Have you ever "gotten out of " Gaming? Tell me.

[Truffle]

Over the years Ive seen many people suddenly claim " they are giving up collecting video games" fallowed by a game blowout of epic proportions.

I always thought "you people!" were crazy! How could you spend so much time, money, and effort just to practically give it all away?

I recently awoke in a hospital bed, not knowing where I was or who the people standing around me were. My mind had been wiped clean by a massive seisure, that put me in a coma for 2-3 days. At some point I also had a small stroke.
( I discovered I have a rare disorder, hereditary Corproporpheria or porpheria if you please. Interesting stuff if you like vampire and werewolf mythos)

Without being able to hold onto my memories, I started to eliminate any exess in my life.
As an artist who never paints, I realized where my life needs to go. I probably threw away 60 % of all of my crap.
And I decided to give up on game collecting, as it would distract me as it often has.
But as I looked through it, I couldnt remember how much awsome stuff I had collected over the years. And now suddenly, after having some of these games my whole life, they were all completely new to me again!!
Every game expirience was all new, even Pokemon a series I had memorized up to a point.Every time I look in my collection I discover new things I cant remember ever having seen before.Every old piece of technology has that magical sense of newness to me ; the mysteriousness of undiscovered things.
Ive never been more impressed with 8 bit graphics!
So even after losing so much of my memories, past expiriences , and relationships, Ill never lose that sense of euphoria and happiness from exploring a world created from someone else's imagination.

:) :)
(I put my "lore" in the Lore section. Please vote for mine.)

[retroman]

never crossed my mind....not once.

[theMot]

Over the years Ive seen many people suddenly claim " they are giving up collecting video games" fallowed by a game blowout of epic proportions.





If you say you forgot everything how can you remember this?...

[vaportransmitter]

That is an amazingly optimistic and beautiful story. I hope the games bring you even more joy than they did before.

As for me, I get my typical gaming ruts where I will not play games for long periods of times. I've got rid of some games here and there I wish I wouldn't have, but I've never thought about getting rid of all my games. I'll be the 70 year old man that' still playing vidoegames... only part is to make it not creppy.

[goemon]

If you say you forgot everything how can you remember this?...

Maybe his memory eventually returned...

[vaportransmitter]

Your photosensitivity was intense enough to put you in a coma and give you a stroke? That's incredible (in a strictly fascinating way).

[Damaramu]

Hey Truffle, good to see you posting here again! To answer your question, no, nein, nyet, iie, never.

I think I will continue gaming until:

1. I'm so old and feeble that I can no longer manually manipulate the controller or comprehend the game.

or

2. Dead.

[James8BitStar]

To answer the topic question:

Yes, recently I had a "gaming burn-out" period where I honestly thought of just ditching everything I had that had to do with gaming. Since then I've had second thoughts.

[theMot]

Maybe his memory eventually returned...


We'll need this clarified i feel. Proceed.

[digitalpress]

Hey bro, sorry to hear about what happened to you but I'm really glad you're OK enough to post again. I know what it's like to get smacked by life's little surprises.

To answer your question, most certainly not... but videogames have pretty much defined my life so I don't think I'm your ordinary gamer.

Great post. Stay healthy, ok?

[Oobgarm]

I can honestly say that the thought of getting out of gaming has crossed my mind from time to time-but I know that I'd never be able to do it.

I can't even begin to imagine how awesome it is to experience gaming all over again. Nostalgia is the main thing that keeps retrogaming alive-but you get to experience it all over again. It's rough to hear about medical conditions like this, but I think it's always always best to look on the bright side. And I really can't think of anything brighter than this...rediscovering a passion for gaming.

[Truffle]

If you say you forgot everything how can you remember this?...



Sigh.
I didnt lose my entire memory, and yes some things have come back to me obviously.
I actually really like suddenly feeling like a new person, with no past or regrets.

Im also a girl, thank you.

[Truffle]

And I agree thats sometimes something something like this can feel so terrible at first, yet it can also bring about a wonderfull spiritual awakening too.

Also I have become very photosensitive since this happened, yet video games dont effect me. Not even my vectrex.

[jcalder8]

I have never thought about getting out of gaming but I am always trimming back. When I first started collecting I wanted to buy every game I remember wanting when I was growing up. As I got more of them I found I didn't like some and the one that I did enjoy I would only play once or twice and then want to buy another one. So I decided that my collecting would consist of games that I would enjoy playing for an extended period of time or a game where I can pick up and play at a moments notice.

There will always be the exceptions that I hold on to for strictly nostalgia's sake, or ones that would cost a lot to replace if I were to decide at a later date to replace, but those are few and far between thanks to my new criteria.

For me half the fun of collecting is the playing, if I didn't want to play what I collected I would buy stamps. I love the artwork, challenge, gameplay, music, etc of video games so I want to be able to experience that and not get overwhelmed with owning "X" number of games.

[idrougge]

I left gaming around 1995, when the Amiga games market died. Didn't have money to buy a PC, and wasn't interested in its kind of games either. Wasn't interested in buying a console just to play games. So I basically became a so-called casual gamer, and have remained so since then.

Strangely, I've continued to be interested in games, but I just can't be arsed to play them.

[Chris]

It was about 3 years ago, when I discovered, that all the new blockbusters didn't do anything for me. I purchased Suikoden III and Gran Turismo 4, for my newly aquired PS2 and hated both of them with a passion.
I was so fed up with weak sequels, I just felt that playing those games was a fundamental waste of time.

I was about to sell my PS2 along with all the games, but that's when I stumbled over a game called Chikyuu Boueigun, an obscure japanese budget title, that changed everything.
This game is just pure and unaltered fun of the highest caliber. It reminded me of why I'm playing video games in the first place.

This game is the sole reason, I still own a PS2. I found what I was looking for, and I now know what I really want. Games that are pushing the medium, that are genuinely fun and thrilling, cause they're centered around fresh gameplay, not CG sequences, nor endless dialogues or flashy GFX.

I bought a Wii at launch, and I'm currently diving into the indie PC gaming scene and have never been happier playing games.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[NESaholic]

When i grew up i used to have some consoles and games along the way but lost interest and sold them when i was about 15 years old. Later on when i was about 20 i started collecting again and since then i haven't stopped.

[Rogmeister]

I gave up gaming once...not sure how long, maybe for about 5 years. That was after I had an Atari 7800 for awhile. I just lost interest. Eventually, I got an SNES and have been back since. I now am seriously thinking of getting rid of several (but not all) of my systems. I just have more games than I'll ever play again and they're taking up space.

[WanganRunner]

I sold a bunch of stuff off once, but only because I needed the money, not because I was bored with gaming.

I go in and out of phases with gaming where I'm either really into it or not so much, but I've never entertained the idea of just getting out of it for good.

[Trebuken]

I can go long spells without playing a game, but I keep collecting because I enjoy that element just as much. I also enjoy reading/collecting sci-fi so I off alternate between hobbies...I have sold off some games before and later regretted it which is how I know not to do it again no matter how I feel...

You seem to be placing the memory of the games when you played them above the gretification you get at the time you are playing them. Games are innumerable and should occupy your time...they will be remembered if they are worthy...

[NES_Rules]

Every couple years, I'll get tired of gaming and not touch any games, but luckily I never got so far out that I sold my games. I've only been "collecting" for a couple years now, but I doubt I'll ever stop as long as I can keep finding good deals.

[Windy Miller]

I can honestly say that the thought of getting out of gaming has crossed my mind from time to time-but I know that I'd never be able to do it.



Same here. I usually pack all my stuff away in my loft & one/two months later I unpack it all & start gaming again. Peaks & troughs, peaks & troughs.

And although I don't know you Truffles, I hope you feel better as each day passes, if that makes sense. :)

[RJ]

Chris wrote: "...I discovered, that all the new blockbusters didn't do anything for me"


Me too! I borrowed GT4 from my neighbor & hated it. I always felt like I "saw through" all those so-called blockbuster games, plus none of them interested me. RPGs, RTS, military FPS (ENOUGH ALREADY!!!), Final Fantasy, MGS, superhero games, fighters, etc- I avoid like the plague. I tend to focus on puzzle/retro arcade ports now, games that I can play for a short sitdown session & still feel satisfied playing.

In the past yr or 2 I realized I simply have too many games I dont play. I'd get them & try them out but never got too far until the next one (or 2 or 3) came along. I began to purge...Lynx, Genesis, Dreamcast, PS, PS2, SNES.

My first round I got rid of 2 dozen games, & got a Yobo w/ the $. I know, that opeend up a whole new system to collect for. But I have 10 Yobo/NES games right now & really dont want more. Most recently I got a ColecoVision & am satisfied w/ the ~12 games I have for that.

I sell back games here & there on eBay (3 on there right now). I gave 2 to my nephew. I've got a stack of 12-15 games to trade in this Thurs, sellback/trade value be damned. I really feel better about doing it. Ideally I'm trying to get down to 10-15 favorite games for each of my systems.

I dont think I'll ever totally leave/get out of gaming, hopefully there's kids in my near future (we're working on it) who'll carry on the tradition.

[Steven]

In '95 I sorta fell out of gaming a bit. Still engaged in it, but my interest wasn't the same from 87-94. In 96 I moved and the trend continued, I played games more casually but just wasn't into the 32-bit movement like I was the 16-bit one.

In '99 I bought a Saturn and imported. In '01 I became what one might call a "fanatic." I loved the Saturn until mid-late 2005, where I entered a 2-3 month period of getting back OUT of gaming, a la '96 but even moreso. I had no interest in the current gen stuff, and my Saturn zing, pretty much all that I had interest left in gaming, was dying off rapidly.

January 2006 I re-discovered the SNES and boom I'm back into games knee-deep. More specifically, SNES. It's all I play these days and if it weren't for the system, the great games and memories/nostalgia, I wouldn't play games at all today most likely.

[Kevincal]

I wasn't into gaming much from circa 1998-2000. I had a highschool sweetheart at that time and my mind was on something else than gaming, if you know what I mean! LOL :D

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I recently awoke in a hospital bed, not knowing where I was or who the people standing around me were. My mind had been wiped clean by a massive seisure, that put me in a coma for 2-3 days. At some point I also had a small stroke.
( I discovered I have a rare disorder, hereditary Corproporpheria or porpheria if you please. Interesting stuff if you like vampire and werewolf mythos)
Hey woah, I have porphyria, too, and you're the only other person I've ever come across that had it--at least as far as I know, I usually ask though, so who knows? I know there's a number of different types and I've never been able to find out what type mine is, but it's not very bad, I guess. I only ever had one seizure and the memory loss associated with it was minor. That was like 10 year ago. I have some skin problems related to light sensitivity, but nothing very bad and it seem to come and go. Of course, there's also the ever-present need to suckle the warm blood from the still beating hearts of my victims, but you get used to that sort of thing.

As for video games, I stopped played video games all through my childhood and through the NES and 16-bit years, but pretty much stopped around when the 32-bit systems came out (which was also when my porphyria first showed itself! Hm!). I kept my Genesis during that time, though, as well as the Power Base Converter I had acquired for it just shortly before I stopped playing video games. So a couple yeares later, it was the Power Base Converter that got me back into gaming and introduced me to the idea of "collecting" video games. I had never really played the Master System back in its day, so it was pretty exciting to find this whole new world of games and for a system at that time already 10 years old. Through contact with the online collecting community and just because I saw the stuff all the time at flea markets when I was looking for Master System games, I ended up getting into more and more systems of course.

I gave up on the heavy collecting aspect of video games three or four years ago, though. Part of it was that I needed money, but to be honest I thought all that stuff (physical stuff as well as mental stuff involved) was just more than I wanted, so I sold off a ton of systems over the period of a year or so (actually I still have some that I plan to sell eventually, so I guess I'm not done with that yet). I certainly don't plan to stop playing video games altogether and I think I'll always keep a few systems like my Coleco or my Dreamcast, but I'm much happier with just a couple systems. I emulate a lot, too, and to me that's really just as good. If the emulation is good enough and you have a nice controller, I really don't understand the whole purist thing about playing games on the original systems and shunning emulation.


...word is bondage...

[bangtango]

I stopped buying new games when the 16-bit era died. I kept all of my old stuff so I didn't get out of the hobby. I just quit trying to keep up with everything new that was coming out. I didn't buy a new system again until the Dreamcast was released. Since then, I've stayed about a generation behind the current one so I'm always a little bit behind the times.

[PentiumMMX]

I got out of it back in summer 2001. The N64 was on it's way out, I havn't rented any games in months, and all I had already beaten all the games I own (Except Donkey Kong 64, but it was driving me insane)

I came back in in December 2001, when my parents finally bought me a new game for my N64 (Super Smash Bros.), and in December 2002, when I bought Kirby 64. I've been back since then.

(Also, I still have the same N64!)

[heybtbm]

I've been playing games since my first 2600 in 1982. I stopped playing consoles for the most part between 2000 to early 2003. I was in the midst of college and didn't have much time for gaming. I ended up giving away my N64 (which I've since got back) and selling my Playstation on ebay. When I did play something, it was mainly PC games...that is until the games coming out started getting to be too much for my Pentium III.

I skipped the whole PS2/Xbox/Gamecube launch era and didn't get back into it until right before Zelda: Wind Waker came out. I had read about the OOT preorder disc and remembered how fun the game was. I bought a purple GC in February 2003 and have been chugging along (eventually buying all the consoles) ever since.