Losing interest in gaming!

[Gabbyjay]

I've also lost interest in gaming. But every now and then I still like to play things a bit just for nostalgia... compared to 20 years ago, I'm not doing stuff like playing a specific game for an hour, rather, I'll just play 5 games for about 10 minutes each to get a sample of things, such as remember what soul calibur was like, and then that's enough for me.

For me personally, at least with respect to the games I own across systems, including dreamcast, I feel like I've maxed out the enjoyment I can get from them from playing the games. Like, I've literally put hundreds of hours into the games I own over the last 30 years and the vast majority of games I own on old systems are ones that I beat or put significant time into over the years, so playing Tony Hawk or Sonic Adventure 2 for the 1000th time just doesn't seem like fun anymore. I've already long since dived into the various game libraries and imports for the old systems I own to try and extend the experience by playing some new-to-me old games. I bought and played many of those extensively from 2012-2017, so I feel like I've maxed out the libraries (at least in terms of stuff that seems interesting to me) for systems like dreamcast, gamecube, sega genesis, atari jaguar, snes, etc.

Seems like you're more into stuff from pre-2000.
Have you tried any recent games?

I guess I would not even find the time nowadays, even if I wanted to.

Another thing that limits my interest in gaming is the availability of youtube. If I want a quick nostalgia fix, or to refresh my memory of what a certain game looked like, I'll just load up a playthrough of that game, or the soundtrack to that game on a youtube video and check that out for a couple minutes instead of loading up the game.

lol yeah... I also do that.
But more on games that I could never actually own, like obscure arcade-games or games on systems that came out before my time.
You know, those games you always read about in the magazines or heard from others about, some of them had almost legendary, mystical status... and so youtube is a quick way to finally see what it's actually about. Just to satisfy curiosity.

And yes, I also do that with soundtracks as you described. I always felt that in the old games with their limitations, the music carried most of the impact from the emotional side. What would my favorite game, Chrono Trigger, be without it's music?
So whenever I want to warp myself back in time, I listen to the music. Lots of game music in my playlists and I still am whistling those tunes all the time.

I periodically think about selling my physical games, but for some reason, I'm really attracted to how certain consoles or game box arts look, and as a result, simply owning a good example of some of these consoles or games still gives me a bit of enjoyment.

I sold everything and as I already said, there was not a single moment where I missed it. It's just a thing of the past and honestly, I don't want to be as much as a geek as I was back then anymore. So many problems around, it seems worrying about factory-sealed games or limited editions or import stuff is just a luxury thing and does not seem right for me anymore.
BUT my situation was different from yours, as I needed the money at the time when I sold it. Perhaps I would have kept the stuff a bit longer otherwise. But maybe at some point I might have sold it anyway, I don't know.
It was also just too much stuff taking up so much space. In the end, it was all packed up in boxes and not taken out for years, so why keep it... especially as I moved several times. Last time I moved, I arrived with only a backpack and an air matress. : D

also have a son now, he's too young to game right now, and I imagine he won't be that interested in some of this old stuff... but I figure why not keep this stuff for another 5+ or so years to see if it is fun to introduce him to some artifacts of my youth, many of which I actually owned as a kid

Well... at least from the software-side you could use emulators, of course... but then again it could be interesting to learn that at some day, people actually used physical games and specific hardware for it.

Lastly, when thinking of the dreamcast in particular, I think I'd keep that forever simply because the system and my games have been a significant part of my life for so long. There was a period of time during 2009 when I was extremely depressed and what helped me deal with and beat back my depression was digging out my dreamcast and playing it... so I'm very attached to it emotionally.

Understandable. Wonder how it could work against the depression.

[dark]

Seems like you're more into stuff from pre-2000.
Have you tried any recent games?

I guess I would not even find the time nowadays, even if I wanted to.

Yes, the end of the gamecube/xbox/ps2 generation is about when I initially lost interest in keeping up with current era games, so my interest is mainly with games that are pre-2005. I do mess around a bit on the PC via steam. There have been some games, primarily indie titles rather than big budget stuff, that I've enjoyed. But overall I don't really have the time to do more than play stuff casually for 20 minutes here and there. Like many people, my steam library is full of games I haven't played in over 1-2 years, and which I've only played for a maximum of ~20 minutes.

I've also never been that big of a fan of FPS games, MMOs or open world things like GTA, so many big budget western developed franchises just don't appeal to me. Much prefer arcadey action stuff, which the indie games and pre-2005 era games are better for.

I sold everything and as I already said, there was not a single moment where I missed it. It's just a thing of the past and honestly, I don't want to be as much as a geek as I was back then anymore. So many problems around, it seems worrying about factory-sealed games or limited editions or import stuff is just a luxury thing and does not seem right for me anymore.
BUT my situation was different from yours, as I needed the money at the time when I sold it. Perhaps I would have kept the stuff a bit longer otherwise. But maybe at some point I might have sold it anyway, I don't know.
It was also just too much stuff taking up so much space. In the end, it was all packed up in boxes and not taken out for years, so why keep it... especially as I moved several times. Last time I moved, I arrived with only a backpack and an air matress. : D

More power to you. I wonder if we're simply at different stages of life. There have been times where I've sold consoles and games without initial regret, but as time passes I've lived to regret it and even found myself trying to buy the same stuff again a couple years later... usually in worse cosmetic condition, and for more money than I sold the previous system for. For instance, I sold my childhood atari 7800 in 2012. I hadn't played it in years, I didn't know how to hook it up to a modern TV, I didn't feel like I was interested in its game library and had decided I was only interested in dreamcast era stuff at that time. I felt like it was just taking up space. I sold it to get some cash to justify buying more dreamcast games. Some years go by, and I had started exploring the atari jaguar and atari lynx, which were interesting to me because I'd never played them when they were current gen. Since I enjoyed exploring those system's libraries, it made me more interested in trying the atari 7800 again and giving it more of a "fair shake" (ie, trying more games for it and looking at it in the context of other atari systems), so I re-bought one. Once I was at a different stage in my life where I didn't have to worry about money, I also began to reflect on the "good ol days" and the nostalgia from stuff I used to own, so I've lived to regret selling other systems and items from my youth for quick cash for that reason as well.

Well... at least from the software-side you could use emulators, of course... but then again it could be interesting to learn that at some day, people actually used physical games and specific hardware for it.

I use emulators as well sometimes for convenience, or to try out super expensive games that I don't want to have to buy actual copies of. Its pretty great and certainly a wonderful way to revisit games you liked that you don't have anymore, though for me, the experience loses some of the magic and nostalgia. Some emulators still have input lag that makes me play poorly compared to the real system (redream the dreamcast emulator for example), I find it very frustrating that I can play a game very well or pull off certain deft moves or tricks on the console but not on the emulator. As a nostalgia thing, I enjoy it more when the experience is close to how I've always played - so for example, its part of the enjoyment for me to play atari 7800 with a slightly snowy picture on my tv with the unconventional atari 7800 controller (pictured below) than to play it with a crystal clear image on my computer monitor with an xbox 360 controller, or that I'm using the actual dreamcast I bought in 2001 to play a game I've enjoyed revisiting since 2001. Trying not to become a hoarder , but the fact that it is an artifact that has been meaningful or significant in my life and that I've been able to preserve this long, is a thing that I appreciate sometimes, and would give the experience of showing this stuff to my kid some added emotional impact, at least for me.

Understandable. Wonder how it could work against the depression.

Dreamcast helped me with depression because it gave me something that was easy to do that I enjoyed doing. At the time I was in a graduate school program where I was in classes or otherwise working on assignments or doing research basically all day. The school campus was in a rural area, there were not a lot of interesting attractions around, and despite my efforts I hadn't made many new friends. I also did not have much money. After a year of slogging through and basically living a dreary life where I felt very isolated and rarely felt like I was having fun, I got my dreamcast out. At that time, retrogame prices were very low, and I discovered that many of the games I'd always wanted for the system, such as import titles like CVS2, Rez and Ikaruga, were now selling for like $20, which is about 25% or less than what they had cost new around 2001-2004. I budgeted myself to buying one or two new dreamcast games a month and spent my evenings playing them extensively. Playing the games was a decompression thing and helped me relax, building my curated game collection brought me enjoyment and made me feel like I was creating something interesting. It was fun to master new-to-me games and the community here at DC-Talk and other forums brought me some social interaction that I was missing in my life at the time. The dreamcast was also a neat conversation piece for people who visited me. Altogether, buying and playing dreamcast games in 2009-2012 was a positive experience in my life. It gave me something to look forward to that happened with regularity (this was missing in my life at the time), it connected me to people and a community online where I could simply just enjoy discussing stuff I enjoyed and look forward to interesting new developments like homebrew games and people finding ways to hot rod their old stuff, and it helped me decompress from my school life, which was very mind numbing and stressful due to the long hours, isolation, and anxiety over the fact that it was difficult to get employment in my field at the time.

[Gabbyjay]

I've also never been that big of a fan of FPS games, MMOs or open world things like GTA, so many big budget western developed franchises just don't appeal to me. Much prefer arcadey action stuff, which the indie games and pre-2005 era games are better for.

Yeah... I mostly like arcade-racing from the 90s.

More power to you. I wonder if we're simply at different stages of life. There have been times where I've sold consoles and games without initial regret, but as time passes I've lived to regret it and even found myself trying to buy the same stuff again a couple years later...

I really never had that urge to buy it again. It must have been around 2005 when I sold all that stuff. That is about 17 years now! And in all those years, I never was interested in doing it all again.
If I ever feel the urge to play a game again, I think VR would be more interesting as mentioned earlier, or some old arcade-cabinets, more that kinda thing.

I use emulators as well sometimes for convenience, or to try out super expensive games that I don't want to have to buy actual copies of. Its pretty great and certainly a wonderful way to revisit games you liked that you don't have anymore, though for me, the experience loses some of the magic and nostalgia.

Well, it's an emulator and thus not the same. But I would argue that when used in the same setup (same display/CRT or whatever) and with the same controller, there are several emulators now which do their job so perfect that you actually cannot tell the difference. Only, you turn on the PC and not a console, of course. : D
I am different from you as I usually preferred emulators, at least when the game was decently emulated and if the emulation gave you options you did not have on the original system. The latter was especially important to me, as I was always interested in the technical side of things and always took joy out of improving the experience, which is where some emulators really shine. There are many options you get which I would have LOVED to have back when playing on the original hardware. There are some things emu-devs made possible that are almost like MAGIC, you never thought were possible, and there are even games which I think are only enjoyable on an emulator (cough EVO on the SNES cough). : D
But everyone has different opinions about this. I guess one should take emulation for what it is... my opinion always was: If you want have exactly the experience of the old hardware: Play on the old hardware. Simple as that. If you want to re-experience your games in a new way, use emulators.

Well... so, in the years after I stopped playing games, I would sometimes try if I would enjoy it again.
Sometimes I would install an emulator and first go to the settings, adjusting it to my needs. Perhaps hook up a special controller. I remember even building converters for those to hook em up on the PC... Or when I was not satisfied with the grapics, I also would do some coding to get what I wanted, so I was into the emu-scene a bit from time to time.

But what I always found was that, as soon as I got a certain game running and looking BEAUTIFULLY (a process which was quite fun indeed)... when I started to actually PLAY the game, I lost interest very quickly.
So all the effort seemed like a waste of time in the end.

Some emulators still have input lag that makes me play poorly compared to the real system (redream the dreamcast emulator for example)

Really? I never tried that specific emulator. I remember that turning off triple buffering helped a lot in certain emulators, as TP induces some input lag.
But I've also seen the opposite: A game with horrible input-lag on the original system runs without it on the emulator.

It gave me something to look forward to that happened with regularity (this was missing in my life at the time)

Now this is something where I think I really can take something for me out of this topic.
To actually plan (!) something to look forward to which happens regularily... I think I never did that. Maybe few people do.

[Londinium]

Everyone on DC-Talk oughta take a shower for once

[bingobongo]

I met my wife when I was deep into the Dreamcast scene back in 2000 so I have a real emotional attachment to Sega's little box of tricks.

Back then, games were being released so often that there was no time to really play one game in detail before something new (which always seemed more interesting...) suddenly appeared. It was a strange time indeed.

Can't say I played many games in the intervening 20 years but I never stopped picking things up (physically and digitally)

And now, finally, these last couple of years I have started actually playing games Set up the games room (you know, thoroughly predictable IKEA Kallax unit, 8 different systems, etc)

The problem with playing games is just finding the time. I'd say I spent so much time working these last 20 years that I never really had the time to sit down and relax. There was always one thing or another getting in the way - finding a career I like mostly. But it was all worth it in the end.

If I've learnt anything - don't ever sell your collection until you hit retirement age. Video games have exploded in price consistently over time - and I don't see them ever losing value. If you really want a break - box it all up (as I did) and just sit on it. You'll be glad you did in the long-run.

[Ian Micheal]

open world sound box games are as boring as bat shit lol.. I dont play games i code for the dreamcast it's 100% better then any gaming.. Learn C and start creating and not being a user it's more rewarding..

Coding and creating for Dreamcast is never ending rabbit hole of fun and you never learn it all in life time lol.. 21 years now still learning more every day.. Best game ever created lol

[Holsten]

[KorganBlood]

My advice for this problem is to limit the amount of concurrent games you play. I have found that if I limit myself to a single game till I either complete it or give up on it then I find the game more enjoyable. Switching between 4-5 games at the same time often leads to big games between playing a single game so you can lose track of the story etc. Keeping a few old favourites on rotation is still okay though. For me that is games like Civilisation and Baldurs Gate.

Currently I am replaying Skies of Arcadia.

[VincentNL]

I can relate to that for modern games, all show no go imho.
Way more interested in playing new Megadrive hacks / indies than any AAA.

[kensworth]

There are a lot of possible contributing factors that make it harder to keep interest in gaming over time. I know for me it's certainly age coupled with mental ailments that keep me from being able to devote time and motivate myself to push through.