I seem to be avoiding time intensive games for the past few months, or playing games not as long as I usually do.

I started up Mass Effect awhile back and am in the city with the council at the beginning. I know there is a lot to do and people to talk to. I have not booted it back up in about a month because I want to be able enjoy it and I feel like the time I need is keeping me from booting it up.

Meanwhile, I boot up Skyrim no problem. However, instead of doing a lot of stuff, I have stopped and saved twice before completing Mzulft for the CoW, when normally, that dungeon is one of many things I'll do in one session. I have Blackreach on my radar and can not get myself into that right now. So I do little things that take very little time and log back out.

I am used to playing video games for hours on end. I reminisce about the days when I totally lost track of time when playing. now it scares me.

I do suffer from Depression so it may just be a bout of that, that is sneaking itself in.

This has happened before and eventually, I found my eagerness to play for long periods came back. I was curious if others felt this way sometimes.

I go through phases. Sometimes I'll pull all-nighters every night. I think I hit my "peak games insomnia" with Oblivion, which gave me an environment I just loved being in, but it's far from the only one.

And then I go through months of "gaming meh". I've gone through this numerous times, where I just can't get into anything. Stuff I've played and stuff like it, nothing's feeling new; stuff that's different, "argh, it's different". So I spend my time faffing about on forums and generally failing to do anything.

I'm in one of those phases at the moment. So much stuff to play, nothing's catching my attention. No RL stuff either, because RL svcks. Bugger off, RL.

As I still play Oblivion and Fallout 3 I don′t have the same passion I had years ago when I started to play them. That said, they are my go-to games and I can′t see myself not playing them. However, I usually play in one hour sessions these days and with days in between as I do real life stuff (imagine that ).

Can′t really see myself go back to three or four hour sessions again. It would take a game so epic it′s not even describeable

Petition to send RL to jail.

Likewise, sometimes I can spend the whole day starting up games and then closing them as soon as the main menu comes up, other times I can spend all day and night for several months focused on one game. But those games are few and far between these days! Curse you depression and advlthood!

a river?

if a water jet falling straight into a black hole is a river -

then ok, a river.

I too go through phases. But with me it takes the form of not wanting to play at all. I go through periods when I seem to lose any interest in playing. I don't know why this happens. It's kind of like the flu: it comes and goes all on it's own. This may be linked to my depression, I don't know. These periods can last anywhere from a few days to two months.

When I do play, the number of hours has remained pretty consistent: About two hours is the longest I've ever played any game in one sitting. This might have something to do with the fact that I didn't start to play video games until I was 50. I've never had the experience of watching my stamina for marathon sessions decrease as I got older. My stamina was at its current level already when I played my first game (American McGee's Alice) in 2001.

I go through the same thing. Right now I've just gotten over a hump of being bored and have been playing Xenoblade Chronicles nonstop. Before that I was more interested in playing my piano.


It tends to correlate with how busy I am. When I'm really busy, I play short sessions of games like Destiny. Fifteen minutes as a reward for hard work helps a student work all day.

I have moments like this, I always think of it as ennui. I sometimes have the feeling that I should be

doing something more important, and that everything I am doing or involved with is trivial. I know that if I wait

the feeling will eventually pass, I know I am getting better when my schedenfreude returns.

I ran into this not long ago where I just felt burnt out. I took a break from video games and when I came back I went to new or older games I hadn't touched in years. Like currently I'd been playing Dark Souls and started playing Oceania of Time again. Now I'm feeling more refreshed and am getting the itch for Skyrim and have been tinkering with FO4.

I used to say people who played certain games were hardcoe gamers. Now I see its people with the time to play at all who are hardcoe...

Quirk, that song is by Asia isn't it?

I have the same thing, but for me it might have to do with energy levels and being so busy that I just get mentally tired. Since my kid was born, I find that I'll oftentimes sit down to play a game and realize that I just don't feel like it, and I'll just go watch TV in bed for a while instead.

I used to do this all the time (back when Skyrim came out I was playing anywhere from 5-12 hours a day for about half a year), but every time I ended up feeling like crap once I moved on from the game and felt like I just wasted a ton of my life. I still get into that mode sometimes where I just play games all day but I typically limit my playing time and use it as more of a reward after being productive.

Like a lot of folks have already said, you go through phases. There was a period last year where I went several months without playing anything at all, except Fallout Shelter for maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day. I was just tired of gaming, plus I was commuting three hours a day and just didn't feel like doing much of anything after getting home besides reading for a bit and then going to bed. Eventually, after I moved, I started getting back into it and even got in a few day-long sessions on Witcher 3 on weekends.

Now I'm back to maybe an hour or two a night during the week, three or four hours a day on weekends.

I'm actually just coming out of one of those phases of not playing games myself. Up until a few days ago it's been a solid 3-4 months since I last played anything, and if we're being honest, closer to 7 months since I "really" played anything(I played Grim Dawn for about 3-4 days 3-4 months ago, then stopped). I recently picked up Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes and I've actually been playing it like crazy for the last week, already 30 or so hours logged into it. Games pretty addictive to be honest, and quite fun, it's like a magic/fantasy based Civ game, with an emphasis on champion units(Heroes).

Good news: I'm not alone!

Bad news: I'm not alone!

Sorry you folks suffer, too...

Right era, wrong group

Alan Parsons Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZX8u1eCXzo (YouTube link)

It's really strange... When I had less time (real life with work, family, and other activities like sports), I took those short sessions and enjoyed my time. Now that I have no other demands on my time and all the time in the world, it seems to hit me harder when it happens

And it's not just gaming. I haven't picked up a book in weeks (in the middle of a series). Even TV and DVDs hold little interest. My creative juices (world making, story ideas, and video editing) have come to a stand still.

I think it is my depression kicking in. There are times when nothing seems to catch my interest and if it does, my attention is minimal, at best. I recall one of my therapists mentioning that one aspect of depression is loss of interest in activities. The desire to play video games is there, as I boot up game after game, but the attention seems to wane quickly.

I do hope those suffering like me do better. It's not something I'd wish on an enemy, let alone folks I like. Well... Maybe I would wish it on an enemy...

Now to read the rest. Thanks for the support thus far

Dang, I got he wrong group. Ok, I have to hang up my 70's music hat in shame.

You know in the song sweet child of mine where he says " if i stare to long i probably break down and cry"? Thats how i feel when i think back when I was younger waking up real early in the morning to play my video games........I no longer do that and I.......

(oh god here come the water works...)

All the time - A few times already with Fallout 4. I will play a Bethesda game for a couple of months for lots of hours then I will just be no longer be interested in that game, then several months later I will be interested in it again. Currently playing nothing - haven't touched Fallout 4 for a month except for a couple of hours for the vault DLC then stopped.

Did you read my mind, That's illegal you know!

But yeah, I know what you mean, I used to be able to sit and just write, create, come up with so many ideas. Now? Not so much, it's been like that for around a year where I can just stare at a blank word document yet there's no spark and it's very frustrating.

Yeah i went crazy had over 10 games that had been sitting there for i seriously have no idea how long, in 2 weeks i played them all cleared my backlog, and normally ill have fallback games i just love playing but i have interest, yes also a sufferer of depression, at the moment, im stacking up a few not that it make any difference my current last pre-order comes in sometime late next year, and i just cant seem to get interested in some games im barely into dragon age inquisition and its more than likely to put me to sleep, and a few others i was more than likely to shove someone elses hand in a blender than play them so, i uninstalled them.

I can't get myself to commit to any games atm either Quirky, so yeah, I'll join the club if no one minds.

..although I played some settlers IV a few weeks back.. that was fun.

seriously, i think that's all mostly about balance, which certain aspects of life need to be kept in, or excessing to one side will make you unhappy.

where the most significant aspect pair in matters of gaming certainly is consumption/creation. after a while of consuming, you'll get a growing urge to be productive. if you don't follow that, you'll get unhappy (or just the same the other way around). it's just human nature.

and there's other gaming-relevant stuff too, like mental/physical, introvert/extrovert etc.

just keep a balance. after a while of gaming, go out and dig a hole with a couple buddies and you should be good

I think this is normal for just about everyone. We all cycle on and off heavy use of hobbies. This is a sign of maturity, in my opinion, because video games shouldn't be at the very top of anyone's priority list. Sometimes we just have more important things to do.

Same deal here. I used to game from the time my morning coffee was made until dinner, then again afterwards.

The only game I've been able to play for the last few months is TF2. Though I hate the game now (Thanks Valve! ) I play for the people I've been playing with for years not the game itself.

I still only have 20 hours in FO4. When I first got it, I almost played that in one session. Then this "meh to games" mood reared it's head and though I have tried many times since to get back into gaming, I just can't seem to. It's been months.

I don't know why it happens, but it does. This is not the first time, but one of the longest spells. The odd thing is I really want to play FO4, until I get in game, where I maybe spend 2-5 minutes until I decide to shut it down. (Not saving as I was just screwing around vs actually playing.)