Despite a wider variety than ever before, video games don’t have the same effect on me as they used to. That might not sound like a problem to some of you, but it is to me. I have played video games from the early days of my childhood, starting somewhere around the late ’80s. I became heavily addicted to my Game Boy as a kid, and I can still remember the thrill I felt the day I bought my first PlayStation 22 years ago.
Gaming was like breathing. It was the biggest part of my life as a teenager, one of my priorities as a college student, and eventually one of my most expensive “hobbies” as a young professional.
Further Reading
Ars Technica’s best games of 2018
Then all of a sudden, after thousands of hours spent playing across genres and platforms, boredom hit me hard for the very first time in my early thirties. Some of my favorite games soon gave me the impression of being terribly long. I couldn’t help but notice all the repeating tropes and similarities in game design between franchises.
I figured it was just a matter of time before I found the right game to stimulate my interest again, but time continued to go by and nothing changed.
My 41-year-old cousin had dealt with the same thing years before me, and he had a simple explanation: “Now it’s you who has to worry about rent and bills, not your dad.” Deep inside I knew he was right. The more responsibilities, problems, and stress in life, the more we lose our appetite for things that used to entertain us, gaming included. But could there be something more to it than that? Games themselves were also changing. As technology enabled things I wouldn’t have dreamed were possible as a kid, it created entirely new platforms for gaming.
On top of that, as people grow older there are inevitable changes that influence how we see games—including things as simple as needing glasses to actually play the game. The gradual loss of focusing ability for near vision as we age, known as presbyopia, makes gaming on smartphones and portable game consoles a nightmare for older people. Happenings like this help explain why devices such as PS Vitas are created almost exclusively for younger players.
So, are the changes I've been experiencing some kind of fluke or an inevitable process for many? Can you in essence age out of gaming?
