I’m in my late 30s now and over the past 6ish months, I have been gaming a lot less or I find myself gaming but not enjoying it.
I used to always have a game I wanted to play or revisit, but it seems that nothing is really catching my interest.
I’m mostly a retro gamer so I was always happy to revisit old titles. But now I get bored of them quickly.
Boredom is your brain urging you too change your behavior. The magic of gaming will return if you take a nice break and focus on yourself and other things. At least it works that way for me.
Yeah, I find I need to read a book or find some other way to engage my brain - woodworking, painting, gardening, etc… The enjoyment comes back.
This can be a depression indicator, for me at least.
I don’t have any good advice for what to do with that info, but I hope it’s not that for you.
If you’re mega stressed and you lose your primary stress relief that can be rough.
Absolutely a depression indicator.
Post-election, my wife and I are going hard on co-op games again. We are not feeling so great.
But prior to that, we were casually gaming, maybe 1-2 hours a day at most.
Welcome. This is normal. It will be worst later (worst vision, worst reflex, laziness, etc). Just enjoy that your are alive and you will see new iterations (maybe HL3, someday) and new good games. You can not go back to your twenties or beyond, with all your over-the-top reflex, stress-free, free-time, and un-experienced view to be easy surprised. Just enjoy other things, other game types. Never play by obligation.
50s here. I’ve had that too. Sometimes due to low mental health, but often just a change in interests. Gaming is one hobby I’ve kept coming back to since the early 1980s, and overall it’s pretty constant. Other hobbies have come and gone - I think it helps to have a variety of things to spend your time doing, rather than one big one.
What isn’t constant is the type of games. FPS used to be amazing, but now I get motion sickness with many, including some third person games. Also my reactions are slower with age, so online is often frustrating. I adapt by playing more cosy and strategy games. Factorio Space Age currently taking a lot of my time, but I’ve a few that I keep going back to.
Try changing your dynamic. The human brain thrives on novelty.
Play genres you normally wouldn’t – e.g: Hate horror games? Good - try out Silent Hill or some classics you skipped over.
Get a VR headset, go from 2D screen to proper full body 3D - fly a plane over the Andes, feel like you’re actually flying. Pilot a huge mech. Build a colony on Mars with your own two hands.
Burnout happens and it’s worth examining other areas in your life, but gaming’s always been the wondrous thing it always has.
The Steam Deck fixed this for me, the ability to just turn it on and start playing makes a huge difference!
It depends on why you’re in the games and what is going on with your life.
It can be an escape
It can be a break
It can be an outlet
It can just be for fun
It can be an exercise for the brain
But if it’s not providing any of that maybe that’s not what you need right now. It can also be a thing you need the escape/break from.
It’s just a thing for spending time without productivity so walking away from it isn’t a big drama. It’s going to be there later when you want it.
There’s other things that can provide a break or be fun for a while until you find the joy of the game again.
Personally ive almost never enjoyed gaming alone. I can count the singleplayer games ive finished on one hand. I almost exclusively enjoy playing games with friends. CO-OP, PVE, PVP, you name it. As long as i can play with friends and we can progress together im happy. Long term progression is my favorite, really seeing something grow that youve all done together is great. I enjoy MMO RPGs but also games like Minecraft, Factorio or Satisfactory.
As others have already mentioned breaking the pattern is the cure to boredom. Maybe try something new? Look for a genre youve nerver played or bringa some friends onto a Minecraft server. Maybe join a community and find some people to play with if no friends are interested. Or just take a break. Sometimes we ned to leave the cycle for a bit to be able to enjoy it.
Late 20s and I have the same. When I work I am often looking forward to play something after work or when I have time. But when I finally have time and want to start, I look at my library, can’t decide for something and lose interest.
I have exactly the same feeling. Work life and kids. When finally I had two hours of free time at 21pm when everyone was sleeping the other day, I spent one hour looking at my huge steam library of games that I bought on previous sales and still never played. I really wanted to spend those 2 hours on a good quality game but could not figure out which one. In the end I figured out it was not worth starting a new game for only one hour and wasted the remaining time watching useless stuff on YouTube…
