I think I am going to stop playing videogames

[Ickorus]

Get into PC gaming, it's never been cheaper, you could build a PC that will run all the latest games (albeit not at top quality) for between £200 & £300 or if you decided to splash out and spend around £200 more you could have yourself a mid-range PC that will run everything well.

The reason I suggest the PC is because I also loved Alan Wake and am fairly disillusioned with the state of console-centric AAA titles but as a PC gamer I find there are a lot of really good games developed either by indie teams or as PC only titles and so I haven't quite ran out of games to play. (though there has been a dip recently)

I'd definitely recommend keeping your consoles for the moment though, you never know when you'll get the urge to play again and you don't want to start from scratch.

All that said, the decision is up to you and I wish you luck in all your future endeavours whether they be gaming related or otherwise.

 

[Maximum Bert]

What the hell is all the urging for the OP to get into PC gaming for? does everyone think that is some magical cure because it certainly didnt work for me I got into PC gaming and then back out again and now only dabble in it same with handhelds.

All I can say OP is take a break I have been fed up with games and been thinking of quitting at least 3 times in the past and each time I took a good long break and only bought games I knew I would enjoy rather than ones I thought were technically very good but was doubtful of my enjoyment of them.

This will mean you can do other things and take a breather while the little time you spend with games is a pleasant experience in time you may start to game more or just drift away I keep coming back and then going again. Either that or make a conscious decision never to game again and be shut with it but make sure you are happy with that decision deep down as in you have no hesitation otherwise you may end up regretting it, I made this decision about watching TV back in 2000 and havent watched any TV in my house since and dont regret it for a second.

This year I think I will end up buying 4 or 5 games (bought 2 already) and only 2 of those at full price which is a pitiful amount to what I used to buy but I tend to enjoy the experience more as well as get more out of them in the long run, plus it leaves me time to do other things that I want to do so I find gaming as a reward rather than a chore as I struggled to get through my huge glut of games on the backlog.

If you play a lot of games in one genre and feel burned out take a break there I got burnt out on fighting games and took a 10 year break which did wonders. I have been on a break of FPS games since Halo 2 and am still abstaining now as I just feel no drive to get back into any despite how good some are (there are always rare exceptions in each case however).

The fact you are talking about leaving seems to me you are unsure like you want someone to reassure you that its the right thing to do or more likely seeing as this is a gaming website you want to have an excuse or reason not to and carry on otherwise why even announce it? Just stop gaming no one will care in the long run except maybe you and your friends if they gamed with you.

 

[King Aragorn]

snip

I cannot disagree more. The reason TF did so well is because of Micheal Bay's lies.
He promised grittier, darker stuff. The more enjoyable parts of TF1, and more focus on the robots What did we get? the exact opposite.

Not a single person I know likes those movies. All of them trash them completely and utterly. No critic I know or seen, or movie fan, would even near put them on their high lists. Most of the time, people praising them are really just being sarcastic lists/funny lists.

Also, may I add, every movie has a fanbase. It can vary from very small to big, and those two movies are no exception. The lack of people liking them makes the one that do, stand out more.

Twilight movies are also pretty terrible, same with the books. Some of the worst characters in both medium's, it only survived off of pre-teen girls, really.

I also don't like the Harry Potter books, nor movies, but I can understand why people like them. Unlike these two horrid pieces of...just bad.

This generation is no different than the last one IMO. Most of the time, it's just a case of nostalgia. Each generation had it's fair share of rehashes and what not.

OT: I forgot to mention, don't get rid of your system/games. You may one day have the urge to play again, and if you have a big collection, starting from scratch could really be discouraging.

 

[Jazoni89]

Oh, its mostly because you still play those baby console games (made for babies. master race ftw)

Spoiler: This is dwarf fortress

Although if you want to really push on your career, nows the time.

Why are you still playing those PC games, made for boring people.

Bow down to the juggernaut that is the Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X combo

Retro Gaming Master Race reporting in! Your filthy PC does not have Blast Processing, and will never have.

 

[Something Amyss]

The Last of Us is going to be a great game... but I can only wonder how much more amazing it would be to me if I'd only heard of it through word of mouth and really had no idea what to expect.

The alternative remains you may never have heard of it.

I would honestly rather love the games I have than go through what I went through in the 80s again. For every good game there were like forty crap ones.

 

[Mrkillhappy]

Not finding new game interesting is nothing new and you shouldn't feel bad about it. Just take a break and keep an eye on new releases as they become announced. If you see something that interesting that comes out buy it if not then don't, just remember gaming is a hobby and you have no reason to feel forced to stay gaming. Also it is not surprising that you aren't interested in new games as most are unoriginal and/or badly made.

 

[Raikas]

Seriously does no one know how to treat a hobby as a hobby anymore? It's something you do to pass the time for entertainment. Not some "lifestyle" that you somehow identify with as a "gamer". Just like with any other hobby you get what you put into it.

This. If it's not fun, do something else for a while - it doesn't need to be some all or nothing central piece of your life.

I went 3 years with very little non-social/casual gaming around 2006, I've had periods where I watched almost no TV, had seasons where I didn't bother going to concerts, I once moved to a different city and gave up on sports - none of it was any kind of life-changing event (although when I quit rock climbing I did get weaker, but that's hardly a major thing). If your fun time-waster isn't fun anymore, then going away (for a while, forever, whatever) is completely normal, and not a big deal at all.

If something else makes you happier, then that's what you ought to be doing.

And recommendations are all well and good, but honestly when I've taken a break I did it because I wanted/needed to use that time doing something else, not because there weren't any good games (or shows/concerts/whatever) around. Fair enough if it's really a game quality issue, but if not, let that be what it is.

 

[Rattja]

I know where you are coming from, and find myself in sort of the same situation.
What I started doing though, is looking back, to analyze the games I liked the most, trying to figure out what's missing.

Here is a few things that I found:

Minigames are more or less gone entierly. This is something I REALLY loved about games like Black & White and the Final Fantasy games. Just something to break up the boring parts, or just a change of phase, it's just nice. Also it adds personality to the games, depending on what type of minigames you have in there and where. They don't even have to be important.
Black & White nailed it perfectly, as you could set something in your village in motion, then do a minigame. When you finish, your building or whatever would be done.

Name a new game today without achievements, I don't think you can.
To me this is a problem, as every single time I see one pop up on my screen, it breaks my immersion. It would be fine if they only had things that were actually hard to do, but when I see one every minute or so for things you just do anyway it just becomes stupid. "Grats, you started the game" "grats you did the tutorial".

This is something that came to me while playing some older games, but I also miss games without voice actors.
I never ever heard Vivi speak, but he sure as hell is my favorite game character of all time, and I think giving him a voice would ruin that.
Tibia don't even have a single sound at all, but I nearly shit myself when I see "GROOOOAAAAAAAAR" pop up on my screen as I know a dragon is near.
Oh, while Im at it talking about sound, after FFX there is no song, melody, theme or anything I can really remember from any game. There has been good music/songs here and there, but nothing that really stuck in my head. I mean, I can still hum Banjo Kazooie or Zelda tunes after all this time, but can't remember a single note from games I just finished.

I feel that they over all just lack personality, that little extra that make me remember them.
Like the over acted scenes from C&C, or Tetramaster, or blowing off a squirrels face with a stitched up teddy with a sniper.
Or let's take WoW, where the idea of shamans and paladins being exclusive to one side was one of the things that brought me in.

Anyways, these are things I miss and would like to get more of, you can only play old games so many times.

I should add that they are not all bad, as I am more and more looking towards indie games for entertainment. Still, I have not been swept off my feet for a while thinking "holy crap this game is cool".

All said and done, it is a hobby, something you do for fun. The problem is that you as a player have no control. People make the games they make, and it's up to you to like them or not, and I don't think I do anymore.

So yeah, thats my thoughts on the matter, I do think industry has changed.

 

[Pink Gregory]

But that last one illustrates one of my sentiments. Virtually everyone loves Mass Effect, Bioshock and Uncharted. Now the first 2, never had any special feelings for them. I'm coming around on Uncharted though.
But it sticks with me like my DM once said: "Dude, you don't like the Lord of the Rings movies? Then you don't like fantasy!" (and I did a sense motive, no trolling).

I guess I'm just hopelessly stuck in a world where gaming became bland.
When Michael Bay's Transofrmers, Dragonball: Evolution and Twilight etc. have become the pinnacle of modern culture, I am now officialy Too Old for This Stuff.

Hold on, hold on.

Since when has it mattered what other people think? I think you're becoming overly concerned about other people's tastes, here.

 

[DigitalAtlas]

Then go ahead. What's stopping you.

Also, it is you; nothing to be ashamed of, you don't enjoy videogames anymore; or you just don't like anything new that's coming out. In fact, if you think only the new stuff coming out in the AAA market is worth paying attention to, you're missing out on a lot, but I'm not going to pretend to know what you enjoy. To be honest it sounds like you've been buying games while thinking 'I'm supposed to enjoy this, I guess.'

Hanging on when you don't enjoy it is just going to make you bitter.

Go ahead.

EDIT: Alright, so I'm being a little unduly vindictive; I'm just so tired of people beating the 'OLD GAMES GOOD, NEW GAMES BAD' drum that I have a tendency to lash out. I'll admit, it's not a good time to be a console gamer, but that needn't limit you; there are plenty of indie games that are low spec enough to be run on pretty much any PC and that are fantastic.

Maybe it's you, maybe it's the fact that these consoles don't have that same pioneering spirit or technology jump and just seem like a cash-in for something that needn't exist

I felt this way for awhile, then I stopped reading reviews and got away from the community and purchased what I thought looked interesting and found a lot of hidden gems from yesteryear.

If you want to know what sparked my gaming again, it was Mega Man X.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Maybe it's you, maybe it's the fact that these consoles don't have that same pioneering spirit or technology jump and just seem like a cash-in for something that needn't exist

Why needn't they exist?

I agree that the console market is sadly a hostile environment to new and exciting ideas though. Which is not to say that something that can sell is inherently bad, which is what a lot of people seem to think.

 

[rob_simple]

It's win/win for you either way, really. If you keep playing there's always a chance that you'll find something new you actually like (and I guarantee there's some stuff already out there you've just not found yet) but if you do stop then, if you ever do decide to come back, there will be a mountain of games waiting for you.

There's still a lot I'm excited about in gaming, but I agree that new consoles don't hold the same magic for me that they used to. I could have given the Nintendo 64 Kid a run for his money the day I unboxed my own; now it's more like 'oh a new console, maybe I'll get it when it's cheap, if the games are good, I guess.'

That might have something to do with the fact that it's all my own money now, though; I think a lot of the old excitement came from waiting for Christmas every year after spending months reading Nintendo Official Magazine and seeing all these games I wanted but couldn't have, yet.

 

[LadyRhian]

I'll just keep this simple and recommend one redone game: Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. It has both content from the original game and Tales of the Sword Coast, and new content as well: 4 new characters, and a tactical game called The Black Pits, almost certainly with new stuff to come. I do have to admit some bias here: I was among the Beta Testers.

 

[chickenator88]

I've got exactly the same "issue". A few years younger, I still play games but my girlfriend bought me SimCity 10 days ago, I bought Far Cry on impulse as it was on offer (damn you Steam!) a week later, and I'm bored of them both already, without going overkill on them (have a job, social life etc).

I just think it's growing up, we don't get immersed in the games as much as we used to, and certain things don't excite any more as we've seen them so many times before.

For example, when I was about 12 I was playing Fallout 2 and that at the time just totally dragged me in and I could replay it. Or on the original Xbox I had Jedi Academy and played it online non-stop when xbox live first started. Now-a-days I find it too difficult to get as into the games and skip over bits or do it half assed (constantly having SimCity on highest speed so it flies by, defeating the point).

Or maybe SimCity and FarCry 3 are just crap, who knows.

 

[EHKOS]

Go back in time brother. I only buy PS1/2 games anymore. There are very few exceptions, I usually buy three new games a year. And this year all I'm getting is Beeoshack Infinite and GTA V. I've had a hard time finding any new game I really like, but I just picked up Dragon Quest 8 and I love it. So maybe you just found your favorite games already. Go back and look for games you never heard of, there are still gems to mine in the past!

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Putting it all on eBay and be done with it.

This is just from my personal experience, but I wouldn't do that. I never played my PS1 and I sold all my games and gave the system away. A year or two later, I really regretted it, mostly because I wanted to play those games again (one was Final Fantasy VII, and it was worth $50 at that point). After that, I quit selling games unless I knew for a fact I'd never touch it again (Halo 2 was about it there) or unless I had it on another system.

I've stopped play games for a month or so and still kept all my systems hooked up to my TV and didn't turn on my PC. Did touch my Gamecube for years, but then started playing it again right after I moved (mostly for Metroid Prime 1/2). So, for me, I may not play it for years, but I'll keep it just in case I want to down the road. Again, though, that is just me, so it may be different for you.

 

[MorganL4]

Let's start 20 years ago.
When I was about 7, my dad got a Personal Computer. *wow*
When it turned on, the letters were in bright colors and even that blew my mind.
The computer after that, could even play some games, like platformers and stuff. Needless to say, I was hooked.
A few years later, got the classic Nintendo, a few years after that, the Nintendo 64. And many other videogame consoles followed.

Now, I'm 27 and I have an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3 below my giant TV.
But it's just not really any fun anymore. It used to be that I got my mind blown by the new stuff, but lately nothing gets me excited anymore. The last game I really enjoyed was Alan Wake.

And now they're announcing the new videogamesystems like the PS4, which is going to be a PS3 with more RAM and social media functions. And the rumors of the new Xbox are similar, with an emphasis that used games can't be played on it.

And I can think of absolutely no reason to get one. Just no reason at all. Am I growing up? Am I growing out of a 2 decade phase? Or is it not me and is this industry the disappointment?

I have a few games left, Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted 3, Assassins Creed 3 and Mass Effect 3. (not an original title among them) and I guess I'm done after that. Putting it all on eBay and be done with it.
If I work up the courage to do it that is.

You seem disenchanted with the console market..... My recommendation is to switch to PC if the new consoles don't float your boat. And with PC you get mods for games like Skyrim that make the game just that much better (see the Lydia chair movement mod, or the Paarthurnax dilemma).

Plus, as time goes on you can just upgrade a PC as need be, and not worry about spending $600 for the latest and greatest. You will have to throw this down for the initial investment, but from there it is up to you what changes and when, the industry will not control your wallet.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

You know, I gave up gaming when I was that age as well. Had too much other things going on that were more important at the time. Then a few years later, I came back to the hobby. That's how it goes sometimes. If you aren't enjoying the time you spend gaming, you're throwing good money after bad. And that doesn't help anyone.

 

[Manji187]

Now, I'm 27 and I have an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3 below my giant TV.
But it's just not really any fun anymore. It used to be that I got my mind blown by the new stuff, but lately nothing gets me excited anymore.

Just wait and see. Perhaps one day some title will come along that manages to excite you again. In my case that would be BioShock Infinite. Maybe in your case it'll be Metroid Prime 4 (if that's what it's gonna be called) or maybe Thief 4. Or maybe some "Shadow of the Colossus" style next gen game. You could try and go cold turkey for half a year (no gaming or gaming related stuff whatsoever) then check back to see if you've missed anything worthwhile.

 

[BeerTent]

Let's start 20 years ago.
When I was about 7, my dad got a Personal Computer. *wow*
When it turned on, the letters were in bright colors and even that blew my mind.
The computer after that, could even play some games, like platformers and stuff. Needless to say, I was hooked.
A few years later, got the classic Nintendo, a few years after that, the Nintendo 64. And many other videogame consoles followed.

Now, I'm 27 and I have an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3 below my giant TV.
But it's just not really any fun anymore. It used to be that I got my mind blown by the new stuff, but lately nothing gets me excited anymore. The last game I really enjoyed was Alan Wake.

And now they're announcing the new videogamesystems like the PS4, which is going to be a PS3 with more RAM and social media functions. And the rumors of the new Xbox are similar, with an emphasis that used games can't be played on it.

And I can think of absolutely no reason to get one. Just no reason at all. Am I growing up? Am I growing out of a 2 decade phase? Or is it not me and is this industry the disappointment?

I have a few games left, Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted 3, Assassins Creed 3 and Mass Effect 3. (not an original title among them) and I guess I'm done after that. Putting it all on eBay and be done with it.
If I work up the courage to do it that is.

You sound a lot like my Brother. He mostly continues to play because, a lot of his friends, and myself included, really like games.

So what? The current generation isn't interesting. You'll either find an interesting game to play, or you'll do better things that interest you.