Realistically? I'm starting to wonder if my game playing days are now officially over. I talked to an old friend last night whom was my gaming partner. We talked about the good ole' arcade and SNES days. Now he is about to get a job at Intel, and I'm back in school, and well..if I want to succeed, something as time consuming as playing games will simply not be an option. Maybe when I have kids one day I'll get back into it...but I really don't see it happening for me anymore. I'm 33, so maybe that's my cut-out off point..though my last REAL gaming years was when I was 25(just before college graduation). I expect to play games here and there, but nothing like the past.

im 31 now and havnt finished a new rpg in a long time. I started but never finished: FF9, silent hill 4, and Starocean 3...  I dont have 40-50 hours to sit on my butt for a new game,, but i will occasionally play an SNES game on the emulator with a cheat code just to relive the storyline in a 4-5 hour span...

but the Katamari games make 90 minutes on an elliptical stepper just fly by...

Gaming really doesn't hold my interest anymore.  It was a good run going from Pitfall on the Atari 2600 to Grandia II on Dreamcast, but for some reason, when the Dreamcast died, so did my passion for console gaming.  It's like the Dreamcast was my ideal gaming system and when it was released, it completed my gaming life.

I occassionally play PC games (MMORPG's) but even those get stale after a few months.

I think the saddest part is I still buy games to convince myself that I am still a gamer.  I am too afraid to admit my time has come to an end with gaming.  I've even gone so far as to buy games even though I don't own any consoles.

I am 24 btw, but haven't really sat down in front of a system since I was 21.

I'll stop playing when I'm dead. I'm 23 now and have been playing since my parents bought me an NES when I was 4. The quality of games in general have declined in the past several years, but there's still plenty out there to dig into.

My life and living situations have changed in the past year or two, so I don't have as much time to play for hours and hours on end like I used to. I can still squeeze in a few hours here and there on some good titles, though. Ape Escape 2 has stolen 11 hours of my week already, and I'm just starting. Still have to get all the extra Gotcha prizes and get 100%. Then, Ape Escape 3.

Well, I just turned 20, and I'm gaming more and more each day.  Not absolutly literally, of course, but it seems I'm getting more and more into games.  So its sort of hard to think when I'll quit, if ever.

I've had to cut down on a lot of gaming hours as well.  Also, having played many RPGs in the 16-bit era, I have developed less tolerance for RPGs that I feel are padding the playing hours with needless leveling.  I have mostly switched from RPGs to Zelda-like games.  In addition, I no longer buy every game I like on the shelf.  I am picking the best of the best now.

Forever!

I'm 26 now, and I'm possibly gaming more than ever.
I don't ever see myself quitting games, since I am fully convinced that is the ideal hobby/passtime for me. I don't have a fultime job yet (I am the proverbial Eternal Student), and I don't know what'll happen when I do get one, but I'll make sure I have some time for games.

I do find myself slightly less tolerant than in the old days though, like Stephen said.

Still, as long as people can come up with pure gaming brilliance like Resident Evil 4 and Shadow of the Colossus, I will NEVER stop gaming.

I'll keep playing games until good ones stop coming out, I think (and even then, I can see my friends and I starting up some of the good ol' multiplayer games from times gone by).  Either that or until I go blind or die.

I intend to keep gaming until I die or am otherwise physically incapable of playing.

That said, I don't think I'm going to be a hardcore gamer much longer (if I even still am one).  Two systems have been released that I haven't bought yet (PSP and X360), I've stopped buying most RPGs since I've grown tired of the silly anime plotlines and convolulted progression systems, and I expect my disposable income will shrink considerably in the near future.  On top of all this, I'm actually thinking about skipping E3 this year.  The only reason I want to go is to play the Revolution, but I'm not sure that desire justifies the cost.

Anyway, I still love games, but I want to make sure I'm having fun while I play.  Thank goodness for Phoenix Wright.  :-)

Hah! Are you kidding? I sold my last console in 1997 (it was a SNES). Since then, I've been leeching off my brother (who is a really fanatic gamer), mostly PSX, PS2, and GBA, but also some N64 and GC. Although I still have mad gaming skillz, my enthusiasm has been slowly dying. Coupled with the fact that other things have come along to claim my time, and that I moved out several years ago, this basically means that I play games only when I visit my brother for longer stays (such as winter and summer breaks).

And honestly, the art form (games) holds very little appeal to me anymore. I casually cruise through even the best games (like RE4, last summer) with a bemused smile, getting very little out of the gameplay. The only factor that attracts me nowadays is the aesthetic appeal of a game. I won't try to rationalize it, but it's basically if the game has a visual and auditory style that pulls me in (I'm not referring to "awesome graphics", but rather if it has a visual style that I find interesting and that resonates well with my taste), and, to a lesser extent, if I find the storyline and characters interesting (this very rarely happens).

I'm visiting my brother in April, but I have no idea what game to get. The only one that has caught my interest is Haunting Ground for the PS2, I like what I've seen of that one so far. It doesn't look like anything earthshattering, but like something that I maybe could waste some hours with without getting too bored/angry/embarassed by it (and the soundtrack is pretty cool, too). Maybe Castlevania - Curse Of Darkness, but I have no high hopes for that one.

Nor should you.

I've honestly been out of the gaming world for well over a year now. I used to love RPGs but they're all the same now, with the same disposable anime-lite plots and characters. I'll still play the occasional console game but I find that most of my pleasure comes from portable gaming (on my new GBA).

Hence, I'm not sure how old I'll be when I stop playing games. It could be sooner than I think.

Good poll... I really started cutting back in my early 20s, maybe 21 or 22. Now that I'm 25, I very rarely play anything other than NCAA Football 2005, and even then not that much. I haven't played an rpg in years, save for popping in an old DQ game for a little while. Part of it is time, and part of it is I just simply lost interest, especially in having to buy new consoles to continue playing games. I guess I just got tired of it.

my little brother just bought himself a 50 inch sony wega plasma hdtv for use as his computer monitor (he works at best buy so he got it for only 2400)...

maybe i should have him move in with me...  theres nothing like watching peter griffin outfart michael moore in widescreen...

Simple answer: I'll never stop until I'm physically unable.

Now, WHAT I'll be playing is a completely different matter. I got to see firsthand what a dryspell in the game industry is like (basically, mid-2000 through mid-2004...probably fewer than 15-20 games I would want to remember from that time period and plenty more gimmicks and games that didn't deliver the goods that I'd like to forget). I'm expecting something similar when the next generation of consoles limp onto the field and we don't see anything worth playing for the next 2-3 years after because the developers have to adjust to new hardware. I lost a lot of my enthusiasm for gaming during that stretch and started thinking I was losing my interest in it. Of course, I proved myself wrong with a Castlevania: Circle of the Moon upallnighter, but it was pretty rough.

That said, there have been plenty of games since mid-2004 that I've either played and really liked, am in the midst of playing or want to play and haven't gotten to for one reason or another (mostly time/work related). The coming-of-age of Xbox Live was a pleasant factor as well. Just nice to know the whole "losing my interest" was just a passing thing that came with the times.

Oh yeah...Then there are all the classic NES/SNES games I'll always be replaying (or even discovering for the first time...Magical Pop'N is a great little SNES platformer). And I haven't touched the Genesis library, outside of the Sonic and Phantasy Star series'. And MAME sure has a lot of games on it as well...Maybe it's time I built myself an arcade cabinet...

With all of that said though, I am seeing a lot of games nowadays that look nice, but I'm also telling myself I'm glad I don't have to play them (mostly on the gaming TV shows). On the same hand, it's almost as much fun watching what the industry does than it is playing some of the games that result from the carnage. Will Xbox 360 survive Sony's Blu Ray monster? Will Nintendo "get it right"? Will portables become the dominant market? Will PS3 come out at $500 and hand victory over to its' competitors by default? Stay tuned to the next drama-filled generation...

We've hit the requisite amount of "all RPGs these days are Japanese bullshit", but we're a long way from our "games today aren't as good as games yesterday" quota, people!

I've said it before: if your interest in gaming wanes, it's because you're playing the wrong things. Dump the games that bore you, shake your play choices up a little and you'll usually find yourself hooked all over again.
I'll have short periods where I'm not interested in playing games per se, but I still listen to the music, discuss the snot out of 'em online and generally keep in touch.

Videogaming is a hobby, not a phase on the road to maturity, despite whatever pundits say. Even if I get to the point where I'm unable to play myself, I can live vicariously through future generations of the family, who you KNOW will be taught a healthy appreciation of the medium.

I think SonicPanda nailed it right on the head.  I don't even really see why there should be an age where one stops playing games.  It's not like I'm gonna hit a magical age where I stop watching TV, reading books, or going to see movies.  It seems sort of ridiculous to me.

There's a big difference in watching TV, reading books, and seeing movies as opposed to playing games. In all of those media forms mentioned, there are both adult and kiddie versions. So you'll always be able to comfortably watch a movie, even at the ripe age of 60. Thankfully, we aren't stuck with watching only Pinocchio style movies our entire lives. Games? Well...though anyone can play them at any age, 95% are made for a younger generation. Some say they'll play games until they die. I think they're just trying to convince themselves, as Eiolon mentioned, that they will always be gamers, always be young and never wanting to accept the fact that they have to grow up and focus on more important things in life like working full time, supporting a family, or getting an education. I had the same mentality when I was 20 too....well kind of. I was still playing games, but was asking for more responsibility at work, which cut down on my play time both in games and hanging out with my friends. The more responsibility I gained, the more I started focusing on my professional life and what really was important to me. Over time, my game playing time was diminishing more and more. As I mentioned earlier, 25 was around my cut-off time for playing games, 21 was my cut-off time for dating, up until last year that is. Try giving up women to focus on your life..think giving up gaming will be difficult?

You're right, there's no magical cut-off point for playing games, the real question is what is the magical point to accept growing up, being mature, and assuming responsibililities. I think if I ask this same question 10 years from now, those who said they'll be lifetime gamers will have different views, and possibly a different direction in life. After all, the last time I checked, there wasn't many job openings for 'video game players', so I decided to study engineering instead.

Some people with jobs and responsibilities still have hobbies...

I think GoldfishX got it right - it's not about when you stop, more about what games you'll be playing. I don't have much time for the long RPG right now and so don't play them. I don't have the patience for tough games any more and so now I'm playing games I would have rejected as too easy many years ago. My game playing habits are changing - my urge to play games is not. I can see it just continuing like that.

I don't think you have to stop. I think there are plenty of games for 'adults'. My mom is a Crazy Taxi addict for example. Her PS2 died about a week ago and she is going nuts over it because she ca't find a silver one to replace it. You want to be the one to tell my mom she's too old to play games?

Everyone has hobbies, responsibility or not.

I strongly disagree with this sentiment.  Does that fact that as an adult I've read Harry Potter (originally written for children) or watched Spirited Away (like all of Miyazaki's films but Mononoke, designed for children) make me a less responsible person?  I simply don't see why gaming as a hobby needs to be shoved to the wayside just because someone is gaining greater responsibilities.  Before I left for Japan, I was teaching six classes at the high school level, five of which had different preps.  And because I'm an English teacher, that means I have a LOT of paperwork to do.  Between prepping for classes and grading and working with the kids on extracurriculars like theatre performances, I still didn't feel as if spending my few down hours on games was wasteful.  Heck, I would go so far as to say playing games is vastly more engaging for the mind than watching the large majority of what adults watch on television (with the exception of things like the History channel on cable).

Gaming IS just a hobby.  And it is absolutely NOT any more childish than any other hobby people take up in their adult lives.  Shall we start putting that stigma on model railroading?  Going to football games?  Putting jigsaw puzzles together?

I don't think anybody here has stated that they are not playing games anymore.  It looks like most of us have become more discriminating on the games we play.  When I was younger, I might play A-grade and B-grade games, but now I might focus only on A-grade games.  If there many A-grade games released, I may only play a small set of A-grade games.

It is a hobby, and hobbies come and go.

Well put, man.

Well, my game play habits have certainly changed from the past.  These days, at any given time, I'm playing:

1. A single RPG on the PS2/GC (Atelier Iris Eternal Mana right now)
2. A single GBA/DS game on the commute to and from work (Phoenix Wright, Chapter 5 right now)
3. Any of the Bemani games on the PS2 (mostly IIDX, although some PnM and DDR make their way into the shuffle)

Five years ago, it was almost exclusively Dreamcast games, but I would mix up what I was playing on a more regluar basis.  One day, I would play Record of Lodoss War, the next I would play Bangai-O, the next I would play Crazy Taxi.  These days, I have such a large backlog of games that I find myself focusing on one at a time just to get through it so I can cross it off my list.  I hardly ever find myself saying, "I feel like playing Grand Theft Auto III today."  It's more like, "Do I feel like playing Atelier Iris or IIDX?  Neither?  Then I just won't play anything."

Because of the backlog, I find myself increasingly less tolerant of game annoyances.  If a game starts to frustrate me, I'll give up and move on to the next one, and probably never play it again.  Indigo Prohpecy is a great example of that:  I almost stopped playing it several times due to the camera and controls.  The final straw was when I was sneaking around the military complex, kept getting caught, and had to try again.  This went on for thirty minutes before I decided I had had enough.

I doubt I will stop playing games, but I do think that a lot of games today aren't as deserving of my time as a lot of games I already have.  After I get through my backlog, I'll probably become more of a retro gamer, largely due to nostalgia and cleaner controls.  Now where did I put that TurboGrafx?

It's more about the time involved. I don't consider myself childish for playing
Icewind Dale, Morrowind, Quake 3, Doom 3, Uru, Myst III, etc. My comment was meant more about managing time. Being responsible with balancing out whatever you do in your spare time compared to certain responsibilites that can't be ignored. We all know that gaming is a time consuming hobby. I don't look down on older people who still play games. My 38 y/o friend carries his GBA, and PSP everywhere he goes. He is the only friend of about 10 of us gamers that still makes times for games. The bad thing is, we never see him much anymore, because if he's not working, he's at home isolating himself from the rest of the world to play his games. That's his choice, but I would have liked to have seen him make better judgements and have some kind of college education before he got so involved with gaming.

It's funny how much of a difference there are between my friends from my high school days
who were gamers, and who were non-gamers. Of the guys that absolutely did not play games, they all graduated with their BS's by 24. Three are cops, one a detective, the other manages a Home Depot. The four others who were hardcore gamers...well...one dropped out of college to pursue being in a band, the other is the 38 y/o I told you about, who has lived at home all his life, the other was a very smart guy, but his life totally went to shambles. He never leaves home, he's never happy, he's the most unsociable person I know of, and most of us can't stand to be around him any more. The fourth guy dropped out of high school, but luckily he's back in school about to go to college.

Maybe I'm making a subject about this because I've seen directly how the time consuming process of game playing has affected people in my life. I'm not happy with the direction that many of my friends have taken, and the ones who play games...well...that's all they talk about...their life revolves around games.

That's why I say it's all about time management. If people are smart enough to balance their time as you have done, it can all be worked out. But for those who say gaming is their life...well...that will simply be their life. Like Stephen said, it's about changing, not neccesarily giving up. Peoples tastes will change in the games they play, and the time they are able to put aside for gaming will change, some will just lose interest as Eiolon has. I'll never completely give up playing games. But my hardcore gaming days are over. Personally, I'd rather study up on my Calc. 2 class. Doing my homework is about 10 times more gratifying that beating a game.

WOW..when I think back to my mentality when I was 16, I never would have imagined the frame of mind I'm in now. School used to suck...and games were life Not anymore.

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A person's choice of entertainment options has nothing to do with maturity.  I've seen plenty of immature people at the opera.  They just dress better.

I'm sorry it just so happens that your loser friends like playing games, but I don't see what games have to do with them being losers.  They CHOOSE not to make school, friends, women, jobs, etc. a priority.  It's not the games that have forced them to make these choices.  They could just as easily be working on their cars, watching TV, going to movies, reading books, downloading porn, hunting, anything.

The point is that their lack of focus on what society judges to be important to a heathly and successful life is their CHOICE -- they are choosing to be immature, but neither gaming as a hobby nor the gaming industry are to blame.  They are responsible for themselves and they have no one to blame but themselves.  After all, if you won't make an effort to better your own life, you certainly can't expect anyone else to.

I've know plenty of successful, emotionally healthly people who enjoy video games.  I also know people who spend every waking moment wasting away in MMORPGs.  Did video games make my successful friends successful?  Hell no.  Did MMORPGs corrupt and ruin my loser friends?  Hell no.  It's all about individual behaviors and choices.

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I never said it was the actual games that made them take the wrong path, just the time consuming process put them behind. Xlord, I know these guys, I have for the last 15-20 years. I don't think it's too difficult for me to draw any conclusions based on the experience I've had with these guys, and to see what the majority of their everyday habbits are. I didn't say they were doing drugs....they just choose to spend their life playing games instead of going to school. Their very capable of an education, but they chose a path, I as a friend, am certainly not happy with.

I'm not calling anyone here losers because they play games. Guys don't get me wrong. I'd be calling myself a loser too if that were the case. I think my whole point, and what made me start thinking of this thread, was how my personal goals in life have changed. How I'd love to make time for playing games myself, but for me, personally to succeed, I certainly can't put in the time for gaming that I used to. I would get nowhere in life. If anyone here can be a gamer and put in hours a week and still complete their goals, my hats off to them. When I was gaming, it was almost like having a second job. I remember playing Quake 2 all night when I first started engineering. I felt like total trash when I would go into work..couldn't focus from my sleep depravation. So I learned fast, I wasn't capable of being my old self. So, I prefered to focus on making money and learning everything I could about the profession I had just got myself into.

Sorry if I offended anyone.....seems like I rubbed a couple of you guys the wrong way. We all do things differently and view life differently. Some things have higher priorities for some of us than others. I just wish some of my pals would have taken life a little more seriously and not have been so addicted to games.

I never said playing games was a bad thing, so before anyone else decides to take offense, my main point has to do with the balancing of time for enjoyment, and still making time for survival in life.

And Xlord, don't call my friends losers. There's no need to take a stab at me because you don't agree with what I said. Even as much as I don't agree with their habbits, I don't call them losers, or anyone else who plays video games for that matter.

I'll jump in along with Mr. S. Getting somewhere in life and steady gaming don't mesh. Gaming is a fine hobby, but people waisting hours and hours on single player games...a prime example is World of Warcraft; well it's a black hole, draining the life away of every individual that enters it. I think Blizzard should be vanquished from Earth. I can't think of anyone that is both making something out of life and plays singleplayer games. Im only talking about when you have a 'fulltime' life. It's a matter of choices in life indeed, but I can't imagine that people can work full time AND play games...alone. And Xlord, MMORPGs do ruin your life. Saying It's all about individual behaviors and choices really adds nothing to the issue. That western individualistic thought makes any discussion of social responsibility impossible. We are talking about what happens to you because of your behaviour and choices.

In that case it's not about quitting games - it's about basic time management. If someone has a serious time management problem, it's not going to be a direct result of games. Nor will it be limited to games.

Nobody has to quit games. It's simply how and when they fit in with your life. If someones life is too manic and too full of what you would term 'responsibility' to the point where they have to quit all recreational activities, I would say they have serious problems with how they have chosen to live their lives. That's a whole seperate issue and a little harsh to point the finger at games in those circumstances.

Agreed to all here who say that it totally has to do with time management.  Mr. S., don't worry about having offended... I think it would take far more than such a minor disagreement to offend most of us at this point.  I am sad to hear that your friends turned out that way, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, I could come up with examples of my friends who played games in high school heavily and those who didn't.  One of them is one of the more popular people I know, coming and going in many social groups.  He also spends far more time playing long rpgs than I do.  He also has been working as a surgeon and doing seemingly a damn fine job of it.  Another one of my heavy gamer friends is now making far more money than I ever will doing mathematic crap (damned if I understand the details... I'm an English major ) for a casino.  Another, who was never a HEAVY gamer but often played and still does play games works as a regional manager.   All of these people are living on their own.  All of them have active social lives.  All of them have had no relationship problems because of gaming.

On the other hand, I know a number of people who were never into gaming at all and have flushed their lives down the toilet.

Now, what's relevant here is NOT the hobby itself, but merely the inherent capability of the individual to figure out how to budget their time.  Sure, our gaming habits might change.  The DS is a wonderful thing for me because so many of the games on it are playable in short spurts.  And even longer games are still doable because I don't play them from the moment I get home until the moment I go to bed every night.  I get home, do housework, make dinner, check to see if any of my friends over here are free to do anything, and then if I've nothing else going on, will sit down for an hour or two and play something.  I think intelligent appraisal of the fact that gaming IS just a HOBBY is very important, and if one understands how to work it into the rest of life, there's no reason it can't continue on forever.

Let's ignore the fact that I basically played through 90% of Legend of Heroes IV in the span of 3-4 days.  I was home in bed with the flu.  x_x

Well now, I do know some people who play MMORPGs and have fulltime lives.  One of my friends plays Guild Wars a lot, but is still able to maintain his life as a civil engineer.  Two others play WoW very often, are engaged (to each other), and keep managing to pass actuarial exams while holding down full-time jobs at the same time.  All of them have homes, drive nice cars, have solid retirement accounts, etc.  But they all know when to say when.

One of them was a prototypical Everquest junkie in college, and ended up dropping out because she had stopped going to classes and interacting with the real world in order to play EQ for fifteen hours a day.  She went back to school, got her degree, and now has a good job while appropriately managing her gaming time.

Don't get mad at me.  All I did was put a label on your condemnation of your own friends.  I took a stab at you because both of your posts took the classic paternalistic approach to life.  Father knows best.  Time to grow up.  Yadda yadda.  No one likes to be preached to, you know.

Jay and Qui-Gon are both absolutely right about time management.

To add to that, your assumption about gaming is that it is only possible if it takes up an inordinant amount of time.  When I was in college, it took me 7 months to finish FF7 because I was so busy between school, work, and life.  When I had time to play, I played.  When I didn't, I didn't.  Pursuing personal/professional goals and gaming aren't mutually exclusive behaviors as you seem to suggest.  You make the time for what's important to you, and if gaming isn't important to you right now, that's perfectly fine, but it *IS* possible to do both.

I personally have held the equivalent of two jobs (one actual job and one home business), gone to school full time, dated, and played games (both alone and with friends) all during the same stretch of time.  I'm not saying it's easy.  I'm not saying I'd recommend it.  All I'm saying is that I know it's entirely possible because I did it.