So, I essentially skipped a generation. Glad? Guilty?

[Original_Name]

This isn't a statement of my pride or anything, I'm just a little bit shocked. I'm probably still on the younger side of the Racket populous, and I'm just reaching the end of my college years, so there's a ton of change going on in my life anyway. But it's just odd to me because I've never done this before -- from the time I got a Sega Genesis for my fifth birthday in 1995 to picking up a second-hand Xbox at the end of its lifespan primarily for the handful of Sega and Tecmo titles, my household always had multiple pieces of hardware from the current generation at once.

Genesis, Saturn, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Neo Geo Pocket Color, PlayStation 2, Gameboy Advance, and Xbox were all owned at times that they were relevant. But this generation, the Xbox 360 never pulled me strong enough, and I started to get a bit squeamish at the politics of supporting a Microsoft console. PlayStation 3 had some exclusives that tempted me at times, but the same political misgivings and "Is it really worth it?" price point warded me off. Hell, two of my favorite games of all time got sequels this generation, but it wasn't enough to sway me -- by all accounts, Crisis Core should've gotten me to buy a PSP, and I should have bought ANYTHING to play Child of Eden and Virtua Fighter 5: FS. PC ports of several PS3-exclusive/multi-platform games would've been enough to turn me into a PC gamer this generation, but as it stands, there was never a real catalyst to get me going on the PC front either.

I sort of lucked into a Nintendo DS and a Wii recently after helping a friend of mine move about two months ago. He says he's way too busy with his newly-born little one to bother, and wanted to give them to me as payment -- I refused about twenty times, but he literally put them in my car without my knowing it. Great guy, him. So now I've picked up a handful of titles for both and am really enjoying them, but these systems are way past ripe at this point, and it's only been possible to buy a couple of the games for them new (to support the developers).

Which gets me to my next point -- I'm equal parts pleased, guilty, and confused. Pleased because I held out, saved time and money, and didn't support any of the things that have made me uncomfortable this generation. Guilty because Sega, Treasure, Q, Platinum, Valve, FromSoftware, Atlus, XSeed, and a handful of fantastic small-time studios didn't get a dime from me (outside of a couple of Sega re-releases I bought and never played on Steam just to show my support). And confused because... I mean, wow, not only is this the first time I've ever skipped a generation, but I've skipped gaming's longest generation ever entirely.

Anyone else ever just straight-up skipped a generation (or even just a console you had a real interest in) before? How did it feel? Obviously we can go back and play a lot of this stuff (this particular generation having some odd variables, but generally speaking...), but did you feel bad for all the great games you didn't support? I know a lot of this has to do with me just growing up, but did anyone else just feel alienated this generation? Like it was worth paying attention to, but not investing in?

[Violent By Design]

I stopped playing video games for several years as a teenager. Dunno why you would feel glad or guilty, just live ya life.

[Original_Name]

Hah, definitely. It's not, like, a deep guilt. It's just that as a guy who writes, works as a translator, does VFX, and has done a ton of collaborative work with local artists, I have a massive amount of respect and somewhat of an understanding of the amount of work these guys put into making these things. A lot of these guys poured a ton of heart and soul into games that were crafted for a very limited audience that I could've been a part of, and lots of 'em lost their asses 'cause of poor sales.

It's not a guilt like "OH NO, I SHOULD BE PLAYING MORE VIDEO GAMES!" -- I've found more time to do a TON of things that matter to me personally (learning Japanese, tutoring, writing, musical collaborations, working out more, learning to cook, dating more, doing VFX on some Sesame Street projects) -- it's more of a "Wow, this was a great piece of art in my favorite artistic medium, and I didn't support it when it mattered" type of thing.

[Pislit]

I stopped playing video games for several years as a teenager. Dunno why you would feel glad or guilty, just live ya life.

I stopped playing video games for a while in my teens to early adult, late highschool and the entire college years because studies and social life galore but mainly being broke (parents won't buy any of the consoles because you are too "old" to play video games).

Skipped mid-PS2 and the entire PS3 era, just came back to gaming (mainly PC and handheld and playing catch-up with my PS2) after I graduated college. And now I'm taking post-grad studies. Damn real life, getting in the way of my hobby.

[brunoafh]

Yeah, I think it is pretty normal. Probably everyone here has had a time where they dropped out of gaming for a bit. At the end of the day it's just a hobby, and sometimes we lose interest in our hobbies temporarily, don't have the time to pursue them, or whatever. I don't think there is any "guilt" or anything else that should be felt... aside from maybe feeling excited that it seems like you're getting back on the bandwagon.

[Luke]

This thread has made me realize that (besides when I once gave up games for Lent) I can't remember a day when I didn't play a video game. Possibly the day of my wedding, but I did have my SP on hand.

I'm a person of habit and routine, and playing games are part of my daily routine. It's my wind down part of the day whether it be trying to beat a game or spending a few minutes playing Missile Command. It's as common to me as eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday.

[samsonlonghair]

Welcome to the club, Original_Name.

Your guilt will wear away as you discover the many benefits of staying one console generation behind. I have done this for the past two generations. I had no PS2, XBOX, or Gamecube during the last generation. I was too busy finishing high school, going to college, moving forward with life, etcetera. I just played my old Genesis or PS1 when I needed the occasional gaming fix.

In 2006 I had no money for cable TV or going to the movies, but I found a SNES and a shoe box of SNES games for 20 bucks. This is when the idea first struck me that I should always stay behind the cutting edge of video games.

In 2007 the wii was firmly entrenched, and I could find Gamecube consoles for fifteen bucks a pop; games were around five bucks (CiB). I amassed an impressive Gamecube collection for next to nothing because the timing was right. This is when I found out that the best place to be was exactly one generation behind. This is the moment when supply is highest and demand is lowest.

I kept my eyes open for a cheap PS2, but it took a little while. The PS2 was a surprisingly long-lived console. Last November I found one in a thrift shop for ten dollars. How could I pass that up? PS2 Games were plentiful and cheap. High supply and low demand again.

I sort of lucked into a Nintendo DS and a Wii recently after helping a friend of mine move about two months ago. ... So now I've picked up a handful of titles for both and am really enjoying them, but these systems are way past ripe at this point, and it's only been possible to buy a couple of the games for them new (to support the developers).

I just got a wii recently as well. You won't believe the number of awesome wii games you can buy right now for less than fifteen dollars. If you desperately need to buy a new game, Bit.Trip Complete is on amazon for ten bucks.

but I've skipped gaming's longest generation ever entirely.

Was this "gaming's longest generation"? It didn't seem that way to me. This felt like a shorter generation than the last one. Maybe I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy playing Gamecube and PS2 games.

Looking forward, I may start hunting for a 60gig PS3 sometime after the PS4 emerges (presumably around Christmas time). It depends how long SONY continues to support the PS3 after the PS4 hits store shelves. They supported PS2 for longer than I expected. I'm going to keep my eyes open for price drops around February 2014. What can I say? It's the opportunist in me.

[J T]

[ExedExes]

That's me right there.

[samsonlonghair]

Yep. I have yet to play portal. I heard all the "cake is a lie" jokes outside the proper context. Oh well, I'll play portal eventually.