For this last week of personal posts for Virtual Bastion’s tenth (ish) anniversary, we decided it’d be a good opportunity to take a look back at our gaming lives and see how we’ve changed as gamers. We already discussed views and such last week, so this time I think the focus will be on taste and gaming habits. So, have I changed much as a gamer? Actually, yeah. I think I have.
Even though I still enjoy blogging about games and talking about them, the amount of time I spend on gaming week to week has decreased dramatically over the past decade. I think, when Virtual Bastion/ United We Game first started back in 2013, I was playing games at least a couple of hours a day on weekdays and spending at least 5 or 6 each day on weekends. I suppose it was because I was still fresh out of college and still kind of had that mindset about it, heck I spent even more time on games while I was in college.
Gaming was my main hobby. It’s what I wanted to do with my spare time and what I enjoyed doing with my friends. I really had no desire to take up a sport, join any groups or get a girlfriend or anything. Really, if I wasn’t working or working on something that would get me to the next (hopefully better job) I was gaming. That passion for it is kinda what led to this site in the first place.
Over the years, I leaned more and more into doing stuff related to games. I freelanced as a games writer for a time, became a staff writer for Hardcore Gamer, went to gaming conventions, did interviews and attended press events. I still do a lot of those things and they’re probably my favorite things that I get to do. Actually playing games has kinda taken a back seat though.
I still play for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but it not so much because I’ve got a lot of games I want to play. Rather, games just happen to be the best medium for spending time with my friends back home. When my friends are online, I’m all about hanging out and playing whatever, even if we’re all playing different single player games and just talking.
After that though, the drive kind of goes away. I spend time checking out the area I’m living in, studying or spending time with local friends or trying new activities instead of playing games. Playing games just isn’t all that important to me at the moment. This could always change. Motivation is something that ebbs and flows for just about everything, not just gaming.
For now, I’m happy with just a few hours a week with friends. Will the same be true a year or two years from now? Maybe, maybe not. I still go out and talk to game developers and am still on here blogging away about them, so chances are probably pretty good that playing games will become more interesting again. I guess we’ll see though.
How have you changed as a gamer over the years? Have your tastes or habits changed at all? How about your reason for playing? Let me know below and stay tuned for one more week of anniversary celebrations!
Image crafted by Hatmonster
VIRTUAL BASTION 
Ironically, I played video games less in high school and college than I do now, which still is not that often. In high school, I probably played 2 hours a week at most. In college, I played not even an hour a week. Now, I likely play anywhere between 3-6 hours a week if I’m lucky.
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What changed, do you think? Also, what sorts of games are you spending that time on?
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I mostly play games before the 7th generation of consoles (basically anything before the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii generation). My interest in retro games goes back to when I was a child. Despite being only 29 years old, the first game I completed on a home console was Super Mario Brothers (1985), which I beat on a real NES when I was six. I even played games on the Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive before I played a single Nintendo GameCube game (my orthodontist had a Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive at his office). In middle school, I discovered emulation, and the first game I emulated was the original Metroid on NESticle in 2006. I also enjoy numerous mods of older games, especially mods of the following games:
The only mods I have not played yet that I want to are mods for the following games:
I even developed my own Super Mario World mod in high school (52 levels), but unfortunately, I do not have that mod anymore. Learning about the id Tech 1 engine and modding Doom II has been interesting. I might develop a Doom II mod and a new Super Mario World mod in a few years.
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Dang! You’re a through and through classic gamer, eh? Pretty cool dude? I wonder though, did you ever give Super Mario Maker a try? Whole game was basically a modded level playground
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I did play Super Mario Maker on the Wii U during my senior year of college (2015-2016), but not nearly as much as my time with Super Mario World modding in high school. While I was obsessed with Lunar Magic during my teenage years, I enjoyed my time with Super Mario Maker. The sequel for the Nintendo Switch (Super Mario Maker 2: 2019) piqued my interest when I first saw it, but I have not had a chance to play it yet. Another influence on my interest in retro gaming was James Rolfe, whose first videos I saw were the Super Mario Brothers 3 and Battletoads episodes (even before the legendary Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest episode).
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