I have certainly become less involved with gaming of late. I used to game for 3-4 hours a night in the week and all day Saturday but now I am lucky if I can get in a couple of hours a week. Saturday was a rare treat for me as I spent 10hrs playing on my PS4.
Several reasons really, and the primary one is that my other half is now at home a lot more, and she isn't a fan of gaming (having said that we spent all night playing snooker on the PS4 last night!
). So I am spending more time with her. Also - house duties need doing and we have been decorating and sorting the garden out too.
I have a fairly well specced gaming PC upstairs that is gathering dust. I can't remember the last time I actually used it to play a game - but I do know the game I played was Tribes Ascend.
Now I tend to game exclusively on my PS4 and I tend to play games I can jump in and out of and have a quick blast simply because I no longer have the time to invest in long winded story driven titles. I have got so far into the Witcher 3 for example, but the breaks between gaming sessions for me can be as long as 3 weeks so it makes it hard to remain involved with a story, or in some cases even remember what I was doing or even what the controls are!
I think the other thing I feel is worthy of mention is the fact I have been gaming for over 20 years now and I feel like I have seen it all in that time. I think it is fair to say that the jumps in gameplay development we saw in the 90's and noughties are a thing of the past and with the prevelance of recycled titles year after year to milk the market there is also a distinct lack of originality in gaming these days. Very few developers are actually doing anything new or pushing the boundaries. Almost every release is a sequel or a remake of some description within a franchise brand. Then there is part finished games being released in a broken state and the greed of the publishers who insist on season passes and DLC to further milk the market. Games these days are generally not developed to last either. They want more of your money in a years time for essentially the same game but with a change of location, or time period, or with some extra modes or slightly tweaked graphics. Call of Duty games are synonymous with that kind of marketing strategy, as are the Assassins Creed titles to name but two.
All in all it makes me a little fed up with gaming in general, and that is not to mention the totally hacked out multiplayer experience on PC which is now a multi-million dollar industry in and of itself which is a damning indictment of the PC gaming community and the developers in my view. In 2016 hacking in online games should not be possible. I am sure there must be a way to achieve it so why hasn't it been done?
The other thing to consider is that perhaps you have just become bored of gaming full stop? I know it happens. Gaming isn't always a hobby for life and many people drift away from it to do other things.
I still enjoy gaming, but I also find that I will turn my PS4 on and realise that I can't actually be bothered to play anything. I think that boredom or lack of interest stems from the been there done that got the t-shirt position I find myself in.
But also I am increasingly questioning my life in general I guess as well. I ask myself - if I had a terminal illness, would I be happy with how I have lived my life? Or would I see the endless hours spent on games set in imaginary worlds playing as imaginary characters as missed opportunites to actually live and enjoy real life? Getting wound up at hackers, or putting in so much effort into getting better at a game that I sit in a room with the curtains closed while there is sunshine and fresh air to be had outside. Have I wasted a large amount of time in my life? I can't help but feel like I have. True, I enjoyed all of those hours playing games but I often wonder what I would be doing and where I would be if I had invested that time and effort into something else.
