Has Aging Changed the Way You Game?

Commenter Sumada feels he doesn’t appreciate games as much as he did when he was younger. In today’s Speak Up on Kotaku we explore how aging has changed the way you play and appreciate video games.

Lately I’ve been thinking about why I don’t appreciate games as much as I did when I was younger. I feel like I just burn through a lot of games now, and I don’t get as wrapped up in them or enjoy them as much. At first I was thinking that it was because I was a lot busier, and so I had to pick and choose my games more carefully, so I was more critical of ones I didn’t like.

But now I’m thinking almost the opposite is true-because I have more money, and because of rental/trading services like GameFly and Goozex, I have access to a lot more games, and so I really don’t invest as much energy in each game. I remember when I was younger, I used to play games over and over, and not just for achievements or for completion, but just to play it again. That is really rare for me these days. These days I tend to play a game, maybe go back for some trophies/achievements, and then move on to the next big game. I’m in such a rush to play _everything_, and I have so little time to do so, that even the games that I should spend lots and lots of time on kind of get rushed through.

Part of me wants to say that means I should stop playing as many games, and try to just pick the games I really want to play and just play those. But sometimes the games that I didn’t expect to be the best turn out being the most fun, and sometimes when I build too high of an expectation, a game can’t possibly live up to it and it lets me down. Does anyone else feel like they don’t appreciate games as much as they did when they were younger? Or maybe more importantly-does anyone feel like they haven’t stopped appreciating games as much as they got older?

About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That’s why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak Up. That’s the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we’ll pull one of the best Speak Up posts we can find and highlight it here.