"I grew outta video games"... what makes u return?

[Steven]

In almost every video game forum there's always been, in the history of said places, a thread or 2 or 12.. about some long-time respected member talking about being "burned out" or "its time to move on and put away such childish things."

There's the school of thought where games suck today... and then the SoT where you just eventually outgrow games as life takes on more priorities.

But some of us seem to burn out, and eventually come back. Or we never "leave the scene" so to speak.

Why?

I've had my dry spells but I've come back and I don't see myself "leaving" because the games I still play I have fond memories with... and they're still fun to play today. So... I never leave. There'll always be time for one more Hadoken or one more shotgun bullet between the eyes of a Baron of Hell.

I might stop buying systems in the future, but the ones I currently own and love, I will never get rid of... unless something really crazy happens.

You guys? Although I'm sure many of you feel the same way as I do, I'd still love to read all your responses.
Or even if you feel you will eventually outgrow them, tell us your thinking why. etc.

[-hellvin-]

I get burnt out every once in a while from excessive thrifting. I just cut back, relax and take my time to enjoy all the games I've collected.

[Steven]

I get burnt out every once in a while from excessive thrifting. I just cut back, relax and take my time to enjoy all the games I've collected.

Very true. The few times I have burned out I noticed it was when I was buying a lot of "little" titles to fill out my collection... and then I realized... "I could be doing better things with my time."

You need time to appreciate everything. Balance..

[Azazel]

While I'll probably never be part of the long time respected member group I'm part of the small it's almost time to move on to other things group.

I frankly just don't have interest in playing stuff anymore. Most of the time I do have I want to spend doing other things I enjoy as much or even more.

[Oobgarm]

Everyone gets burned out at some point or another. I've been there before. Even if you have the slightest inkling of the onset of burnout or boredom, find something else to occupy your time. Come back to the games when the time feels right. Wait until you get the jones to start gaming again.

Of course, there's always the case of life 'getting in the way' so to speak. One cannot concentrate solely on games unless they're getting paid to do so and have become a recluse from society. There are always real life responsibilities and things to do besides gaming. But that's just a simple exercise in prioritization.

It all boils down to this: Once something is woven into the fabric of your being, it's hard to get away from it, no matter how hard you try. It would take some real determination to do it, and it allow some time to put serious thought into why you're doing so.

[swlovinist]

For me, I have to slow down, bust out something I bought, and enjoy the game. If some of my games arent played now and then, I get turned off. I agree with balance. Sometimes taking a break can really put things in perspective.

[dreamcaster]

Well, on the collecting front, I've been forced to cut down due to the fact I have no job (been unemployed since March).

Which in one way is good, because as has been said, I can now enjoy the stuff I've gotten.

In terms of getting sick of games - back in 2000 I started to move away from video games and become more interested in my car.

However at the end of the year, I went on a family holiday to the US, and I'm not sure why, but seeing a foreign gaming landscape reignited my love affair with video games, and it's only gotten stronger since.

[Captain Wrong]

OK, I think I can answer that.

In the 80s, I gamed a lot. Really, I kind of grew up with games in the house. We had an Odyssey, then a Coleco Telstar Arcade and finally a 2600. The 2600 is still the console that had the most impact on me as everything was so new. Fortunately we also had an Atari 400 so I played superior versions of Pac Man and Star Raiders, but still the 2600 was king. Everyone had one and it was all we did.

The crash was the first thing to put a damper on my gaming. I wasn't aware of a crash at the time, but I do remember the clearance bin games, and most importatntly I remember how bad they sucked. All of a sudden, it seemed like there weren't new games and what was left blew.

Around this time I became a computer geek. I continued my gaming on the Apple ][c, but eventually I got out of computers. Through out high school, I was involved with music and band and radio, which took up all my time I'd otherwise be computing. (Plus it didn't help that I was still rocking a Apple ][c when 468 was the way to go.)

Though we had a NES, SMS and eventually a Genesis in the house, they failed to catch my attention like the 2600 did. Sure, I got caught up in the NES fad for a while (though I still thought the SMS was a better console) but most of my favorite games on the system were ports of arcade games (Marble Madness, Paperboy, Bubble Bobble.)

I'd always prefered "golden age" arcade games to home games. Towards the end of the 80s, there weren't as many games that I truly enjoyed. I thought the NeoGeo games were pretty bad ass (even though I sucked at 2D fighters, still do) and Sega still turned out some masterpieces, but I just didn't have the same sence of wonder walking into the arcade I did years earlier.

Though I did play a shit load of Chase HQ, mostly that's because your partner's voice sounded just like our assistant band director. I think the last arcade game I remember losing serious time and money to due to the game itself was NARC and that was mostly an arcade expirence for me because the NES port was terrible.

Anyway, I digress...

How did I get back in? Well fast forward to 2000. I'm playing in a band with a minor Nintendo freak and all he's talking about is how he wants a PSX so he can play Final Fantasy. He had a N64 and I'd played Goldeneye before, but it'd been a while and never multi-player. Needless to say band practices quickly became Goldeneye (and later Perfect Dark) sessions. Soon enough, I had a PSX, then a N64, then a Dreamcast. The DC was the one that cemented it for me, as the games reminded me of all the things I used to love about gaming.

So...long winded story here. Sorry. That's my story though.

[QBert]

I kinda left video games for a while after high school, got married, had kids, blah blah....but Im back at er!

If you really love games and its in your blood, you'll never leave them for ever, you just may put them on the back burner for a while.

I do regret being out of the loop for that time, and not collecting, but oh well it just means I have more fun now. :)

[digitalpress]

I can't relate to people who "leave" and "return" to the hobby.

It's not a membership thing. You either play games, or you do not play games. I'm not sure why anyone other than one's own self would care if you were either, nor do I understand the need to announce that you are either. Videogaming will be here with or without an individual. For ever gamer who really believes they they've "grown out of it", "grown up", or "grown tired" there are a pack of youngin's who are just growing INTO it. Out with the old, in with the new.

Forum communities are a different story entirely. People who announce they're leaving are looking for drama or sympathy, and those who simply leave have found other things to keep them occupied, whether it be another community, another hobby, or something in "real life".

Bottom line: it doesn't need to be announced, because it doesn't affect anything when you do.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Leave games? That's like a 12 step program for me man...I can't put the controller down! :( I love the games like Barney loves Duff Beef...or to quote it nicely "WHOA! Where have you been all my life??"

[captain nintendo]

Forum communities are a different story entirely. People who announce they're leaving are looking for drama or sympathy, and those who simply leave have found other things to keep them occupied, whether it be another community, another hobby, or something in "real life".

Bottom line: it doesn't need to be announced, because it doesn't affect anything when you do.

True , but there are a few instances that I have thought "where is so and so" . I think it was a month or 2 ago when I posted in a thread "I havent seen spastic fuctard around lately" Of course he was just lurking and posted a reply in the thread. There are some forum memebers who I have seen not post for a long time and I wonder where they have gone.

*Didnt mean to hi-jack the thread* ;)

[Mr. Smashy]

A wise man once stated that playing video games is as much for kids as sucking breasts. A bit vulgar, but I'm inclined to agree.

If it doesn't hold your interest, that's fine. I could think of hundreds of other ways to pass the time that are fun, satisfying, or otherwise worthwhile. Dismissing gaming as an immature hobby is absurd.

[QBert]

Forum communities are a different story entirely. People who announce they're leaving are looking for drama or sympathy, and those who simply leave have found other things to keep them occupied, whether it be another community, another hobby, or something in "real life".

Bottom line: it doesn't need to be announced, because it doesn't affect anything when you do.

True , but there are a few instances that I have thought "where is so and so" . I think it was a month or 2 ago when I posted in a thread "I havent seen spastic fuctard around lately" Of course he was just lurking and posted a reply in the thread. There are some forum memebers who I have seen not post for a long time and I wonder where they have gone.

*Didnt mean to hi-jack the thread* ;)


IMO some people LIVE for these forums and thats it. They are on here 24/7 and do nothing else. Others come and go.

Relax, play games, dont play games for years...whatever you do, don't worry about what other people on their computers at home think so much.
BTW, I;m not pointing this at anyone in particular, just in general.

[Azazel]

Forum communities are a different story entirely. People who announce they're leaving are looking for drama or sympathy, and those who simply leave have found other things to keep them occupied, whether it be another community, another hobby, or something in "real life".

Bottom line: it doesn't need to be announced, because it doesn't affect anything when you do.

True , but there are a few instances that I have thought "where is so and so" . I think it was a month or 2 ago when I posted in a thread "I havent seen spastic fuctard around lately" Of course he was just lurking and posted a reply in the thread. There are some forum memebers who I have seen not post for a long time and I wonder where they have gone.

*Didnt mean to hi-jack the thread* ;)


IMO some people LIVE for these forums and thats it. They are on here 24/7 and do nothing else. Others come and go.

Relax, play games, dont play games for years...whatever you do, don't worry about what other people on their computers at home think so much.
BTW, I;m not pointing this at anyone in particular, just in general.

That's kind of a good point. Some peole talk about games a lot and don't play them much. Where do those people fit into the equation?

[digitalpress]

That's kind of a good point. Some peole talk about games a lot and don't play them much. Where do those people fit into the equation?

Where do they fit into the equation?

Everyone who loves games is welcome here. Whether you play a lot or a little, whether you're an expert or a n00b, whether you collect, don't collect, or just collect dust. If you're a gamer and you're friendly you'll always be welcome in this community.

[wberdan]

i burned out on video games by the time i was like 14.. and it wasnt necessarily due to other things. i just completely video-fried my brain in that ten year span.
i got back into it after almost a ten year break, and it was fun to revisit this stuff and become a collector in a hobby that i enjoyed as a kid.

i see collecting differently now than i did just a few years ago, but its still interesting, and games can be fun every once in a while.
i could see myself passing out on this hobby at some point, but im sticking with it for now just in case i need to pull out and play some obscure games. plus it's fun to hunt for stuff in the wild.

willie

[Cmosfm]

I'm 21 now, I've been playing since I was 5! I never grew out of it (is that possible?), but there was a time when I didn't play for a while.

I was about 17 or 18, I had a girlfriend that never watched TV, occasionally she played NES with her sister, either way I was head over heels for this girl. Her habit of not watching TV and reading books rubbed off on me and I stopped watching TV and got into the wonderful world of books for a while.

Well, we broke up, and it took about 6 months before I got back into the swing of things....the "swing" I'm referring to was Xbox release day. That was when I got my Xbox with Dead Or Alive 3, Project Gotham Racing and Shrek 2 (ugh). Then the next week I got the Gamecube on release day...shortly after I got a PS2...and I was racking up games 2,3,4 even 5 a week! I went insane! Paying full price for games too. Back then I could afford it though. LOL

So I guess you can say the Xbox brought my interest back...even though I hardley use it now. LOL And not long ago I got a top of the line PC, which just kindled my interst in PC games...and I'm getting that "tingly" feeling all over again! :)

[Berserker]

I've never really "left" gaming, although there was a short period where I tried to convince myself that they were "childish things" and that I should "grow out of them". But, a little peak at my history might help to illustrate just how futile that idea actually is for me...

I was born in 1983. My VERY FIRST, yes VERY first memory is of playing Popeye on the Colecovision at my house. It's also common knowledge around this family that my mother spent a good deal of her pregnancy with me at the arcade, so not only have I been playing games since I can remember, but apparently I've also been around them since before I was actually born! This is all true stuff folks. My entire childhood can be measured by whatever popular game system was out at the time, Colecovision(with Atari Adapter™!) soon gave way to NES, which I'd have to say had the biggest impact on me of any Console by far, then that gave rise to SNES, Genesis. As I came up towards my teenage years, I discovered the PC, and all was changed. Actually, I had played incredible games on the PC much before that, but any that could compare to my Video Games were on the computer owned by "affluent" friends of ours... who we visited only once in a while... but things changed around 5th or 6th grade, when we got a "sweeeeeeeeet" IBM PS/1, 486 I do believe. This was just amazing to me. My time was mostly occupied with games like Doom/2, Heretic Hexen, as I got older Quake etc etc. I actually played all different kinds of games but these were really the big ones. And not just playing these games, the greatest thrill for me came from editing, creating my own levels, characters, whathaveyou. But then, around 17 or so, I just... left them for a while. Left it all when I discovered music, or rather that there was actually GOOD music out there, as opposed to what had been shoved down my throat up to that point.

So. That brings me to the period where I was least playing any kind of game. It wasn't that I had "left" gaming, some sort of grand spectacle or something. I had just found something else, something else that I was completely absorbed in for a long time. I still kept all of my games(thankfully). So, now, at this point in my life, actually it was about a year ago, I came back into gaming. I realized that Games were always going to be an inescapable part of me, even if I tend not to see them much sometimes. Although now I've basically become accustomed to incorperating it into my life, along with all the other things that are important to me.

Anyways, I think that if gaming really touched you, if it really had you under it's spell for any period of time during your life, then it will always be a part of you, deny it or not. It won't always be the most important thing in your life, that time is probably long since past. But it will always be a part of you.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

That's kind of a good point. Some peole talk about games a lot and don't play them much. Where do those people fit into the equation?

The testament89 equation. :D I don't know ever since the end of high school and working 40 hours a week i just don't have the time for them as much as i would like. The free time i do have i use hanging out or on-line. I also like reading and chating about games especially here. I just find it refreshing taliking to people who actually know what their talking about when it comes to games. As apposed to some bastard who works at eb who looks at me funny when i say i didn't like halo. x_x

[Aussie2B]

Games have pretty much always been a part of my life, and I've always been happy to have 'em. The only sort of "game-less" period I had was from the point in time in which my brother sold off his NES and games to when I was 11, saved up my money, and bought myself a SNES (the first system that I personally owned). I was quite sad when he sold the NES; I still loved the games. That was pretty much the end of gaming for him, though, so I had to make do until I could get my own console (couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 years).

Anyway, since then I've been a gaming nut, but sometimes I do wonder if the internet has really changed gaming for me. Well, it has, but I question if I play games as much as I used to when I typically would play at least a couple hours after every school day (and then a ton all weekend). Nowadays I have I have a lot of other time consumers like college, my boyfriend, and other stuff. Often times when I get free time I'll use it up on the computer at a message board or toying around with all the gaming merchandise I bought thanks to eBay and online stores.

[PapaStu]

I guess I kinda fit into this leave/come back frame. Ive had a few times where i've thought, wow just think of all that money that could be saved for whatever, and instead you spent it on games, IDIOT. I might not buy something for a few weeks, but I always would start back up.
Recently my local Indy shop died and that took a huge hit on me. I was one of their biggest customers for a number of years (as so that I had my own hold box), and bought stuff at least once a week. With their shutdown I cleaned them out of PSOne games that I didnt have (70 plus), as well as big amounts of other games. Since then ive really cut back on games, and when I do buy, its never from "A" place, its kinda just where ever. Anyhoo since the loss I burned out on PS stuff (my main collection staple) so to prevent myself from going completely batty ive started to collect variants for my main systems, and have put the general collecting for everything on the back burner. Doing it has given me a new edge on games in general and made me have some fun again as I felt that my collecting had just gotten to the point of walking into a place and just buying stuff and not really caring.

In regards to getting tired to games or burning out, never has happened to any point worse than, well ive just played too much for the day and cant play any more kinda thing. Ive been playing some sort of video game since i was 2 (parents 2600) and at 24 I still play almost daily. I honestly dont think that im ever gonna get sick of playing.

[musical]

(1) college stole all my free time in the 90s - even my Star Trek addiction went on the backburner - I came back in 2002 because
- (a) I discovered atariage.com emulation to replay classics
- (b) I fell in love with the story-based RPGs on PS2
- (c) television is the big suck - can't find anything worth watching so might as well game

[bargora]

At one time I thought that I had "left" and "come back". Then I looked at the larger picture, and realized that I had simply shifted to computer gaming sometime in the late 80s once the Atari 2600 games stopped coming. (There was something unwholesome about the NES's D-pad that turned me off on the system for years.) Then, years later, I got a Playstation, and I switched back from computer gaming to mostly console stuff.

So did I ever "leave"? That depends on how big you think the house is.