and discussing games and gaming than I do actually playing games now.
I reformatted my HDDs just about 2 weeks ago, and have YET to install a single game on either of them, XP or Vista. That's pretty much unheard of for me.
Although, to be fair, this forum is usually the best place (for me) to learn about the best upcoming games, and possibly games I've missed out on. I can't count the number of games I purchased mainly because of hearing about them on Sharky.

Gaming will always be a big hobby for me, in one way or another. Whether it's just talking about it with other gamers in forums like these, or playing random old games for the nostalgia, I don't think I'll ever abandon it completley.

It is called growing up and getting older( do they go hand in hand?)

Learux