At 33, I just recently hung up my joystick, and I officially retired from gaming after Final Round (which I didn’t even bother to enter). Though I do plan to continue to attend at least Final Round and possibly Evo for the next few years, it’s unlikely that I’ll participate very much. In 2007, I started playing competitively after my local tournament scene started to gain ground. However I started gaming late (around 27), and I already had an established career. I kind of kept my career in the same place while getting hardcore into games. However upon moving to Seattle, my job paid more, and I had a lot more re sponsibility than previously. I tried to participate in the local Seattle scene, but I wasn’t really driven to do so anymore. Plus I got sick of the grind of having to learn a ton of matchups, having to work on my execution, and having to put countless hours into studying. I also found that I no longer had the patience to sit around at tournaments, where in the past I was able to do so with no issue. I not only hung up my competitive fighting game career, but just flat out stopped gaming. I got sick of how games now take tons of hours to beat. At 33 I asked myself should I really be devoting energy to something that does not expand my professional network, isn’t a gateway to any money, and diverts my focus on important things in my life. Eventually gaming seemed really unappealing to me, so I hung it up.
I like SRK so I still kind of hang around here. I’m pretty sure a lot of long term hardcore gamers may be retired but may still hang. I just want to know if anyone else has retired from gaming recently, and what lead to your decision to stop playing games?
Wow I got flagged 3 times for a topic I believe is general and fits into GD just fine. Oh well, just wanted to see reasons why others may have retired from gaming. Again, don’t understand the expectations or sensibilities of gamers anymore, so perhaps there is a bit of a disconnect.
For me, it just sorta gradually crept up on me. Of the last 4 games that I bought on day one, I only really replayed one (DOA 5) more than a couple times. I found myself bored every time I tried playing anything at all. It’s weird because I want to like games, but I just don’t. I mark my retirement about 2 months ago when I boxed up my three TEs and SE to make room for my wife’s books (they were on display on the book Shelf) Currently I still have a VLX, Hori SCV, 3 customs and a 15th Anniversary stick on display but I’m sure within the next 6 months only the VLX and one of the customs will remain on display. I think I have to many other commitments (Work, church, family and gym) to have enough time to even think about playing games.
Yeah I’m kind of the same way. I just find games tedious to play now. Don’t get me wrong, there is some enjoyment in gaming, but there isn’t a spark there anymore. I really can’t imagine myself spending a whole day in front of a TV playing some game. I also can’t see myself looking into frame data, ironing out execution, having long FT10 sessions with people online, or even going to big long gaming sessions. I realize that I couldn’t do what it takes to excel at competitive gaming. I remember in 2009-2011, I was on the biggest grind in my life. Hosted sessions out my house every week, memorized every frame from my character’s move, learned all of my punishments, learned pixel perfect spacing, spent hours watching matchups, and even tried to learn a trick or 2. I just knew there was no way with my life being the way it is now I could ever put that type of time into gaming ever again. Though I do love majors, nothing really beats the energy you feel just being in a crowded room with nothing but gamers. Now that is one thing I am going to miss about gaming, but since I’m single with no kids, and a good job, I do plan to still show up at Final Round at the very least, and hopefully Evo. The atmosphere is unbeatable.
Do you mean by attending or practicing for tournaments? I only did that for a year sort of, and honestly I have only played 3S in the last two years online. But Dota 2 has me…think I’ll go play a game…
Yeah in a way I mean that. In my post gaming life, I have come to realize that gaming isn’t just a hobby, it’s almost a lifestyle. Especially when you can talk to people for hours on end about different stategies in a game, different matchups, etc. Or you and your friends can spend HOURS in a session. I mean I really thought it was just a hobby, but I realize to be competitive, you have alter a lot of your personal time to dedicate to gaming. I don’t feel like I just quit gaming, but I went through an entire lifestyle change. Being a gaming hobbyist is much less involved than being a competitive gamer.
I started gaming as early as 6 and played religiously until I hit around 24. I then began to realise like yourself that it isn’t productive but worse than that it gives your brain the illusion that you are being productive without actually doing anything in the real world.
Quitting was difficult. Even after selling all my consoles and games I would relapse a couple of times due to friends but after a few years I didn’t miss it anymore. Most of my friends couldn’t believe that I would be able to quit after I publicly announced it to all my friends. The one thing I kept repeating to myself whenever I had an urge to play again was “how has doing any of this ever made you happy in your life?” That seemed to work like a charm because I was able to walk away every time I saw an arcade or game shop.
In order to stay involved with the gaming community (at whatever level that might be), you have to stay involved with the games, and the last game I cared about enough to do that was Capcom Vs. SNK 2. Once that tapered off, I couldn’t see doing it all over again for games that just don’t inspire the same level of dedication.
Plus, everything’s weird now. Over the years, the Internet has put a magnifying glass on every aspect of the game so that talking about fighting games is more like a mathematical dissertation than discussions about play styles, tips, or whatever. There’s less pride, motivation, sense of accomplishment… hell, less fun to be had.
semi retired I guess. mainly because most “new games” suck dicc.
I mean I will play cvs2 any chance I get which is like…never. and I still wanna play mgo3 when its out…as long as its somewhat faithful to the original mgo/mgo2 and not borderline retarded sprayNpray/casual garbage. and I check reviews to see if I wanna play something. racing games in general are still fun I guess.
In that case, Soul Calibur II was the last time I played fighters more than casually. I “quit” SC because the game and community went in a direction that turned me off to the series I invested a lot of time in learning. My non-FG gaming habits are basically the same as they always have been, though I prefer portables now. I’m also not a belligerent Sega fanboy anymore.
This is such a bizarre thing to me… to “quit” an entire form of entertainment. It’s like if someone said one day “eh, I’m just not into movies anymore. Yeah, I stopped watching them about a year ago.” or “I don’t listen to music anymore.” Of course you have less time for it later on in life… but I don’t really see myself giving up on gaming completely… unless this entire industry ended up like what Microsoft currently/apparently has planned for their next system…and even then, I’d just stick to playing the old games from that point on.
Wtf i went into the taskmaster thread and fuck. Fuzzy gaurd? Frame traps? Negative frames? +on block? Knowing all the hit boxes? Muscle memory? Wtf is this gay ass shit?
Honestly why put lingo and stupid shit when i just want to see stuff about a game.
Then dudes complain of having no money and doing bad in school.
Fuck i remember some dude in 2009 saying how sad he was that his friend sleeps on couches and is homeless trying to get good at sfiv instead of finding a real job hoping money matches and living like shit.
Some dopey dudes bragging about backpacking with their sticks across the country with no gas money or money at all to even enter lol.
Horrible.
Fuck if there is enough people. I will plug in the ps2 and play some cvs2.
But as of now my ps3 is an expensive bluray player/media machine, and my wii is used for netflix
Honestly man gamers are the worst kind of people, based on my experience online and in local tournaments I haven’t met anyone that I could have a beer with. This is mostly the SF4 community that i’m referring to, but it’s pretty shitty, kids are so spoiled asking for rebalances all the damn time.