I think I’ve become one of those so called “casual gamers” which has become a huge market now ever since Nintendo changed the whole direction of gaming once again.I can almost never find the time to play games anymore. I spend some of my time at work or being in bed by a certain time to be awake for it. The other part of my time is spent in tai chi, kung fu, or helping out with the youth classes. Every so often, I need to be at certain places which takes up even more time.
In contrast, college afforded me a lot more time. I did not do much outside of class and other normal club activities so I had plenty of time to run amuck. It was after my high school graduation when I really started getting into PC gaming and that carried into my first and second year of college. It stayed on in my later years of study but slowly diminished since I had to spend more time on schoolwork. After moving back home and getting a job, I just felt a huge need to “go outside” and not spend all day sitting on my butt indoors.
I realized that I wanted to spend (relatively) more time with people, but I have also decided to give up a lot on games. I used to be really into games but was never really hardcore as some people are. When I look at the games on the market now, I don’t see anything worth playing anymore. There are few gems here and there, but those only come by every so often. My personal tastes in games depends on what design the game has, and a winning combination (i.e. hits of the year) are hard to come by.
I have always liked and believed in Nintendo because their philosophy is all about gaming which they seem to understand very well. They know that games should be about the players and creates their games and systems accordingly (even it ends up being a flop). I believe that is why there wasn’t anything worth playing on the Nintendo Wii or Nintendo DS initially. They were so drastically different from the typical gaming standard (which only targeted those hardcore gamers), but they opened up a whole new world including a huge niche market that was so untapped.
When I actually do pick up a game these days, I can’t really stand playing it for more than a few hours. Unless a game is really that good, I start to get restless because I just need to get up and walk around or go outside for some air. It may just be that my apartment is congested, but most of the games I play these days don’t do anything more for me. I can never recapture that same feeling after you play through an epic game after a few times. There is nothing left once the replay value is gone, and I have been trying to relive that experience in various remakes or ports of games I played ages ago. I’m not terribly sad since most games aren’t worth my time anymore. I’ve learned to grow up and move on to better things gaming or otherwise.
