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"Goodbye"

I love video games. Not as a passion – I’m not a nerd who sits at home day after day playing games. I have a social life, as do almost everybody on these forums. I mean, the typical ‘hardcore gamer’ is so unbelievably stereotyped that even mentioning the word ‘hardcore’ when talking about gaming brings up references of dark rooms late in the night and spotty teenagers. Doesn’t happen, I tell you.

As many people know, I have got a PlayStation2, an Xbox and a GameCube. How I managed to wind up with all three consoles, I don’t know. Why, I also don’t know. I never play my PS2 anymore and am only keeping it for Final Fantasy 10, and my Xbox was pretty much a spur-of-the-moment thing. Selling it in the Freeads tomorrow wouldn’t dent my gaming schedule in the least. There aren’t even any games which I look forward to. I pretty much only use my GameCube, and even there I’m seeing a serious lack of games.

I remember last Christmas. Every week, my friend and I would go into town and probably buy one, if not two games for the PS2. There were so many releases, so many ‘must have’ games. It was a great time I tell you. We both loved games, and we’d both have brilliant weekends. I don’t know where it has all gone now. I’ve lost my interest in gaming, lost my passion. My friend now has an Xbox and plays so infrequently that he wouldn’t even admit to love gaming. We don’t talk about games, we don’t discuss magazines. The passion has gone out of our gaming.

But then there is the PC front. My friend has broadband now, and plays online games frequently. He got a new PC, you see. Brilliant specifications with an amazing graphics card. I also have a brilliant new PC with a great graphics card, but not broadband. So while he’s harking on about online gaming, downloading massive things in short spaces of time and the rest of it, I’m left with the clunky old 56k dial up and a strict limit of 50 hours a month. Which means by this time in the month, I only go online for about half an hour a day. I am persuading my dad to get broadband, but at the moment it seems unlikely.

As I said, I love video games. It used to be my passion, my life. I live in a small village about ten minutes drive out of a town called Romsey, which many of you will know if you live around the South of England. I go to school in Romsey, all my friends live in Romsey and I don’t consider myself to be a country boy, since I generally spend my time in Romsey. The thing is, between now and last Christmas, things have moved on. My friend has become much more interested in the opposite gender, and consequently has become much more (in his view) ‘mature’. Gaming isn’t his hobby now and he likes to chill, listen to music and go out. I’d be happy to join in – my life doesn’t revolve around gaming – if it weren’t for the slight factor of where I live. So consequently, I can’t join in anything, and I feel as though I’m losing a friend. He seems so much less interested in gaming now, and I’m at a loose end. I love gaming, but I seem to play it so infrequently and there is so little which interests me. Is this what they call growing up?

I spend a lot of the time on the internet. MSN messenger is great since my mate has broadband and a PC in his room, so I can talk to him loads. I miss video games. I miss those days when we’d go into town and buy PS2 games and go home and spend hours on multiplayer. I miss my friend as a gamer now. It may be said contrary to this view, but I believe that video games are for children. And as I grow up, and so do my friends, I start to be drawn away from the seductive worlds waiting to be explored in gaming. Video Games are for children, and I guess that I’m going to have to deal with my departure from the world that I’ve loved for so long and indulged in passionately. I’m selling my PlayStation 2 after Final Fantasy 10. I’m going to also sell my Xbox and will probably keep my GameCube just in case. I will miss gaming, but I’ve started to realise that there is more to life than polygons. I am leaving gaming. And I think that I might just be growing up a bit in the process.

I sort of grew out of gaming just before the GC launch, it just seemed such a long time between the PS2 launch and Gamecube launch that I didn't actually play games I just used to read news titbits about them on here and other Internet sites.

I still used to have the odd Mario Kart multiplayer frenzy with friends though.

Although we stopped our usual multiplayer sessions, damn.

They all have PS2's now and I'm the only one with a Cube. They're all jealous though which is nice. :0)

I know the feeling about mates growing out of gaming, I used to have regular N64 multiplayer sessions about a year ago but now it seems all my mates have grown out of it and i'm the only one who still has any intrest in them. This isn't gonna change the way I look at games though, I still love them not in a nerdy way but they are just something I enjoy and can see myself enjoying for a long time. It annoys me though that I can't get any decent multiplayer gaming going.

MoJoJoJo wrote:
> You don't know where it's been!

Yeah ! Silly Gamecube, put him down !

I'd say out of all my work colleagues, around 80% of them are into games. The ages range from like 17 - 40.

Playing games isn't just for kids anymore, maybe your just looking at certain games and feel too old for them now. I think the lack of real big titles at this moment in time has made you bored. I get like this sometimes. I've never thought of stopping when it comes to playing games, but sometimes a lack of enthusiasm slows me down a bit.

I just bought a Gamecube and although Rogue Leader keeps me happy, there really hasn't been 1 title on the machine so far that hasn't had me going mad with frustration. When I got the X-Box, DOA3 drove me nuts at times too, but Halo kept me perfectly happy so I was always happy to put that on and spend time on that when other games got on my nerves.

Thing is with my GC games, they get me really frustrated and then it just winds me up to the point where I'm just fed up with them. It just seems I'm not really having fun on them. Even Rogue Leader has its moments. I want to earn stuff on the games and although I'm willing to put in the time to get them, it just feels like getting the stuff is going to be more down to a moment of luck than judgement. It didn't help when I finally got Slave 1 on Rogue Leader, only to find that its complete pants.

I still really like Halo, but I want to play other games too and the ones I'm getting just seem to really do my head in rather than actually entertain me.

er-no wrote:
> *runs back down to gamecube and kisses it*

-------

You don't know where it's been!

You can't leave gaming... because it won't leave you. It will be a pin in your head, a screw in your leg and an ache in your body.

YOU NEED IT BECAUSE YOU ARE WEAK

*runs back down to gamecube and kisses it*

I was in the same position as you a little while ago.

Many of my friends use to like gaming alot, though there was one friend who did like them more and still does :-)

Then as we got older suddenly gaming wasn't that important anymore. It happened to me too, I just wasn't playing games as much. I think it was because I got tired of a game to quickly and still do sometimes to this day. I can't say there was a single game which I completed.

Soon I get my Gamecube. I'm looking forward to it immensly, I see it as a new change for me. Once my exams are done etc I just want to sit down, get good on a game and beat it. I hope the Gamecube offers me the fun factor aswell so everything will go ok.

So I loved gaming, went off of gaming and I am just now going back in again and I can't wait.

I'm 16 by the way :-P

People say video gaming is for kids, but in fact it's not. It's more likely that as an adult you can enjoy gaming more. It can be an escape from everyday working life, and although you'll have less time to play, doesn't mean you should stop completely. Also, you'll have no age restrictions (not that we really take notice of these at a younger age though.)

What would you do with the money if you sold your PS2 and X-Box?

Hey, I'm 21 an I'm just getting INTO gaming! Who knows how many times I'll be divorced by the time I'm 30!

Thats a nice post there. But its one reason why I dont want to mature or whatever. I just dont want to leave playing games. They are too fun.

I go on the internet in here most often and this site is taking much of my gaming time away. Dunno why, I just like coming here. But, when I do go to have a game of something, its great.

Im still a very keen gamer and wish that I will never lose interest in it.

If I do lose the interest then I hope that its over something better and will keep me happy in the same way as playing games does.

We only live once and for a very short time, thats why I want to have as much fun as possible and if gaming is what gives me the happiness and such then that is what im going to do.

I dont want to lose the interest and have nothing else to keep me entertained.

hhhhmmmm

Meh!