Back in the day, I played games a lot. Every new game that came out that looked decent, I played. But as of late (last year or so) I haven't bought a single game. They just don't seem interesting to me. I passed up Left4Dead, Gears of War 2, etc... I prefer to code games then actually play them. So the question is, is there something wrong with me or are games just not appealing (and coding is becoming more appealing)? Maybe I'm just getting old. Soon I'll be yelling at kids to get off my lawn!

You obviously have a mental disorder.










BTW, GOW2 is pretty fun if you like multiplayer.

Nope, that's normal. That happened to me about 10 years ago. I've bought maybe 8 games since (though I've played tons of demos). Making games is much more interesting.

I went through a phase shortly after learning to program where I hardly ever played games. Now that I'm actually doing the whole game development thing for a living I end up playing more games more often.

Being a professional game developer is a pretty ridiculous time commitment, but it always saddens me when people lose their love for games as soon as it starts being their occupation. I still learn so much about game design from the games I play that I just don't see myself stopping that any time soon. If anything, I may actually enjoy playing games more now than I did when I was a kid.

Im the same way. I used to play every half-decent game that came out. Now I barely play the top 1% blockbusters. The only game I'm playing right now is Left 4 Dead, and I only play that about once a week.

I think its because Ive played thousands of games in my life, and its getting rarer and rarer to see something new.

I also like to dabble in creating games, and I definetly spend more time programming than playing.

My gaming is drying up too, simply because of all these super-hyped AAA games that turn out to be "meh" at best.

I usually find myself buying one AAA game, playing it for achievements (on the 360) then playing the multiplayer to death. Buy another game, rinse and repeat.

I don't go spending £100s on games that I hop between at a second's notice. I buy a game and make it last.

I no longer buy cutting edge PC titles either. Most of my PC games are a bit older, like HL2:Deathmatch and Civilization IV.

In summary, most of my gaming these days is an hour or so of multiplayer, then system off and do something else. I can no longer sit for hours at a time cutting through some Dickensian story.

I don't play games any less than I used to, but I certainly buy far fewer. The games I play these days have all been out for a number of years, ranging from Diablo 1 to Warcraft 3 to numerous NES and SNES titles. Most modern games just don't have anything that interest me - while each game has unique details that make a huge difference in gameplay, I find that those details don't bend things towards my preferences at all. Most modern games are centered around multiplayer, which is great except that the communities are horrible and the games aren't very balanced in the ways I enjoy.

Part of the reason I enjoy Warcraft 3 is that it's one of the few games that has any semblance of modding community (with it's custom map capabilities) and I really prefer the type of innovation that can be found when the masses are all creating content. Sure, 99% of it or more isn't fun at all, but that small quality portion easily keeps my attention and game time.

I play games much less than I used to. I still find the idea just as appealing as I used to, and when I do sit down to play a game it's just as fun as it was when I was a kid. The real reason is that as I've grown older I've discovered several other passions in addition to games, and I now devote my time equally to all my passions rather than giving it all to playing games.

One of those passions, of course, is game development, either in the form of actually coding games or just being a part of the community here and keeping up on news. I never read anything when I was little, but as soon as I got into programming, I started reading all the time--not novels but technical books. I continue to enjoy reading technical books, although now I almost exclusively read books on mathematics, not programming or computer science.

And then there's the obvious reason: I'm just more busy now with part-time work and full-time school than I was back in elementary school or even high school.

This most recent winter break I had a month off from school and only had a few hours of work to do a day, and I decided I wanted to spend that month much like I did a long time ago. So I caught up on all the latest games and such and probably spent way too much time playing them. It was a blast. Now that the break has been over for a month or so, I'm back in the routine of things and really only play any games on the weekends, and even then it's not for long.

I don't know if I will ever get back into games as a serious gamer. I bought a Wii and some games a year ago but it seldom sees use. Only when friends come over we have a Guitar hero jam session or something.

On the other hand, I do have a game engine built and I am making a game with a friend. There is no shortage of game ideas here.

Quote: Original post by Extrarius
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Ditto. Although replace few with one or two a year.