Here’s a question for you: how much has adult life changed you? It’s kind of a curious thing to think about, yes? I mean, we are always ourselves no matter what, and yet there are indeed some distinct differences between our child, teen and adult selves. Different things are important; we enjoy spending out time differently, and our outlooks certainly change as we accrue life experience. These differences affect everything, even how we engage with hobbies like gaming. For me, I used to have no problem sitting down and playing a game for hours on end if I had the time. Now though? Now it’s actually kind of hard to do, even if I have free time and nothing better to do.
Being an adult gamer is rather odd, I think. I still have the same old desire to play everything old and new, but I don’t actually like sitting down and putting time into playing them. The idea is fun, but the action is difficult to justify. I don’t know how it is for everyone else, but for me it always feels like there’s something more important that I should be doing. Instead of playing games, I could be studying Japanese; I could be working on my LinkedIn; I could be out of the house making friends, seeing more of my city or any number of other worthwhile things. As fun as it is, gaming doesn’t feel like it should have a place in my schedule.
And yet, the desire remains. I have a “to play” list for 2021, just as I always have. There are new games I’m excited to buy, and old games I’m excited to revisit. Sitting and playing games online is the best way for me to keep in touch with my friends back home too. I still want to get lost in Fallout: New Vegas’ Mojave Wasteland again, and I still want to build random stuff with my buddies in Minecraft. The old tendencies are all still there, but spending time on them is difficult. Fallout: New Vegas is a long game. Minecraft projects take a long time to finish, and multiplayer games require a lot of time in order to become competent. There’s just no justifying all of it, so what to choose?
It’s just as important for adults to have their hobbies as it is for kids, but the limits imposed by adult life almost make those hobbies feel like artifacts of another life, no longer belonging. So, I suppose the point of all this is to pose a couple of questions to you: how do you handle gaming as an adult? Do you still feel like it has genuine place in your life, or is it more like a leftover that you’re unwilling to let go of? In my case, I’m not sure which it is. Perhaps it would be better to finally let it go, but I just can’t see it. Maybe this is just a temporary situation and it’ll work itself out eventually. I dunno. Let me know what you think in the comments!
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Image by Flickr user: Leon Terra
VIRTUAL BASTION 
As someone who got into gaming much later in life, I think for me it’s a worthwhile hobby to make time for. I do agree it’s hard to commit to a really long game but I feel like once I get started, and the story is really good, I’ll make time for it until I’m done. I’m also glad I can call video games another hobby because it has helped to cope with the stress and trauma of the pandemic. It’s another way to escape and forget about how scary and uncertain the world is right now. There’s a lot of comfort in just having so much to do when you’re stuck at home and I’ve been lucky that I have a lot of interests I can choose from. 😄
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You know, that’s a good way to look at it. Maybe there’s value in just getting away from everything. Hmm…thanks for sharing, I might try to keep that idea in mind from now on! 🙂
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Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
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I absolutely understand you, I am 35 and had kind of a slump in gaming which was my constant in life.
Until I played the Yakuza games.
It somehow scratched an itch that I didn’t even know I have. Basically gave back my hope in gaming.
I am very new to blogging and actually planning to write about those games because I truly believe more people should play them.
So my bottomline is: you have to find the game that could potentially give back that spark. Try widening your scope
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Since I don’t have a wife or kids, I would say my gaming habits haven’t changed all that much. I still have time to game during the week after I am done with work and also during the weekends in case I choose to stay home and relax.
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Love this – can certainly relate to the struggles!
As I have a daughter my gaming its often limited to what games I can play at what times… she doesn’t normally appreciate the violent games when she is wandering around but a balance needs to be struck.
I always put time aside to game though as it gives me a break to relax so if you are patient with a longer game sometimes a 1 or 2 hour session multiple times is the way to go?
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So taking smaller bites more frequently if possible? That sounds like a decent strategy! How long does it take you to get through a game if you play that way?
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I’m an older gamer and have been playing games since the 70s. In todays gaming I find games are just too long and complicated. But having said that I do now enjoy shorter games available on the Switch (4 hr games) and get my fix that way. Also I’m now a fan of PSVR which typically offer shorter game times and again satisfy my needs plenty. It’s now not often I play 15+ hour games simply because I lose interest quickly.
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So not usually a fan of the longer, story-driven games then?
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