Played To Death – Why I Decided To Give Up Playing Computer Games
From my very first console, a SEGA Master System bought for Christmas; I was hooked on video game consoles for most of my life. School lunchtime was spent rushing back to my friend’s house for an hour of gaming before we rushed back for the afternoon lessons. I can recall various important parts of my childhood and teenage years by thinking back to the games I used to play at the time.
From the Master System and the SNES to play station and the GameCube, I’ve always had something on the go. There are more options than ever now, but I find myself less and less interested. Things have changed, both with me and the games industry. I won’t be buying any more computer game consoles and there are a number of reasons why.
A large part of it is that the games themselves have changed enormously over the last ten years. In my gaming days it was all about the multi-person game play. I didn’t want to beat some computer-generated high score; I wanted to thrash my friends at football or wrestling. Two, three and four-player games were where the fun was to be found and in recent times that type of game has expanded in a very different direction. The selling point now is often the ability to play against people all over the world online. No longer are you filling a room full of friends for a game of Golden eye or Royal Rumble, instead it’s people sat on their own with a headset on, playing a war game with 15 people they have never even met. It’s just not the same type of experience for me.
Another aspect is that you can play games in so many other ways now. Most mobile phones, tablets and other communication devices have loads of different games you can buy or download. You don’t need an old-fashioned hand-held games console any more if your phone has hundreds of great games already. I’d rather sell my Nintendo 3DS and upgrade my mobile phone than buy the latest hand-held games console. The PC gaming world is now more accessible than ever, with big name games that offer more features than the game console versions. If I do decide to get back into gaming, I’d rather just upgrade my PC than buy a games console that will likely be outdated in a year or two anyway.
Age certainly had something to do with it of course. Adults find themselves with less time on their hands to mess about with games, or anything else for that matter. I still find myself less and less inclined to play games in the free time I do have and would rather spend the time meeting up with real friends or doing something more active. That’s not to say I won’t break out my old SNES every so often. I still have it tucked away and Lemmings 2 calls out to me every few years.
