Topic: How have your gaming habits changed since your teens/early 20s?

[Pugnate]

I am definitely a lot less frequent a gamer.

[idolminds]

A little less, I think. Mostly because I spend more time reading about gaming instead of...gaming.

That and I played a lot of multiplayer games before they stopped caring about optimizing netcode for dial up. So my multiplayer choices are much more limited now.

[K-man]

A lot less no doubt.  A wife and career will do that.  I still buy games, but a lot less frequently (and I'm much more picky about my selections).  Whereas a few years ago I might have given a middle of the road game a shot, now I tend to hold out for the great games, or the ones I'm very interested in playing.  I barely have the time to play what I want to play, much less what I'm semi curious about.  I also tend to wait for games to drop in price before buying them now, and only reserve full price for what I absolutely cannot wait to play.

[Cobra951]

I actually game a lot more now than during my teens, which was a rather different scene then:



Early 20s were not a whole lot better, really:

[TheOtherBelmont]

I do about the same, I play something almost on a daily basis and still find myself doing long 8+ hour marathons with certain games when they first come out.  I may even play a little more now than I did when I was in college since I have more free time and money.

[Quemaqua]

I hardly touch games at all anymore, these days.  I still keep trying, because I want to be interested in it, but I'm just sort of not.  It's been about 5 or 6 months I'd guess since I really stopped playing much, and I haven't played more than a few hours since probably February.  Part of that is life circumstances, but... eh.  I dunno'.

I picked up Red Dead Redemption today.  I'm really hoping that's going to take and I'll be able to enjoy it.  I really need something to focus on right now that isn't my problems.  Lately all I can seem to do is smoke, drink, and sleep.

[Cobra951]

I picked up Red Dead Redemption today.  I'm really hoping that's going to take and I'll be able to enjoy it.  I really need something to focus on right now that isn't my problems. 

That's my reason for focusing on games so much as well.  A good immersive game works as an escape from brutal reality, for a while.  It beats drinking yourself to death, man.  Yeah, give it a go. Try to live the wild West for a while.

[Quemaqua]

So far so good.  I can say that this game is really something.  I've played less than an hour and I'm already sincerely impressed by the effort that obviously went into it.  Though I'm drinking as I'm playing it.  Is that doing it wrong?

[Pugnate]

I picked up Red Dead Redemption today.  I'm really hoping that's going to take and I'll be able to enjoy it.  I really need something to focus on right now that isn't my problems.  Lately all I can seem to do is smoke, drink, and sleep.

I think that's just a huge part of gaming as you get older. When I have some personal or work related issues brewing, I just find it incredibly hard to start a game.

[Quemaqua]

I can start them, I just can't play them for more than a couple of hours.  I've literally put like 1 to 5 hours into everything I've picked up in the last while and just dropped them completely after that.  I have no desire to entertain myself.

[scottws]

A lot less no doubt.  A wife and career will do that.  I still buy games, but a lot less frequently (and I'm much more picky about my selections).  Whereas a few years ago I might have given a middle of the road game a shot, now I tend to hold out for the great games, or the ones I'm very interested in playing.  I barely have the time to play what I want to play, much less what I'm semi curious about.  I also tend to wait for games to drop in price before buying them now, and only reserve full price for what I absolutely cannot wait to play.

This is me, pretty much.  In the N64 days I would pick up games that just looked interesting, while in the PS2/Gamecube days I would only get the "AAA titles".  Now I only get stuff I am really interested in, like the COD:MW games.

[ren]

I'm changing early 20s to early teens and voting I do a lot less gaming now. Now I have an xbox at my parents house and usually pick up the one big game of the year and play it when I'm home. So first it was GTAIV, then Fallout 3 and next time I'm home it might be Red Dead Redemption.

I still have plenty of time and money, I just don't have the desire to play games like I used to. Most of my expendable income seems to go towards music and traveling nowadays.

[MysterD]

Way more. No doubt in my mind.

[Raisa]

alot less.. I played the most from 18-23... after that, things drastically changed. My husband thinks I'm insane for liking games.

Well come to think of it, I did play a lot when I was 10... I'd cut classes and go to my classmate's house and we'd just play.

[ren]

You could cut classes when you were 10? When I was 10, if we weren't in school our parents were immediately notified and if they didn't know where we were the police were notified. It wasn't until high school (14 or 15) when cutting class became possible since the police were no longer involved.

[Folk]

I'm back to playing fighting games like I did in college.  I updated my MAME machine to have all the fighters I played and the ones I never got a chance to play.  I just finished making my own arcade stick too.

I don't have the patience for games that require long sit down times.  I need instant gratification.  I still manage to play a lot of games, though... it helps having a gamer as a roommate.  I play a lot more board games now too.

[scottws]

You could cut classes when you were 10? When I was 10, if we weren't in school our parents were immediately notified and if they didn't know where we were the police were notified. It wasn't until high school (14 or 15) when cutting class became possible since the police were no longer involved.

I didn't even consider cutting class until college.  I went to a prestigious high school, and cutting a single class equaled 3 demerits.  If you got something like 15 demerits in a quarter, you got expelled.

It wasn't even something that crossed my mind in grade school.

[MysterD]

I game A LOT more than before.
Also, I do BUY a lot more than before, as well.

[Schlotzky5]

I game much less, but I also play fewer games longer. I tend to make better choices buying games and those games last me longer to get tired of. Either that, or games are better today with more content to keep me interested.

[Pugnate]

Way more. No doubt in my mind.

I game A LOT more than before.
Also, I do BUY a lot more than before, as well.

haha D posted his response twice in the space of six hours.

Anyway, I've noticed another area where my habits have changed: The way I soak information for a game I am anticipating.

Back then when Diablo 2 was coming, being a HUGE fan of the game (I preordered the CE the day it was available and the release happened on my b-day ), I poured over ever piece of news about the game, and took everything in. When the game came out, I read every review etc.

Nowadays, I don't bother with most of the previews. For example, I haven't read much on Diablo 3, even though I am quite pumped for it. I am also pumped for The Witcher 2, but have again skipped on the info provided so far.

[MysterD]

This thread reminds me, I need to go play more STALKER: Call of Pripyat - Loyalty Edition.

EDIT:

haha D posted his response twice in the space of six hours.

Gimmie a chance, I might go for #3.

[iPPi]

It's up and down quite a bit.  I did quite a bit of hardcore gaming over the last year and I think I may have burned myself out of gaming for a while.  I just all of a sudden feel no desire to play any more video games.  I've got 3 games that I have just started though (inFamous, 3D Dot Game Heroes, and Resident Evil 5)... they arrive in the last two months and I've only put in like 3 hours into inFamous, 2 hours into 3D Dot Game Heroes and 30 minutes into RE5.

I think I'm just gonna take a break from gaming and then come back to it when I feel like it. 

[Raisa]

You could cut classes when you were 10? When I was 10, if we weren't in school our parents were immediately notified and if they didn't know where we were the police were notified. It wasn't until high school (14 or 15) when cutting class became possible since the police were no longer involved.

Yeah..

We'd sneak out. My best friend was like a sister to the main security guard.. and he knew where we were going so he'd let us out.

My grades were always high so no one knew i was missing classes.

High school, i couldn't cut classes cause it was a private boarding school.. there were 6 of us in my class. I did run away once

[shock]

Shock in his teens:
1) Wake up early to play games for a bit.
2) Go to school.  Think about games.
3) Hang out a bit with friends after school.  Secretly look forward to coming home to play more games.
4) Play games until late at night.
5) Finish homework when I have an "oh shit it's midnight already" moment.

Shock in his twenties
1) Wake up.  Go to work.
2) Come home stressed, tired.
3) Spend time with friends. girlfriend.
4) Drink.
5) Go to sleep.

I occasionally find time to play during the weekend.  I've also become ridiculously selective when it comes to games.  I'll play a few PC games a year, and I'll play them once through usually.  I rarely do the "find every X thing in the level" or "explore for hours in one area."  I'm much more goal-focused.

WoW is the only exception: I will go through stints with that randomly still, and I will spend inordinate amounts of time playing it.  That's the only game that I can put a fair amount of time into and not get bored or feel bad about not doing something more productive with my time.  I don't have the patience I did before.  Strategies games used to be my favorites: now it's more about insta-thrills.