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Gaming-Fatigue`

Neo_GAF

Banned
I have read a couple of similar threads here and there but this one is maybe different, so hear me out:

Iam now 35, i have been playing vidya since iam 3 years old. in my youth i played a lot of jrpgs and since i was a bit poor so i calculated back in the day 1€ should be 1hour of gameplay.
nowadays i cant stand stupid school romance, cheesy dialogues, weird disgusting japanese tropes or typical CoD-shooter and those football college humor. if games dont respect me or my time, they can get fucked.
i dislike grinding, i dislike the fact, when iam getting sent out to do fetch quests etc.
i have played in the last 3 or so years only indie games. it also takes me a lot of energy to finish up a game. game pass makes it incredibly hard to finish up games and it feels like work. i dont buy as many games as back then.
have i changed or games have changed?
iam absolutely not interested in the two new ff games, because ff13 and ff15 absolutely sucked. i rather play genshin impact and love simping over mona than playing actual games.
i feel really degenerated since i want instant gratification rather than getting ready to immerse myself into a new world.

is this normal?
i sometimes have stopped playing games for a week or two, only to realize i feel like a crack addict. but i havent played vidya for more than a week, but i still feel no urge atm.
is this depression?
mid-life-crisis?
should i get into cocaine?
 

TrebleShot

Member
Games do not respect your time these days Nd they are stuffed with bloat or have mechanics designed to artificially keep you in teh game which makes playing them a bit of a chore and not actually fun escapism.

For instance Elden Ring, Returnal, Sifu etc are games that require you to play for hours on end simply learning how to enjoy them fully which is in my opinion the opposite of fun and as I am a little younger than you I feel myself losing patience or interest very fast.

Then there’s the other side of the coin with games like assassins creed and Horizon where it’s just bloated full of markers and things to do if you were to get the full experience you would have to dedicate your entire time to it and I just can’t be bothered - although I did play a lot of Horizon.

I find myself gravitating towards games I can jump in and out of that don’t need you to pay attention to in long sessions , games like GT7, COD, destiny and shorter single player games are my jam, quick 30 mins - hour and done.
 

Outlier

Member
No matter how many "new" things we try, if the formulas are too familiar we won't receive as much pleasure, from the experience.

This is why changing the way we do things has a bigger effect on us, rather than just doing new things the same old ways.

This is normal, don't let that stop you from finding something fresh for your brain to get wrapped around.
 

nush

Gold Member
games have changed?

No, a lot of them now are bloated timesinks to justfiy the price tag. Stick to arcade style games and retro collections for the short burst gaming you grew up with and only have ONE big open world deep game to play when you feel like it.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I go through stages. At the moment I hardly touch video games and it's been like that for well over a year now. I was on the Elden Ring hype and almost got an XSS to play it, but then I talked myself out of it because I knew that I'd probably feel dead playing it. That's been my major issue with video games recently. The heart wants to play, but the mind isn't interested. When I start playing a game, I just feel board, as if I'm wasting my time. There isn't a lot of enjoyment, not matter how hard I try and force it.

I think this stems to my depression a few years ago. To help recover, I made a lot of changes in my life and one of them was hugely reducing my videogame time. It worked wonders in helping me overcome depression, plus gave me more time to do other things, such as study for a new degree, read more books, learn a new language and more. It felt like reducing my gaming time opened the door to other activities that allow me to better myself.

However, I think this has also killed off my interest in gaming. I get hyped for games, but when I play them I just feel dead inside. I've now being trying to force a love of video games back for so long without success that I'm afraid the love is gone.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
I have read a couple of similar threads here and there but this one is maybe different, so hear me out:

Iam now 35, i have been playing vidya since iam 3 years old. in my youth i played a lot of jrpgs and since i was a bit poor so i calculated back in the day 1€ should be 1hour of gameplay.
nowadays i cant stand stupid school romance, cheesy dialogues, weird disgusting japanese tropes or typical CoD-shooter and those football college humor. if games dont respect me or my time, they can get fucked.
i dislike grinding, i dislike the fact, when iam getting sent out to do fetch quests etc.
i have played in the last 3 or so years only indie games. it also takes me a lot of energy to finish up a game. game pass makes it incredibly hard to finish up games and it feels like work. i dont buy as many games as back then.
have i changed or games have changed?
iam absolutely not interested in the two new ff games, because ff13 and ff15 absolutely sucked. i rather play genshin impact and love simping over mona than playing actual games.
i feel really degenerated since i want instant gratification rather than getting ready to immerse myself into a new world.

is this normal?
i sometimes have stopped playing games for a week or two, only to realize i feel like a crack addict. but i havent played vidya for more than a week, but i still feel no urge atm.
is this depression?
mid-life-crisis?
should i get into cocaine?
Nah don't worry it is totally normal, gaming even though it is a passion for most of us remains a hobby.And sometimes you don't want to play or do your hobby, it happens to anybody, sometimes it doesn't come back for a while and sometimes it comes back quite quickly.
But all that being said, and I am not trying to worry you, but depression can sometimes makes you lose interests in your hobbies and passions.
Do you still have some things that makes you happy for at least a moderate period of time?
Depression is hard to detect even for ourselves(often because of denial).I am not a specialist nor qualified about anything about it but as someone that used to look back and forth at the sharp edge of a knife and my veins, I can tell you that the symptoms can be feeling powerless in general, fatigue, losing interests in what/who you loved, a feeling of doom and fatality, apathy.
If you don't recognize yourself in those symptoms thant that's a good sign but since I am not qualified it does not mean that you are not depressive, just like having those symptoms does not mean that you are, I just shared my personnal experience and those things differ vastly between individuals.
As a side note it happenned to me too multiple times, and it came back after a few months, or a game I was excited about.Maybe you are just not in the mood just as sometimes we are not in the mood for sex even though most of us want/like sex (I said most because I remember that there was an asexual in the meta thread).
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
I find myself gravitating towards games I can jump in and out of that don’t need you to pay attention to in long sessions , games like GT7, COD, destiny and shorter single player games are my jam, quick 30 mins - hour and done.
Agree with your whole post. I too find myself gravitating towards games that I can play in short bursts.

Easy to jump in to, but difficult to master; Apex, Smash, Splatoon, Overwatch and Halo.

There’s no point in me using my hour of free time to play Elden Ring at the moment because I might not even clear one boss/area.
 

Outlier

Member
Games do not respect your time these days Nd they are stuffed with bloat or have mechanics designed to artificially keep you in teh game which makes playing them a bit of a chore and not actually fun escapism.

For instance Elden Ring, Returnal, Sifu etc are games that require you to play for hours on end simply learning how to enjoy them fully which is in my opinion the opposite of fun and as I am a little younger than you I feel myself losing patience or interest very fast.

Then there’s the other side of the coin with games like assassins creed and Horizon where it’s just bloated full of markers and things to do if you were to get the full experience you would have to dedicate your entire time to it and I just can’t be bothered - although I did play a lot of Horizon.

I find myself gravitating towards games I can jump in and out of that don’t need you to pay attention to in long sessions , games like GT7, COD, destiny and shorter single player games are my jam, quick 30 mins - hour and done.
I agree.

I got all the big 3 games Horizon FW, Elden Ring, and GT7. I haven't touched in about a few days, cause I decided to play ER, which has taken up many hours of my time, but I've only beaten two of the major bosses and am scrambling to just try to reach the end, already. It's "OPEN WORLD" is more like a gaping hole. Too much boring land to travels with pointless enemies to get in the way. It's interesting, but not very fun for me. Can't wait to get back to FW.

GT7 on the other hand. I just had a blast the last 3 days doing the license tests and I had more compacted fun in a few hours doing those, than playing the 20+ hours playing FW and ER.

I've learned that the "create your own journey" path in games just really doesn't grab me anymore. Not enough time in the day to dedicate myself to those things.

But I'm going to try to finish ER first so I can be done with it, then get back to FW. GT7 is a long haul kind of game, but the way they've gamified the experience is actually engaging.
 

The_hunter

Member
I didn't play many games from 2015-2020, was more into anime and manga. Now I find the latter boring, and have been catching up on all the games that I missed over the last year or so. I think it's normal, try something else for a bit.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I would say just take a break from gaming until you miss it.

I’m currently having blast with Elden Ring and Triangle Strategy and I have no intention rush those games for sake of finishing them as fast as possible.
 

Dr Bass

Member
Nothing abnormal about this. You’ve grown up. A lot of content in games is geared towards younger players. Both in tone and time requirements.

A game has to be really good to keep my interest these days and I find a lot of them simply exhausting.

I honestly think it’s all mostly a waste of time, which is odd since I keep coming back for more …
 

emivita

Member
Wish I could suffer from gaming fatigue like you. I've been suffering from permanent and unsolvable tinnitus - more complicated stuff than you can imagine - for a year already. Can't concentrate and immerse myself in games as I used and loved to, that means I can't enjoy playing games anymore. So I've decided it's not worth the frustration and quit gaming for the unforeseeable future.

Well, at least there's NeoGaf. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I find myself in a similar position OP.

Is it on us? I would say yes and no. I guess it depends on what kind of games you played growing up. If you mostly played RPGs than you should not have issues with todays games. I however didn't and therefore most of the games released today feel like a huge new undertaking.

Most AAA games I've played growing up were classic "weekend games". Meaning, you looked forward to them for years and then when they finally released you could finish them on a weekend. Longer games were more like the expection for me. Like TES. Today tides have turned and games I can actually finish with a day or two are rare - like RE8 for instance. I wouldn't even say it's always bloat but the games are just huge. Hell, action adventure games like the latest Horizon are longer than RPGs like Mass Effect used to be. Where I used to crave for more when finishing a game (and hence looked forward to the next sequel immediately) today I'm totally done with a games when I see the credits. This specifically just dawned on me when I started playing Horizon FW. I played ZD so much, I was simply done with this universe. I do enjoy FW for what it is and also acknowledge that it's much better than ZD in many regards but I simply can't bring myself to enjoy it like the first one.

Simply put, whereas games used to be like many snacks with a bigger course in between, now it's more like bigger courses with a rare snack in between. So naturally you're less hungry.

Also, with size come loads of different mechanics. Games used to have a few great mechanics that they introduced and then build a 8-12 hours game around them. You can't do that with a 50 hours game. So they stuff in lots of different things and you as a player first have to figure out which mechanics appeal to you and which don't. It's one of things I hate most in games todays as it requires you the experiment a lot before you even know if you really dig a game or not. Used to be much simpler.
 

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
I'm at the bad end of my 40s and with Elden Ring and GT7 I hardly have time to ponder such questions.

We are peaking.
 

dispensergoinup

Gold Member
Taking a break is always a great idea when it comes to anything you do for a long periods.

I go between phases of MMO and single player games, mostly backlog and sometimes new games (currently Elden Ring and soon HFW)

But before that I would just try out a small SP steam game I owned or go back to something I started and never finished. And even then it was in small doses, while catching up on some TV shows.

Slow down, take it all in. All a part of getting older I suppose. I've been gaming since I was a kid on C64 and now I'm mid-40s. If you don't like what a game is trying to make you do like grinding etc, then don't do it.

Like any other hobby, it's good to change it up once in a while. For me, that's gunna be planning out a few weekends camping, you gotta do you.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
I think the main issue is the whole "games don't respect your time". The biggest factor for this is the rise of GaaS and those titles pushing mechanics that actively hurt the gameplay experience to push people towards a bloated MTX system.

It's no longer about rewarding a player for playing the game but rewarding them for how much they spend.

The only way to combat "gaming fatigue" is to avoid these sorts of titles, indie is where its at currently, there games tend to work better on launch too. AAA is mostly infested with games designed around extracting the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of reward, paid games especially as they have essentially already got you paying at entry with sunk cost, Ubisoft are the worst for this.
 
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cireza

Banned
I am getting quickly bored with most recent video-games. Already been there feeling. We don't get much variety in the bigger, more ambitious games.

I enjoy shorter games or games that feel a bit different. I have been playing a lot of oldies, there are great games that you can complete in a couple hours, and RPGs in a couple weeks. This is a time frame that feels much better for me, because I know I don't have to spend 50 hours to reach the end of something.

In recent games, most of the time these 50 hours are filled with uninteresting things to do. They want to give you the illusion of choices and possibilities, but these are only illusions. Their true objective is simply to make you waste all of your free time. They should go back and play Phantasy Star III to understand what a meaningful choice is.

Currently playing Elden Ring. Game is pretty good, but I can clearly see the repetitiveness in the open-world design, despite huge efforts to create a varied geography. Open-world is really the worst thing that happened to video-games in recent times.

Maybe try Shiren the Wanderer 5+. I have been recommending this game a lot recently. It is a great experience, difficult and rewarding. Not too long either.
 
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Damigos

Member
I am 36, active wow sub for 18 years and i am also finishing almost any game i try. In 2022 i finished 10 games so far BUT i took a big break from gaming about 2 years ago. I played nothing for around 3-4 months. Now that i am expecting child i guess i will take another big break in 2-3 months
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
I maybe when I reach 30 Ill probably feel the same way.

Ill still buy the consoles though.
For sure, me too.

The Switch Oled lends itself beautifully to combatting fatigue. I can’t wait to jump in to Portal 1&2 and Klonoa 1&2 later on this year, on a premium screen whilst I’m in bed.
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
I got 10 years on you and feel similar. I don't have enough time to play games to put up with the grinding BS or any bloat. I want to enjoy what the game has to offer as its best content and then move on to something else. I get angry when a game takes several hours to end after I feel done with it. Don't developers realize that respecting the time of older gamers with careers and family and disposable income is a reasonable way to serve the market? It's very frustrating to play a game that is fundamentally enjoyable, but covered by loads of low effort bullshit that is just put in there so they can claim they have XX hours of content. That XX hours of content should only really appeal to people who can't afford to buy many games.
 

OZ9000

Banned
I have read a couple of similar threads here and there but this one is maybe different, so hear me out:

Iam now 35, i have been playing vidya since iam 3 years old. in my youth i played a lot of jrpgs and since i was a bit poor so i calculated back in the day 1€ should be 1hour of gameplay.
nowadays i cant stand stupid school romance, cheesy dialogues, weird disgusting japanese tropes or typical CoD-shooter and those football college humor. if games dont respect me or my time, they can get fucked.
i dislike grinding, i dislike the fact, when iam getting sent out to do fetch quests etc.
i have played in the last 3 or so years only indie games. it also takes me a lot of energy to finish up a game. game pass makes it incredibly hard to finish up games and it feels like work. i dont buy as many games as back then.
have i changed or games have changed?
iam absolutely not interested in the two new ff games, because ff13 and ff15 absolutely sucked. i rather play genshin impact and love simping over mona than playing actual games.
i feel really degenerated since i want instant gratification rather than getting ready to immerse myself into a new world.

is this normal?
i sometimes have stopped playing games for a week or two, only to realize i feel like a crack addict. but i havent played vidya for more than a week, but i still feel no urge atm.
is this depression?
mid-life-crisis?
should i get into cocaine?
I absolutely despise grinding and fetch quests.

I play very few games.

I avoid JRPGs like the plague.

I'd rather play a linear 8 hour game than some 50 hour padded and repetitive experience.
 

Cherrypepsi

Member
Video games entertain you on different levels when you grow up because you're lacking a childs imagination and fantasy. That doesnt mean you can't have fun, but it's a different experience. If there was a drug that would give you this ability, I think a lot of people would take it.

When I played Mario 64 in 1997, I was Mario. I was running through the Castle, I was racing the Penguin, it was all me.

Games have become more complex and better looking, but you need to be in a mindset to dive in. If I played Skyrim as a child, I would have asked myself 'I wonder what's behind that mountain' As an adult you think 'oh well dragons and shit lets just follow the quest marker'
 

Portugeezer

Member
Don't feel like you "have" to play games, the urge will come naturally when something really interests you.

That said, the age thing is real. When you're young games feel magic and limitless; as you get older an have played many, you have seen how most gameplay beats work and can even get into the mind of the developers which takes away some of that ignorant magic/limitless you had as a kid.
 
35 myself and have two kids, a marriage and full time work to take into consideration. It doesn’t stop me enjoying games though and I have other hobbies that break it up for me.

Most games are either time sinks with no respect for your time or check boxes to make you feel like you’ve done something.

Maybe try and find something else to do with your free time and come back to gaming when there is something you really want to play.
 

TheDreadLord

Gold Member
What might help is playing a few retro games. These games were simpler and provided you with instant gratification, not this grindfest we see nowadays.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
These threads pop up frequently, it never fails, it's like clockwork. Just do what you feel like, not what you feel like should, it's a fucking hobby.. If you are at a place in life where other things take priority, then so be it. Move on, take a break, relax, bring it back or not, change the way you play, play other types of games, who cares. I took a break in my 30s, now I'm even older and my hobbies are back, feels better than ever. It does have something to do with age, but not in an absolute sense. I mean, as we get older we also tend to get busier with other stuff and responsibilities, it's normal.


Video games entertain you on different levels when you grow up because you're lacking a childs imagination and fantasy. That doesnt mean you can't have fun, but it's a different experience. If there was a drug that would give you this ability, I think a lot of people would take it.

When I played Mario 64 in 1997, I was Mario. I was running through the Castle, I was racing the Penguin, it was all me.

Games have become more complex and better looking, but you need to be in a mindset to dive in. If I played Skyrim as a child, I would have asked myself 'I wonder what's behind that mountain' As an adult you think 'oh well dragons and shit lets just follow the quest marker'

That hasn't really been my experience, but we all have our own. Playing a lot of games over a lot of years does of course make me jaded over some of the cloned and "same-y" like experiences. I mean, f.ex., there's only so many cliff-hanger sequences in movies you can see before you start to feel less excited.. But playing f.ex. Elden Ring lately, even as an older gamer, I definitely haven't lost all child-like excitement over what lies beyond the next "mountain"/corner.
 
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Putonahappyface

Gold Member
No you're not alone and the older I've got the less I like to grind games. I killed Mass Effect 2 after an hour in when it dawned on me grinding ingame currency was going to be a treat. I'm starting to feel the drag in Horizon Forbidden West now.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
No you're not alone and the older I've got the less I like to grind games. I killed Mass Effect 2 after an hour in when it dawned on me grinding ingame currency was going to be a treat. I'm starting to feel the drag in Horizon Forbidden West now.

Horizon Forbidden west hates rewarding you it feels, like you can grind out endgame armour in the arena, but it only becomes more effective once you upgrade it, normally a game would start upgrades with a curve on how rare or hard to get the parts are, but not horizon all 6 levels are rare endgame drops and are am absolute chore to get.

Why? Who thought oh for this single armour set a player will be happy to kill 10 slitherfangs, 10 tremor tusks, 10 thunderjaws, 10 fire claws etc. It's a huge time investment that halts progression and if you for example want to try a diffrent play style you have to do it all again... it just feels so unfair especially for the first 1-3 levels, why are they not lower difficulty parts?
 
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JimmyRustler

Gold Member
What might help is playing a few retro games. These games were simpler and provided you with instant gratification, not this grindfest we see nowadays.
Yeah, this. I replayed a lot of the older games 2 years ago and what I noticed is that it's not about getting old and jaded. The games have just become bloated as hell.

Just look at God of War PS2 to God of War PS4. The illustration could not be better. Both are extremely good games but the time investment they require is on another level.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
I've had this in the past. I tend to find if I stop playing for an extended period of time, I have less of an urge to start up again. I need to really get into a game, otherwise it's so easy to turn to passive entertainment i.e. bingeing Netflix.

The other thing is time, and I have to be selective in terms of what I play. Two hours a day is 14 hours a week, which when you think about it is a big chunk of time. And yet it barely makes a dent in some games. I've owned AC Valhalla for 15 months and I haven't touched it yet because I know it's huge and I just can't be bothered to grind though it.
 

Y0ssarian

Banned
I have read a couple of similar threads here and there but this one is maybe different, so hear me out:

Iam now 35, i have been playing vidya since iam 3 years old. in my youth i played a lot of jrpgs and since i was a bit poor so i calculated back in the day 1€ should be 1hour of gameplay.
nowadays i cant stand stupid school romance, cheesy dialogues, weird disgusting japanese tropes or typical CoD-shooter and those football college humor. if games dont respect me or my time, they can get fucked.
i dislike grinding, i dislike the fact, when iam getting sent out to do fetch quests etc.
i have played in the last 3 or so years only indie games. it also takes me a lot of energy to finish up a game. game pass makes it incredibly hard to finish up games and it feels like work. i dont buy as many games as back then.
have i changed or games have changed?
iam absolutely not interested in the two new ff games, because ff13 and ff15 absolutely sucked. i rather play genshin impact and love simping over mona than playing actual games.
i feel really degenerated since i want instant gratification rather than getting ready to immerse myself into a new world.

is this normal?
i sometimes have stopped playing games for a week or two, only to realize i feel like a crack addict. but i havent played vidya for more than a week, but i still feel no urge atm.
is this depression?
mid-life-crisis?
should i get into cocaine?
Play a good game you enjoy. Then you won't feel fatigue
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Gaming fatigue? fuck im having work-fatigue.
I hope i dont need to work anymore and just play video games all day.
 
i feel really degenerated since i want instant gratification rather than getting ready to immerse myself into a new world.
You might have trained your brain into expecting a level of instantaneous gratification that just can't be met by video games in general. Only you can know this. And yes, it can be a sign of depression. Your age has nothing to do with it.
 
What you're describing could be so many potentially different things, that it's important to really try and accurately find out what you think you're feeling.
  • If literally all you play is Playstation / Xbox games, then I'd imagine you're on the verge of quitting the hobby by now from pure fatigue. So many modern AAA games are unbelievably similar.
  • Do you play any Nintendo games? They're almost always the best possible palette cleanser to this sort of feeling. 3DS, Wii U and Switch have carried me throughout the last decade + with bright and inviting games with polished gameplay.
  • Do you play any indie games? Many of my favorite games are indie games for the same reason. They're actually different, and usually emphasize gameplay.
If you play indies and Nintendo games and you're still burned out, then maybe you do need a break. The last time I felt this way, I hadn't played Nintendo in a bit. I put on Tropical Freeze when it came out, and I was instantly healed. You're playing a gorilla, and you want bananas, and every level is basically flawless. Boom, argue against that.
 
It's because AAA is boring. Almost all games are just the same open world, the same shooter.
We have like 0 or 1 good AAA and 5 indies per year. In my case sometimes a get the AAA and only know about the good indie years later in a discount or because it went free.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
nowadays i cant stand stupid school romance, cheesy dialogues, weird disgusting japanese tropes

have i changed or games have changed?

is this normal?

is this depression?
mid-life-crisis?
should i get into cocaine?
1. Agreed.
2. You changed a little.
3. Yes, IMO.
4. Maybe
 

avin

Member
is this normal?

Yes, I think so. Gaming is a shallow, superficial hobby, and I don't find it sustaining purely as a consumer. Plus, gamers are shallow superficial people, and you're going to get absolutely terrible advice on a gaming board like this one. You're welcome.

avin
 
It's because AAA is boring. Almost all games are just the same open world, the same shooter.
We have like 0 or 1 good AAA and 5 indies per year. In my case sometimes a get the AAA and only know about the good indie years later in a discount or because it went free.
this. i'm 38 and cant even be bothered to pretend that half this AAA nonsense is good.

that said, gaming doesn't need to define your life. if you're fatigued, embrace it. take some time off (like I did). after that, just play what you want to play. beyond Forza Horizon, my other most played titles are Astroneer and Toe Jam and Earl: Back in the Groove.

keeping up with the trends is a young mans game (and even then, its just to fit in). as i near 40, who the hell am I trying to impress? i'd rather enjoy my off-time.
 
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Fbh

Member
Take a break, do other stuff, pick up other hobbies and maybe in time you'll get the itch to go back to gaming (or not).
I'm 30 and I still love gaming, but I notice that as I get older my patience and tolerance for bullshit is getting lower.
 
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