Did You Ever Ditch Gaming?

[racketboy]

Was there ever a time in your life that you pretty much left the gaming scene?

My last year or two of high school and first year of college I kinda neglected gaming other than a few PC racing games and some arcade games.

The Genesis setup was my only console at the time. It wasn't until my summer after my freshman year in college (1999) that I picked up a Saturn and got back into gaming more.

So I kinda missed out on a lot of the late Saturn/PS1 & N64 excitement.
I remember the Saturn launch, but it was way out of my league back then.

[Flak Beard]

I've pretty much been gaming since I started in 1985, but found myself slowing down a bit during high school. I only owned a PS1 during that generation, and played mostly RPGs. I spent a lot of time skateboarding instead.

[Scooter]

Not intentionally, but when I completed my latest automotive restoration and began showing the car and at the same time became the president/webmaster/newletter writer/editor/publisher of our local car club I just didn't have time for gaming. I'm back now but I don't play as much as I used to and I've yet to adopt the latest systems at all (the newest I have is a PS2). I find I don't even have enough time to play and finish the games I have for the systems I have and I continue to collect games I may never have time to play!

[molotovwars]

I've been slowing down now that I'm in college. The last few years I have primarily been playing multi-player games. A contributing factor is definitely that I decided not to have a TV in my room, so for the time being I'm playing my handhelds and stock piling games for the summer.

[RadarScope1]

Racket - looks like I'm one year older than you, and my lapse also happened in college. For me though it was really the last half of my college years in about 1999 to 2001. I really missed out on the late PS1 stuff, late N64 stuff and the PS2 launch. I really didn't even know what the hell Smash Bros. was until the hype started over Brawl last year, for example. Never much got into the GTA games, either.

It's always something, usually a particular game or two, that draws you in. But it's funny - for me it wasn't really a game, but was the console wars. Not that I am a fan boy (grew up on Nintendo, got a used PS2 when I got back into gaming, have a 360 now). I just kind of like following the back-of-forth of it. It's kind of like sports or politics. And then, there are the games that draw you back in, and those are different for everyone.

[|darc|]

The Dreamcast was the last console I really got into. Even though I've purchased an Xbox, GameCube, DS, and Wii since then, I haven't really played them to death like the Dreamcast and all consoles before it. I play some PC games nowadays, but nothing too serious. I still follow the gaming world, but I'm out of touch with a lot of games and I barely play them anymore. Unfortunately, life has really caught up to me, and I really don't find most modern games all that entertaining anymore.

[Mozgus]

I'm stubborn. There were a couple periods where it seemed like 99% of everything being released was garbage, but despite that, I kept trying them desperately looking for that awesome 1%. Kinda similar to my outlook on life actually. Most of the time I hate living, but I continue to live just to experience the rare good times. I don't wanna miss out on them. They come along every once in a while.

[lordofduct]

yeah, I leave it all the freakin' time.

From 96' to 99' I was completely dead in the water with video games.

From 2002 to I don't know when off and on. I don't know the dates as my memory is kinda hazy for 99' through 2006. I only know 2002 because that was a year after I graduated, and I know I gamed hard from Junior year until a year of I graduated. But I was usually too busy working or throwing my life away to drugs to even bother with it after that. Then at the same time during that time I'd spend a year dived had long into it. Kinda weird, I'm at either end of the extremes with it, all the way or not at all.

And even right now, I'm quasi-ditching gaming. I still hang out here and all, but I don't play games any more. I haven't played any games in a long time really. Maybe some rounds of Smash Brothers Brawl right when it came out and that was about it.

[gradualmeltdown]

From 96' to 9-9-1999 I was completely bored. I had bought a Saturn the day it came out in 94. After Daytona,Sega Rally,VF 2,Street fighter Alpha 2, and Guardian Hero's I just felt like 32 bit didn't have much left to offer me. Most PSX games were better looking versions of game engines I was tired of.


Also I was learning how to be a performing musician and DJ so video games took a back seat. Once I became a solid producer/engineer it became alot easier to "waste" time on games again. Between 99-2002 I operated a highly successful A/V company that specialized in live realtime 3D animation for live events and concerts. Dreamcast was the best video source for testing video signal path as it had S-vid,VGA, and composite. I bought one day one for that alone and back I was.

[pixelbender]

Played computer games since I was 10. During highschool, got a Dreamcast as my first personal console after the price drop. Loved that thing, played NFL 2k to death!

In college I played the most, both computer games and on my modded xbox.

The last few years of college I started collecting the oldies and goodies, now I'm in my twenties, about to get married, and own a genny, ps1, n64, nes, snes, retro duo, modded saturn, modded xbox, wii, 360, and gbm. I'm actually starting to play the least over the last ten years, only because of the wedding and trying to grow my job I just don't have the time anymore.

I'll pick up and play COD4 on the 360 for a quick fix, but I'm getting tired of that game. I'm going to try to start playing the retro duo now more as well. Other than that, my wii gets played with people over and i play the saturn sometimes as well