When I hear this, I wonder if people are playing the wrong types of games for them. Most AAA games have great graphics and cutscenes, but the core gameplay loop is just tedious and feels like you're following a GPS from chore to chore. I don't fault anyone for feeling bored with 10hr interactive movies.
I still love games that challenge me and offer a real risk of failure, for example. If there's no chance of losing, then beating the game just feels like "finishing" it, like how you would describe a movie or TV show. I'd get tired of that too.
All entertainment fills a need in your daily life. It only makes sense that the need changes as you grow older.
When I was younger, I was poor and had something to prove. Thus, I loved big games with hundreds of hours of gameplay, grinding for the best bobbles, and competitive multiplayer experiences.
But as I get older, I don't care about any of that anymore. What I need instead is a way to relax within my short gaming windows, to have unique experiences, and maybe have a sense of control as my life gets more chaotic. As a result, I've tended more towards shorter indie titles. But also towards non-gaming things like travel, gardening, and crafting hobbies.
We spent so much of our lives building our identity around a single hobby - gaming. And maybe that was a mistake. So many of us end up sliding away from gaming as we get older and that change is okay and even expected, that shouldn't give us an existential crisis.
Your identity should reflect the person you are, not the thing you do.
Now I only have game sessions that last for about 10+ minutes and only about 3 times per day at most.
My enjoyment in gaming has died out a few months ago and I have only been working for one year(23yo). My friends are still trying to get me back to Valorant and I'm having trouble explaining I have so many other important things that I need to do other than grinding Valorant. I just don't have the time to improve my skill at that game because it requires so many hours and so many of those hours could give me a good coding project for my portfolio which would improve my job prospects. I do enjoy coding but coding all day outside of work is turning me into a robot.
Screw this capitalism society.
Don't fight it. Just find another hobby that deserves your time and move on with your life. Games haven't been truly good for a long time. Unless you're a Twitch streamer or an esports athlete, games shouldn't be drudgery. "But it gets better after 10 hours," "you have to get to the endgame before you're really playing the game," "you can't say you've played the game unless you did 3+ runs," "AAA games suck but indies are still good" Man, shut the fuck up, I'm too old for that shit.
If you want to capture the excitement of how you felt when you first played videogames as a child, find a different hobby. Seriously, find a hobby that's completely out of left field. Gardening, fixing mechanical watches, backyard astronomy, raising an ant farm, croqueting, kayaking, trainspotting. You don't have to be that aging nerd who constantly malds at how modern videogames suck while continuing to fall for nostalgia bait that'll always fall below your expectations.
Ok going through this now.
I never thought it’d be like this though. I thought that video game would literally stop being fun. Like I’d grow out of them or something and not find them enjoyable anymore.
But that’s not it. They are still fun and enjoyable. What I didn’t expect was that my mind would be so full of responsibilities that it would just be impossible to enjoy video games. As if there just isn’t enough room in my brain.
I’m sitting there trying to play but I’m just thinking about all the things I need to do tomorrow. Or this week. Or this month.
There is just too much to think about that I can no longer enjoy not thinking.
Honestly I have less and less love for videogames that streamlined the gameplay into a cookie cutter trope.
I noticed having way more fun when playing indie games because you never escape the wierd shit develloped industry free from the general gamplay loops.
This isn't unique to video games*. It can happen with anything that you spend a ton of time on, and either burn out on or start to develop more refined taste in. I've had it happen with:
- novels
- board games
- movies
- people
You start to see patterns, tropes, or just plain get burnt out on something. It's a sign you either need to take a break, or that your tastes have simply become refined enough that you require a higher bar to find something interesting.
I'm in my 40s and definitely don't play games as much as I used to. But there are still times I get sucked in and have a great time. Most recent example: Cosmoteer, a spaceship building game with loads of freedom and creativity. I'm also looking forward to the Factorio DLC and the Dyson Sphere Program combat update.
Edit: case in point that I can still get excited about games: I finally tried Shadows of Doubt and, wow, what an interesting game. It's like a Deus Ex shadowy sneak-around world with detailed voxel simulation.
* though the enshittification phenomenon is a real thing, and why people should play more indie games
Use to do 10-15 hours on a free day. Now I have a hard time doing 1-2 without having to take a break.
My enjoyment of games didn't die, but my tastes in genre changes. Online FPS just isn't for me anymore, I now prefer slower single-player story games
Play some games completely different from what you're used to.
This was me, until I discovered Super Tux Kart a few months ago. I play at least 2 hours a day of that game.
I stopped reading for maybe a decade when I started post-secondary education. I tried books during that time but it wasn't until finding an author that resonated with me that the interest picked up again. I still mostly only read that author now but I try other authors in between.
Same with video games. I will slowdown or stop for a while but eventually pick it back up again when the right thing comes along.
For my money, I've found myself fascinated by the inner workings of games. Art directions, concept art, changes from beta versions, sound tracks, music theory of the soundtrack, and coding (panonenkoek, the guy who did watch out for rolling rocks in 0.5A presses). It lets me appreciate games that are pieces of art more richly and deeply. I know every surface texture and midi file of Majora's Mask. I have artist renditions of video game music on my playlists. Pallet Town on violin, Gusty garden galaxy on violin, song of storms on piano. I have a poster of a Pokemon card.
Do I play many games? No, not really. It doesn't mean the flame dies out, it just means my interests diverged and morphed. The appreciation never left. The same inner child who would be saddened by the departure would get a kick out of my writing. The same critic who didnt like Tales of Symphonia's sequel put their money where their mouth is and wrote about an ex-main character from an outside perspective. All of this lets me expect less from games and be able to see the effort that went into the individual parts. The dev team doesn't need to fill the open world with big laser beams, it can let me soak it in for a while.
I'm in my late 20s and have realized two things about video games
- I've invested hundreds of hours into games and I've got absolutely nothing to show for that time investment, and basically nothing to brag about at work or to friends
- The last couple of years I've been more often playing games to pass time than for the actual love of whatever game I'm playing
So I've been trying to spend my time doing other things. If there isn't a compelling game I want to play at that moment I don't just play games until I find one that compells me again, I just do something else entirely.
My wife on the other hand has realized she really enjoys video games and sees it as "look at all of this time I could have spent playing video games and experiencing these things!" So I suppose that gives some perspective that it's not all for nothing
One thing I’ve noticed is that I’ll take a long break from a game I enjoy and later I want to go back to it and pick up where I left off, but I know I’ll have to re-learn it all over again before I can start having fun. I don’t want to have to expend the mental energy learning it again when I just want to have fun, so I instead end up watching YouTube or tv shows and not really enjoying my free time.
Now, whenever I start a new game I make a folder where I keep any spreadsheets or information I collect while playing, and most importantly keep extensive notes, including keybinds and UI to refresh my memory. This saves me from a lot of those squinty eye moments saying “ooohh how tf do I do that again…” and having to research something online.
Don’t optimize the shit out of the game, just play them for as long as they are fun and ditch them afterwards.
So I know this is a meme but I wanted to say that if anyone out there, particularly younger people, finds this ringing loudly true to their own experiences, you may be experiencing medical depression. Sure you get more responsibilities as you get older and your passions change, but if you notice something feeling off about this sensation and many things you formerly enjoyed you start avoiding because forcing yourself to enjoy them just makes you feel crappy, it isn't necessarily normal.
I say this because I went through it and I didn't get help until my late 30s and I regret every day that I didn't. There is nothing wrong with asking for help, talking about it with others, and not accepting it as a "normal" part of growing up. Without help it will take a toll on your career and relationships and your health.
Reach out.
That's just burnout
I had stopped gaming for about 5 years to focus on my career and starting a family. I'm now turning 40 this year and have been dabbling with games again but nothing really stuck until I started the Trails in the Sky trilogy. I ended up playing it a few hours every other night. Something about it was so refreshing that I'm now about to wrap up the 3rd game.
Like others have mentioned, perhaps your mood or perspective changes as you get older and it's just about finding the right game to play.
A lot of modern games just adhere to a basic formula and as such, I tend to get bored of them after a while. First Horizon? Nice. Second Horizon? More of the same. Horizon DLC? Even more of the same. It gradually got a bit more boring with every new entry.
So what I did was...I got an Xbox 360. Loaded it up with 5TB of games. And then I just picked something random to play. It made me discover Catherine, such a weird and awesome game.
I think, getting out of your comfort zone can refresh your enjoyment of gaming.
Let's see what else I can find on that thing...
As a child who grew up with nothing but a family computer I dreamed for the day we would have free games everywhere. Boy did I get my wish
I love chess and card games
Comes and goes in waves for me. I find games wbere me and my friends are just having fun still brings that feeling.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan this hit hard
Single player board games. Sounds lame but look up hunt a killer stand alone..
I've had this problem(?) a few times in my life. Having a several month break from gaming helped me ignite the spark once again.
Me for the back 98.5% of Tears of the Kingdom
Never!
Dont worry, it will come Back(maybe with a new different kind of game)
Perhaps your tastes have changed. I'm sure there must still be a game out there for you.
That deep fear of being homeless and hungry if shit goes sideways irl really takes the punch out of how much I give a shit if a sparkly pixel on my tv screen falls off a ledge or whatever.
I don't play games with dark patterns anymore. And seems like almost all of them went deep into that territory which severely limits what I can play.
fandom and its dogmatic bullshit doesn't help, like how some get so upset about the possibility of a stranger, somewhere in the world that they will never meet, playing a game the wrong way because it might add accessibility options or difficulty sliders. 
Try Ghost of Tsushima or other great games but only short ones, avoid no man sky for now or other long games. Let it rest for a while and come back to it later.
This happened to me the other day. I've had FarCry4 on my Xbox for years. Never played it. Well the other day, started playing it. Died A LOT. But was still having a blast, visuals are a little dated, but the atmosphere and game mechanics are still very fun overall.
Haven't dived deep yet into the FarCry4 story/lore, but hoping it picks up more. But as I was dying a lot. I wasn't having any fun. So I stopped playing it for a couple days, and came back to it, fully refreshed and fully restored to tackle the mission. Spoiler: the fun stayed :)
But the flames has died
Going through this right now. Don't enjoy playing single player games much. Only usually enjoy multi-player games if I'm playing with my wife. I'm just letting it happen tbh.
Getting into tabletop games and collecting instead. Unlike video games, tabletop games come with all sorts of cool knickknacks, especially war games, and I'm finding getting to collect them and then play with the cool new things holds my interest better nowadays. Feels like it scratches the same itch as installing a thousand new mods into video games then playing for a few hours before loading it up with even more mods, but instead of mods it's new little dudes and I get to assemble and paint them.
From what I've heard trying different hobbies might help
