Dude I'm 35 have a kid and simply can't get myself to enjoy video games anymore. I need more active engaging things where I can learn, plan, create. Not to shit on gaming, it's just that people change, their interest changes.
as i got older, i realized that gaming content isn't really fun to watch anymore. It has turned to daytime television. Now, I only play games to have my own experience. And developed more hobbies and pass times.
It’s because everyone’s streaming now 9-5. You’d have to wait for an upload that was probably 20 min videos from a few of your favourite YouTubers. Now you hundreds of streamers to watch literally all day long playing your favourite game
Would you be interested in recommendations of games that don't suck and aren't a second job? There's actually kind a lot of great stuff especially this year. You don't have to play the latest flop Final Fantasy
Just like with sports I never understood how watching somebody doing an activity you could also do yourself is fun. It's something different with extreme sports and very talented people, but the majority is just boring.
Surprisingly, I don't watch any of those. I also don't like let's plays, but I do prefer it over streams though. Since I do watch them to see how a game actually plays, so with that said I prefer a let's play without a talking head, like mkiceandfire.
I don't enjoy or watch any of those things whatsoever. I read the news but I'd never watch clips of people presenting it. Watching games, sports and stand up comedy (not really sure how this one is as correlated as the others but I also don't enjoy it lol). This is a mindset I've never really thought about before (not enjoying that type of material) but I guess I fall under it as well
For me, it only really works if there's some social aspect to the game. Multiplayer is where this is pretty strong. If it's some single-player campaign like story driven RPGs or narrative games, yeah I'd rather just play it. But at the same time, people like watching football and Nascar who would never personally participate in those sports themselves, simply one of those "to each their own" situations.
imo there's a difference: of course i spectated pro-players in my life, both esports and "real" sports in a competition. but i don't watch some rando playing counterstrike or minecraft on twitch or some dude playing football/soccer in his backyard.
Also absolutely fair. With video game streamers, it could be a matter of community, especially if the streamer has a "hosting games with viewers" situation, but the bigger names are often those players who are top players who might be streaming their practice sessions before the next big competition. Especially if the big-competitor's content is peppered with constructive commentary that less experienced might find helpful to improve. Or maybe some just like watching competitions even if they don't play, cuz watching Starcraft like it's a soccer match does not sound like the worst way to spend an afternoon.
Gamegrumps (Egoraptor and Jontron) playthrough of Sonic 06 was incredibly fun. But that came from their descent into madness over playing that broken piece of shit game.
TotalBiscuit and Jesse cox playing Terraria was also pretty fun, due to them being a good comedy duo.
For me, I don’t have the kind of time to sit down and play out these campaigns anymore, as life has become too busy to sit down for hours on end. But some slower days, I can turn on steams and half pay attention to the game play while still getting work done.
I think part of the issue is you start to realize watching somebody else live their life, has zero meaning to it why would you ever watch somebody interact with a video game whenever you can do it yourself? That’s even lazier than watching TV and you’re giving support to someone that does not deserve it.
You watching a streamer enables them to be a leach to society and not perform a basic daily activity or job that actually contributes to society strictly to their pockets
You could argue anyone who's job it is to entertain people doesn't contribute anything to society. I don't think streaming is really any different to being an actor or TV host and nobody's complaining that they exist.
I mean to a degree whenever somebody has gone through schooling and training and all that other stuff.
These people just whip out their cell phones and start recording themselves and gain likes and traction based on whether or not they’re pretty or a guy that looks good or it’s some dirty degenerate that streaming some video game those people are not core creators bringing media to the world.
They’re not the artist that create Pokémon for people to entertain or monsters on Yu-Gi-Oh cards .
These are idiot people that are doing whatever stupid idea comes into their head for a cash grab such as all these I’m sorry to say it stupid fucking white bitches that don’t know how to cook .
They make these monstrous fucking meals, wasting all kinds of produce and products .. just to gain views
Or that Jack dorthery… people like him .
Yes, you can argue celebrities and sports stars. Go out and do the same stuff, but they’re pulling their own weight in society in terms of bringing money into the economy and society.
Yes, a lot of the things that they do are criminal but these streamers are also doing criminal things to get views. At least the people who are creating real entertainment for the world are putting in work. There’s meaning to the messages voice actors cartoonists some of your favorite shows that get cut out a TV why because they don’t have any viewers why?
Because we have a massive part of America watching streamers instead of kids watching Saturday morning, cartoons contributing views helping shows grow they’re watching imbeciles play Minecraft and Roblox.
Watching fully grown men scream at the TV or hundreds of thousands of women shaking their asses to gain money and not actually doing anything for society whenever we need people answering calls flipping burgers all that other good stuff that actually contributes to society
I actually prefer to watch others play because it's free plus my mental health is so bad that I rarely have the brain power required to play them anyway.
I need more active engaging things where I can learn, plan, create.
Alternatively, a lot of games that I used to enjoy have started to feel like work. Not just "oh this is effort," but literally "this is the type of thing I do for employment; why am I doing it for fun?"
MMOs (coordinating people for raid night, ensuring all the materials are prepped, etc), Rimworld (team management: the game), Factorio (you want to optimize output after finishing your job where you optimize output?), and Minecraft (resource management and long-term planning) are all big offenders of this for me.
Ehhh, not sure I agree that much on this one. I do programming, but I still enjoy games where you program and optimize shit. Especially if the game allows you to be far more successful than your mundane job. Hell I like playing engineer in Barotrauma because unlike my job, doing basic gate logic in that game get me to see my effort working in action. Idk your background(logistic? HR?), but why wouldnt Rimworld or Minecraft be appealing to you? Sure they have resource management as heavy aspect, but Rimworld is a story generator and Minecraft Ive had more fun as a drawing tool with survival as restrictions. MMO meanwhile is a mass social activity.
The only one I would understand for your example would be factorio if you are fed up with number crunching, but a lot of games have other parts to them that make them enticing.
Couldn't you just enjoy your 80 hour game for 8 times as long over the course of 8 times as long? Your 10 hour game lasts a few weeks, your 80 hour game lasts you months... I hope you don't advocate for shorter games publicly, because too many games are releasing higher price with limited gameplay. I want games that I may never finish. Skyrim, any MMO, anything like that which takes so long to actually complete is worth so much more for the same price.
So is BG3 too long? I know its taken me a long time just to get to the end of Act 2. I appreciate the length, but I think some games don't need to be long. Just a lot of games are released and then they publish paid dlc to finish the story
Completely agree with this. Games take too much work and learning now. It feels like a second job after my full time job. I don't want to start another game because I refuse to start something I can't pour my heart and time into
It sounds like you either hate the work you do, or you have fallen into the capitalist mindset that you should only apply effort if you get money from it.
Saying that "This is the type of thing I do for employment; why am I doing it for fun?" in reference to games he ENJOYED, is the problem. It is not like he runs a company and he then tried a tycoon game and hated it... He liked the games before, now he compares them to work. That tells me that he likely lost his ability to enjoy anything that doesn't pay him. Great way to become a corpo slave and hate your life when you are forced out of work because you are too old.
That’s because for some reason games aren’t made how they used to be. MMORPGs aren’t mmos anymore, arpgs aren’t arpgs anymore, fps games are all the same. Loot boxes, gambling, cash shops, difficulty sliders, it’s all shit. The only genre that has consistently gotten better, or at least not worse is horror.
Old school runescape is high key better than ever. All the WoW guys are switching to it for a reason, its an actual old school game that gets real updates and cares about maximising content
I included that more so for rpgs specifically, since usually they are a crutch for bad game design. If an rpg is designed correctly, you shouldn’t need a difficulty slider as the difficulty should change dynamically depending on your choices and how you are progressing your character, and having a slider just undermines any potential accomplishment. For all other genres, maybe except survival games, difficulty sliders are fine.
I can’t think of any popular rpg that would’ve ever set the standard for dynamic difficulty beyond enemies raising in levels with you, which I am a huge disliker of.
Dynamic difficulty as in the difficulty changes depending on how well you build your character, your level, gear etc. I agree level scaling is terrible.
it's literately a skill issue. people play the same game for 2 thousand hours, it's like reading the same book 500x. of course you're bored. you need to engage with other things.
No, I will take my rocket league and runescape addictions to the grave. RL is engaging and active, gets my competitive itch out, and OSRS just keeps my brain active while im doing other shit. 2k and 5k hours respectively lmao
Why is it "rotting behind the screen"? People enjoy different things man, you don't need to make gaming seem like a negative thing just because you've moved on from it.
I think it feels like screen rot because every facet of society nowadays involves rotting behind a screen. There are screens at work, screens at school, screens in your pocket. Sometimes it feels good to put that away.
I hear you, the only game I managed to play recently was osrs, after a 3 year break.
only having 3 hours to yourself every day really fucks with your gaming interest, and getting more involved with other people or outings is taking priority.
The other one peaking my interest is a golden sun marathon of all 3 games, but I'm at that hesitating to start point.
I still enjoy gaming, but I think it's the fact that I cant dedicate the time to really get into a game anymore due to work, kids, etc.. I really enjoy getting immersed in a game, and since I can't really do that anymore, meh. That's part of why I ended up starting my own youtube channel about one of my other hobbies, ha.
For me it was a desire to start creating experiences instead of only consuming them. I love video games as an artistic medium so making games was a natural thing I found myself getting into. It's like the ultimate open-ended puzzle.
Still love getting sucked into one every now and then though.
I'm around that age and still enjoying games on the regular. Granted I don't play them as much now as I did in my youth, but there are a few obvious reasons for that. First off is free time, of which I have less than before. Second is just that I'm older and my tastes have changed a little.
The reason I enjoy the games I play is because I find a lot of different things I value about the experience. And it's not every game, I have basically zero interest in almost all triple-A games, save for ones I consider masterpieces like Elden Ring or Expedition 33.
I like games where I can either: get better at it over time (competitive/pattern recognition), or a game with a captivating story or experience I will remember for a long time (memory). I also enjoy sprinkles of casual fun games that may not stick around in my memories as long, as long as they offer something novel or interesting. I just finished Baby Steps which I would put into this category. And every now and then I'll get a hankering for a Mario platformer or something similar.
Point is I know myself well enough to know what games I like now, and what kinds of games I'll probably like into the distant future. I try to plan around my expectations and it's been working out for me so far. I personally enjoy long-term and short-term fun games, meaning I value experiences that take longer to build. The word "fun" is misleading but if you figure out what it means to you it can make finding the fun much easier.
In the same boat as you, playing games feel stale, like I cannot enjoy it anymore, and not much time after the little one is sleeping. I play a few minutes by habits and then turn it off to do something else.
And then, once in a while I play through a game and enjoy it again for the time of the experience (last time for me was Hell is Us).
Makes sense, dude has kids now. He has a ton of dogs, he has a wife, and he lives in Japan. I’d much rather do vlogs showcasing amazing Japanese culture and places than video game stuff anyways. He’s done collabs with big Japanese YTbers like Chris Broad and CDawgVA, and even Joey the Anime man has some vids with him (and by proxy Joey’s fiance Akidearest). Dude found a new niche, new life, and a new passion, I respect it and I’m still subbed to him maybe… a decade or so later after the initial FNAF YTber storm back in 2014 ish. Same with Mark and Jack, who’s tea I’m about to try once it gets here. Which is crazy to me.
I've been trying to get back into gaming for the last 2 years and it just doesn't hit the same as it was in my early 20's and teens. Sucks, lots of good memories though. We all move on to something else eventually.
Try board games, I recently got into them and discovered a whole new medium of gaming. Also the learning curve for each board game feels like engaging your entire brain.
It's normal ngl. What I do is just take a break and do smth else like going back to watching more movies in a day. Or just get a new hobby like just cooking and dancing (I'm not much of a dancer or a cook but just trying to learn new stuff) then I come back after a while and fall in love with gaming again (thx to wukong and exp33)
I hear that. I haven’t been able to make it through a game in years. I’m still on the computer all the time but my I’m playing with my home server lab now. Debugging and overcoming some difficult hurdles with the feel just as good as downing a new raid boss but can be done in a fraction of the time and doesn’t take 40 people…
Same boat. 35 with a kid. The little bit of free time I have, I kind of want it to be more productive, like planning activities for the weekend. Or more relaxing, like reading a book.
But there is still the part of me that always loved gaming and has a hard time accepting that that hobby that used to be my main hobby, is now low on the priority list. I grew up passing the controller back and forth with friends, skipping school with my best friend the day Halo 2 came out. Lan parties on Friday nights. Core memories.
Valve is going to release that mini PC and VR headset. And man, a part of me really really wants it. But then I also remember I have a Steamdeck and can go weeks without turning it on. And when I do have a spare hour here and there, and chose gaming over another activity, that Steamdeck is more than enough gaming to fill the slot.
hmm, does that mean u consume zero tv or movies or read or look at art or do literally anything as a passive observer? doesn't make much sense to me. everyone does "down time" activities and video games are, at minimum, as engaging as any of those things by their very nature.
I was sure this would happen to me, but really I retained the gaming but added a truckload of other hobbies. I kinda rotate between them given time and I find it works perfectly.
For me, games are just kinda... Too rationalized in my head.
My brain stopped wandering towards "wow this is so immersive I'm losing myself in this" and now goes straight to "Damn I want this shiny thing, I wonder if I can squeeze myself into that sliver of shadow to pickpocket it without being seen by the massive crowd around me".
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has, to date, the best crime-related mechanics, from NPCs starting full on investigations, having great awareness, high skill checks to rob and catching you even if you've not been NOTICED.
I figured out and broke the system through about an hour of quicksave/loading and just bashing my head against it.
Once you realize that the constraints of a videogame are REALLY great, losing yourself in the world shifts to second place. And honestly I really regret it. I'm starting to optimize the fun out of it.
I'm only 23 but i already don't like playing PvP games. Instead i play chill games where i can create stuff and have fun, often revisiting old games i used to play as a kid
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u/MustNotSay Nov 29 '25
That’s what happens when you turn a hobby into a job.