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God help me, I think I might be outgrowing video games D:

You don't "outgrow" video games. You get busier with less time as you get older.

Don't play games if you don't feel like it. But I'm sure you'll be back for something awesome.
 
This happened to me during nursing school 10 years ago. I say get back to your roots. In other words, go back to genre that brought you in to gaming or held your attention that you couldn't resist. My go to is fighting games and I started playing Street Fighter 3rd Strike at the local college arcade, then on the Dreamcast. It got me back in the groove and I began playing other genres again. Like others have said, it happens, I'm sure you'll get back to it.
 
I am experiencing the same "meh" as you, similar to how I felt at the start of the Wii/360/PS3 gen and end of the PS2/GC era.

Most games from this new gen of consoles are crap which is why you are feeling the fatigue. You are losing interest because there is no innovation in today's games because devs know they have the wiggle room to pump out games with the same boring ass experiences for people itching to play anything.

I bet you that you will feel "rejuvinated" come 2015 and you'll wonder why you feel the urge to pick up gaming again. Well, it's simple. Next year is when this generation will actually (hopefully) start releasing fresh experiences that are worth our dollar.

Until then we get the ridiculously over-hyped/overblown indies (which I personally don't give two shits about) and the retreading of genres that have been driven into the ground year after year (COD, AC, FC, sports titles, Halo). It's either a) AAA budget sequelitis or b) boring "innovative" indie game. There has been no middle ground thus far and this doesn't look to change until next year.

Either that or just like you I'm checking out of gaming because if this nonsense doesn't change I'll probably end up selling my PS4.
 
You're not outgrowing video games.

You might be outgrowing the target audience of most videogames made these days, though.

I was in a similar rut around 2003.

Then I bought Morrowind, and I got hooked badly. Carried over into Oblivion, and finally fizzled a bit with Skyrim.

Now I'm playing Minecraft, Rune Factory 4, and a smattering of others (close to the end of my FFFFJF run). I played through Tomb Raider 2013 on a dare (literally), and it was kinda okay but the AAA trappings made it a lot shallower than it could've been.

Point is, if you don't like the games you're playing, try different ones, explore past generations, or just take a break.

Above all, don't feel obligated to play games you've purchased. Nothing wrong with buying games while they're on sale, but buying a game is not a commitment to playing it. Soon as you treat it as a backlog, it becomes a chore and when it's a chore, you get burnt out.

But growing out of it? Unlikely.
 
I have burned out on video games to know that the best answer is to step away for a time. You'll come back if the right game comes along.
 
I'm in a position where I want to play games, but by the time I get home I am too exhausted to play anything that requires any sort of effort. I just can't bring myself to focus on something like a competitive FPS. I find myself gravitating towards slower paced, more deliberate games. I can't wait until the next Civ game comes out.
 
NoTacos said:
I love my ps4, don't get me wrong. It's a work of art and it fulfills my needs in terms of streaming media, but starting a few months back the gaming aspect has become less and less relevant to me. The more I look at games that are available, the less interested I am in purchasing them.

For example I just played the hell out of the Destiny Beta (was also an alpha user) and had a great time with the GAF community. Despite that, I am no longer certain that this game can sustain my attention for the long term, no other game for that matter. In my case, games are now beginning to shift from "entertainment value" to "waste of money" which sucks considering I was/ still am interested in what the industry has to offer to consumers.

Has anyone else experienced a burn out/loss of passion for video games like this before? Should I just cut back on games for a while and come back to it at a later date?

Interested in seeing what this community has to say.
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Sounds to me you need to play less. Same thing happened to me with sports. I used to watch almost everything that was baseball, basketball, and football and played in all the fantasy leagues for them... I got to the point where I found myself not enjoying sports anymore. Started slowing up how much I invested in sports, by quite a bit, and found the enjoyment coming back very quick.
 
Okay, well in the interest of trying to make it a little less bland how about a different sub-topic:

What do you think the main difference is between playing games as kid and playing as an adult (w/ an overwhelming sense of burnout)? Is it simply the fact most games are "shallow AAA", or could it be another factor such as technology overload in this day/age, or even a matter of actual age (the perception of games as a child vs an adult relative to life events)?
 
You know what I find to be a good change of pace? Sports games. You can actually bang out a game for 30 min and feel like you accomplished something. Seriously, give it a shot.
 
The PS4 has basically no games yet, and few that look promising in the near future. I own one myself, and have similar feelings as the OP. I think this will get better in 2015. In the meantime you should broaden your horizons, there are lots of interesting smaller niche games out there that you might like. I recently discovered a love for turn based strategy games.
 
DizzyCaffeine said:
You know what I find to be a good change of pace? Sports games. You can actually bang out a game for 30 min and feel like you accomplished something. Seriously, give it a shot.
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I've wasted too much time and money between FIFA and NBA 2K already lol all I received in return was high blood pressure and fits of rage.

Jakoozie89 said:
The PS4 has basically no games yet, and few that look promising in the near future. I own one myself, and have similar feelings as the OP. I think this will get better in 2015. In the meantime you should broaden your horizons, there are lots of interesting smaller niche games out there that you might like. I recently discovered a love for turn based strategy games.
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I don't doubt that there will be successful games out in 2015, my only concern is that I won't be able to see the long term value of them. I think it's more of an industry issue and as I've grown up I've become more aware of it. It seems like this new microtransaction model they have going on is great in the short term, but in the long term it really doesn't do the consumer justice as next year the next installment of the game releases and you'll have to do the microtransactions all over again, so forth and so on.

The whole pay to win/pay to enhance gameplay ideology really sticks at me and makes me lose faith in the industry a bit.
 
Less time as I age... Loss of interest in gaming. I have felt that way before.

I once went 4 years without gaming. I could do it again.

But, overall, I do enjoy gaming. As I age, I find that having friends who game or friends that I can talk about games with really helps maintain my interest. It's like my time is more valuable so spending it on isolating activities is not as fun. If I do something alone, I want to totally crash and do something besides game. The social element has become more important as I age, but as we age finding time to game, much less game with friends, becomes more difficult.

Now, it seems like I read more about games than I actually play them.
 
I wrote a long post but decided it sounded too GET OFF MY LAWN DUMB KIDS so I will just give the short of it.

Take a break. If money isn't an issue grab an SNES, NES, basically any pre-7th gen console will do. A Wii U is great as well. Avoid AAA cinematic experiences. Play some games.
 
I quit gaming for 5 years during my college years, got alot of studying done in the process, but evetually got rekindled. I was in a huge funk recently, due to work, family and stress issues, but rekindled my love of gaming through portable means. Lately all my gaming js portable and on the go. Keeps me entertained for a few hours per day and then relax and unwind.
 
It is more like AAA fatigue rathen than gaming fatigue. Try different genres and as mentioned already try a WiiU. There is a reason why multi-platform owners don't get bored that often.
 
Take a break definitely. I've gone through phases as well were I don't even wanna turn on the system, yet alone play a game.

I remember buying a PS3 a couple of years after release. Bought FFXIII and GTA4 with it and after playing those for a bit, didn't turn on the system for probably almost a year. Sometimes your mind needs another hobby to refresh.
 
it can happen. i was all about gaming till around 2011. I talked about this in another one of these threads not too long ago, but it was just in that time where things were getting pretty motion controlled, kinect and move and wii was all over e3 with not much else going on and a generation cycle that had been going on for awhile and it looked like that wasn't going to change for a couple more years. I didn't really come back in until the sony meeting that eventually would announce the ps4 and i new the next gen arrived. started saving money for a new system and played cheap steam sale indies on my laptop in anticipation and now i'm right back in.

so there was about a 3 year gap where i really didn't game at all. don't feel bad about it either, i focused on movies and learned a lot about film, worked on my art and made music and just filled my time with other things. sometimes it is good to put some hobbies in the back seat to spend time with other ones. you'll go back to the things you love naturally over time.
 
When I got sick of video games I quit modern games and shitty AAA games and dove to the classics. Played a lot of NES games and Snes stuff, and the only time I played modern games was couch co op with a buddy or a fun bad weird single.player game we can both enjoy and laugh at. It helped a lot and I experienced cool games I never would have.
 
NolbertoS said:
I quit gaming for 5 years during my college years, got alot of studying done in the process, but evetually got rekindled. I was in a huge funk recently, due to work, family and stress issues, but rekindled my love of gaming through portable means. Lately all my gaming js portable and on the go. Keeps me entertained for a few hours per day and then relax and unwind.
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I'm about to graduate college and life is starting to look a bit more serious so that definitely has a say in how I'm feeling. Also, the hype train of a having to buy "every" AAA game is tedious and technology/information overload is a killer for me (I've watched TV ~5 times in the past year because of it)

If anything, I'm starting to think gaming is going to get put into my TV category, where I only play it a handful of times with friends who are adamant about it. Saves time and money.
 
I'm right there with you OP.

I went to E3 again this year and it felt like all my hype evaporated this year...it's sad when the game I am most excited for is a compilation disc of old games.

Master Chief collection is pretty much the only game I really care about right now. H2A campaign and Halo 3 multiplayer. That sums up 2014 for me :/
 
I don't really like the term"outgrow" as it supports the idea that videogames are for kids and that's something I simply don't agree with.

Your tastes change over time. Some people stick witht he same hobbies for their whole life, others gets bored of doing the same thing for long periods of time and start trying with new stuff.

When I met my brother in law 8 years ago he was really into music. He spent a lot of time playing guitar and was taking piano classes, at some point he also started composing stuff. But over the years he began to try new stuff. It's not like he started to dislike music or anything but he just wasn't having as much fun with it as he did before.
He still plays, and he still enjoys it, but the time he dedicates to it has drastically reduced and currently he is really into hiking/trekking and those kind of activities.
Did he "outgrow" music? No, he simply realized he wasn't having as much fun as he used to have and stared to focus on other stuff he enjoyed.
And just like that I could give you A TON of examples.

But anyway...there isn't much advice people can give you. Try to step away from gaming for a while, mabye the interest in games will come back to you in time, or mabye you will just find a new hobby.

Personally I've also had the feeling. But I just reduce my gaming for some time and sooner or later I allways come across a game that just gets me excited about gaming again
 
Try something different. I burned out on Ps3 and Xbox two years ago and didnt play anything other then Dark souls for the longest time. Then I bought a WiiU and a 3DS. Faith restored.
 
Tex117 said:
Ebbs and flows...Hell, I didn't even own a ps2 (or that generation), but have gamed since the 80s.

That said...Nothing has really been out to kindle a lot of interest recently.

After taking a break...try bargin bin shopping for used games you would have never played unless they were 20 bucks...IMO it helps.
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Good advice. You really should try some PS2 games though, especially if you like RPGs, you really can't miss what the PS2 offered. (Though FFX/X-2 is available in an HD remake for PS3 and all the Persona and SMT games for PS2 are available on PSN now, so you can still get the highlights now I guess as of this year; though you'd miss out on Final Fantasy 12 which is one of the crowning achievements of that generation IMO.)

Also, if you have a Gamecube compatible Wii, you might want to play some of its games also, best Paper Mario is on it.
 
Fbh said:
I don't really like the term"outgrow" as it supports the idea that videogames are for kids and that's something I simply don't agree with.

Your tastes change over time. Some people stick witht he same hobbies for their whole life, others gets bored of doing the same thing for long periods of time and start trying with new stuff.

When I met my brother in law 8 years ago he was really into music. He spent a lot of time playing guitar and was taking piano classes, at some point he also started composing stuff. But over the years he began to try new stuff. It's not like he started to dislike music or anything but he just wasn't having as much fun with it as he did before.
He still plays, and he still enjoys it, but the time he dedicates to it has drastically reduced and currently he is really into hiking/trekking and those kind of activities.
Did he "outgrow" music? No, he simply realized he wasn't having as much fun as he used to have and stared to focus on other stuff he enjoyed.
And just like that I could give you A TON of examples.

But anyway...there isn't much advice people can give you. Try to step away from gaming for a while, mabye the interest in games will come back to you in time, or mabye you will just find a new hobby.

Personally I've also had the feeling. But I just reduce my gaming for some time and sooner or later I allways come across a game that just gets me excited about gaming again
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NoTacos said:
I think the term comes from the fact that people feel as though when they were a kid, video games were just that much more gratifying and we didn't really get burned out over them so easily. It's all relative[*] and a matter of perspective I guess. "Outgrow" is simply just a figure of speech now.
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*relative to life events/experiences
 
if you outgrown games then you wouldn't be so worried that you might have outgrown them. You probably just need a break or you just haven't found anything recently to peak your interest. I'm kinda going through the same crisis with a MMORPG.
 
Buy Wii U, get Luigi U, Zelda WW HD, DK:TF,MK8 and Mario 3D, its a really fresh experience compared to AAA gaming. Or buy Vita and P4G
 
For me, it's not really 'waste of money' as it is 'need more time'. As you get older it's harder to play games regularly when you have lots of real-life stuff to deal with. And you'll notice your reflexes slowing and multiplayer suddenly is less of an option (for the Destiny Beta it was a lot more fun to play against the AI than players themselves....kids are just too damn fast!)
 
Dang OP, if you actually enjoyed Contrast then I really think you should look at some of the other indie titles the PS4 has to offer, the selection is limited but something else might interest you.
 
Don't have time, too tired, don't care about most things in general, feel like reading NeoGAF is a better use of the inconsistent 1-2 hour spots of free time I actually get (gaming for me is a "sit-down affair"), am aware that playing a video actually is a complete waste of time outside of the immediate entertainment value, can guess well enough what the experience would be before playing that I don't feel like I need to play it, don't feel like playing something I don't already know I'm going to like.

A bunch of reasons why I might be outgrowing video games, some of them overlapping with reasons why I'm getting old.
I'm 25.
 
There was a decent article on Kotaku a couple of days ago that may relate to you that you can check here. I think its a common thing for all gamers to experience, this has happened to me a couple of years ago and it took me a while to get a back into the swing of actually wanting to play and enjoy gaming.
 
Play different games. I felt similar back around 2008, but I I got a PC and tried stuff there. Turns out AAA games weren't doing it for me, I needed more niche games that provided actual depth which mainly existed on PC/Handheld.
 
Like everyone is saying, it happens to everyone. It happens to me pretty regularly. Just go on about your life. Something always brings me back. It's a hobby not a mandate.
 
From the 90's Toy's R Us ad thread (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=863098)

nintendo-ad-1988.jpg
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Seems appropriate to express my feelings.
 
CaptainGyro said:
man sometimes I wonder how much time you guys spent playing video game when you were a kid. Even when I was younger I don't think it was something that took up more than a couple hours a week
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All. Day. Long.

(in other words as much as possible until parents kicked me out to play outside and then sometimes I went to a friends house to play until their parents kicked us out).
 
CaptainGyro said:
man sometimes I wonder how much time you guys spent playing video game when you were a kid. Even when I was younger I don't think it was something that took up more than a couple hours a week
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Do the math on how long it would take to play to completion every game in the average Steam backlog (let's say 5 20 hour games) at a rate of 2 hours a week. That's almost a year to play through 5 games, in addition to such a sparse amount of gametime that the player might not even be able to keep track of what's going on across each session.
 
GraveHorizon said:
Don't have time, too tired, don't care about most things in general, feel like reading NeoGAF is a better use of the inconsistent 1-2 hour spots of free time I actually get (gaming for me is a "sit-down affair"), am aware that playing a video actually is a complete waste of time outside of the immediate entertainment value, can guess well enough what the experience would be before playing that I don't feel like I need to play it, don't feel like playing something I don't already know I'm going to like.

A bunch of reasons why I might be outgrowing video games, some of them overlapping with reasons why I'm getting old.
I'm 25.
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But you never played games. Don't be a liar.

Also, the whole games being a waste of time for those reasons also applies to movies, TV shows and every other form of entertainment. Don't watch Game of Thrones, it's a waste of time.
 
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