Have I outgrown gaming?

I'm 22. And gaming has always been a huge part of my childhood, I've owned every Nintendo console from NES to Wii, PSX, PS2, and most recently my Xbox 360. Games like Super Mario, Zelda, Earthbound, Final Fantasy, etc. pretty much milked all my time as a kid. After school, on the weekends, whatever.

I've had my Xbox 360 for about 4 years. It used to get a ton of my time as well, like my older Nintendo consoles. I used to spend so much time playing Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, Halo, GTA, etc. Now I typically play on the weekends (my days off) for a few hours. And by "play" I mean casual games of Madden and Rock Band, but mostly Madden. I have so many good games sitting on my shelf that I want to play, or at least say I want to, but when I get to it it almost seems like a chore to have to sit down and play through a game.

Currently, the games I have are Madden 12, Rock Band 3, Battlefield 3, Deus Ex, and Final Fantasy 13. I have hardly even played Battlefield either. Like I said, aside from a couple short games of Madden or Rock Band, anything else feels like a chore, like I'm forcing myself to sit down and play it, and then therefore I get bored quickly, even though the game is good. For example, I played Deus Ex once, for a few hours, one time. Hasn't been in my console since.

So, yeah... anyone else gone through this, or going through this? Gaming has always been a huge part of my life, and it would feel weird to give it up now.

Exactly. I used to have Gamefly, but that got to be a waste of money for me. I'd get some games, play them a few times if even that much, and they would sit around for months and months because I couldn't be bothered with sending them back.

Just last week I went out and rented both MLB 2k12 and Skyrim. I played MLB 2k12 once when I got it for a few hours, and never even touched Skyrim.

I'm the same way.
A lot of it is probably just more responsibilities, like work, less disposable income, and more drinking.

But I never beat Skyrim (and honestly, probably never will).
And I've been playing Arkham City for about 2 months now.

The only game I sat down and HAD to beat was Mass Effect 3, just because I'm a HUGE fan.

I'm 22 also, and I can honestly say I have never lost my love/motivation for gaming.

quote Wilhelm Ryan

So, yeah... anyone else gone through this, or going through this? Gaming has always been a huge part of my life, and it would feel weird to give it up now.

I'm almost 22 and I'm roughly in the same place. I don't see my Xbox as a gaming console, though. I see it more of an entertainment system (stick with me here...). I used to spend hours, days, on my consoles when I was a teenager, but over the last few years I've only really used my console when I want to relax after a long day or something. I'll put the Xbox on for a couple of hours, play a few games of Fifa, play a little BF3, maybe a bit of Skyrim, and then turn it off or switch over to the Netflix app (which is *bleep*ing amazing, by the way). I treat gaming now like my parents treated music or films when they were my age -- it's just something I do to have a bit of fun and not something that at one time seemed more like a chore.

I think when you look at your games and think, "Shit, I've got to play that for at least 10 hours before I complete the storyline", you're losing the purpose of what the game is actually made for.