How much time do you spend gaming in 2024? (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

So, my life/gaming balance has changed drastically in the last year or so. I actually quit modern gaming last November.
I'm not sure what caused it, but my desire to play new games has just decreased to the point of not caring anymore. I'd rather do other hobbies, and hike. There will always be the proverbial "dangling carrot". I almost bought a PS5 a few weeks ago to play one game, but soon after I thought about it I realized that it just wasn't worth it to me. Playing one game for $600, and when I finish the game have the console sit for months, maybe years without being touched. That isn't cool.

I have been a gamer since the early 80's playing the Atari 2600 with my friend in his basement. It was great Loved the NES, and Sega Master System. I almost got out of gaming after owning my Sega Genesis, for a while but when the Sony PlayStation was released, that changed everything.
Xbox 360 era was probably the pinnacle of my gaming experience--Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and Skyrim, and the countless hours spent playing COD, and Left 4 Dead(and many more online games) with friends online was amazing. In those days I spent probably 20 hours a week gaming.


I currently still play my retro games. I don't think my love for retro will ever go away.
I spend maybe a half hour a week, or two hours a month. Sometimes a little more, but not much.


How much time do you spend gaming? Has your amount of time playing video games increased, or decreased over previous years?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

For me, it fluctuates. Married but no kids, myself and the wife work full time with good jobs, so we have plenty of money and a good amount of time. I have a few similar/related hobbies that gaming fits into. If there's a game I'm really digging, I'll make an effort to prioritize it. If I'm feeling a lull, I might try to watch movies or shows with my time instead.

I've been really moving away from movies and TV, though, over the last few years. I find there's too much content and most of it is good but not great. If I have a few hours of free time, I'd rather play a game that I'm interested in than watch a season of a show that might not be renewed. Every so often I'll have a free weekend to myself and binge a few movies but overall I feel like I'm not missing out if I don't see a movie but I'm more likely to feel motivated to really play a game.

I have a PS5, Series X, and Switch. Getting a PlayStation Portal has increased my PS5 game time a good amount. I'm playing Death Stranding Director's Cut right now and probably have over 80 hours from the last month or so. I try to focus more on just finishing a game ASAP rather than do everything but this one pulled me in so I'm going for the platinum trophy. I also have the various subs for each consoles (PlayStation Plus Premium, GamePass Ultimate, and Switch Online + Expansion Pak) which provides me a ton of current and old/retro games for pretty good prices so long as I play enough. This motivates me to play games (if I'm paying, I should use it). I certainly get my money's worth each year.

 

[Bryan^H]

I gave away my Nintendo Switch last year to my niece (She loves Zelda) So I was happy someone got some use out of it.

Gaming with friends I think kept my enthusiasm for the hobby at a high level for a long time. Someone to share the experience talking about how they beat a certain game, or what they loved about it.

As each of my friends got families, and quit gaming I think a bit of my love for it died a little each time that happened. Beating a game is still slightly rewarding, but it is absolutely not the same.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Too much.

I find gaming deeply immersive and it has the ability to pull me out of myself. Sometimes, television or film viewing is too passive and instead of focusing on content I am supposed to be enjoying I am distracted by one or more aches / pains or perhaps worrying about some task that needs my attention. In the midst of a game experience, even something I have played already way too many times these sort of things just fade into the background as I get invested in what is happening in the midst of the screen.

My biggest issue with gaming is that I tend to replay favorites vs. exploring new titles. Perhaps you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

- Walter.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I rarely go back and play old games. If I do, it's because they were re-released on a subscription I have (like GoldenEye when it came to Xbox GamePass or several games on the Switch). Otherwise I try to get games cheap and then plow through them to get to the next one ASAP. I have a lot of different genres I enjoy so I always have something waiting for me.

I haven't really done online/multiplayer gaming for about 10-15 years because it turns into a commitment and work rather than a hobby or entertainment. On the PS3, I used to play Resistance 2 (or was it 3?) online with a couple friends but it would always be starting at like midnight on weeknights which was rough. And I kind of hate the competitive side of gaming where you need to play like Call of Duty for a few hours every day to be good enough to go online at all. So instead I just play everything else.

I have a bunch of friends who are into gaming but they each like something different and we don't play together. We rarely even play the same games.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have gamed zero hours in 2024. Like some of you, my interest at this point is pretty much exclusively retro games - I loved Atari 2600 and NES as a kid, and some of the SNES games, but I’m simply not good at anything more modern - my skills do not lie with navigating multiple buttons across three dimensional spaces so that pretty much rules out anything from the last thirty years.

I swear this isn’t a threadcrap and here’s why. In the fall I became a first time homeowner and I’ve slowly but surely been consolidating years worth of things stored in various relatives’ attics and basements under my new roof, and I’ve found my old SNES, as well as my Nintendo Wii that had my favorite NES games installed on it. I’ve set up a little area in my basement with these (and I hope one day to get the new version of the Atari 2600 console) and I’m hoping to bring some mild gaming back into my life. I loved listening to records and playing games with the game volume turned down as a teenager and I’m looking to get back into that a little bit. I don’t see myself doing it every day but maybe once a week or every other week.

 

[Tino]

A few hours per day. Since 1989. Love getting lost in an immersive game like The Last Of Us series for instance. Mostly PS5 games lately. I have every system. Except the Switch.

 

[John Dirk]

Interesting timing for this thread as I just ordered a new PS2 to replace my original one, which finally [and inexplicably] gave up the ghost. I've never been into modern gaming but absolutely love certain retro games from the golden arcade era.

I wanted to buy a PS5 to give modern gaming another chance since I've dabbled with it in the past but was surprised at the lack of backwards compatibility. Since this is basically an unwritten rule in computing, I expected a PS5 would be able to [without a subscription, etc.] play games originally created for earlier iterations of the console.

Even with the new PS2, I'll likely spend less than a couple of cumulative hours per month.

 

[Sam Posten]

Not nearly as much as I would like

 

[Steve Y]

I "cycle" through all my consoles. It usually amounts to (at most) 2-3 hours on a weekend, maybe an hour on some weekdays. Some days nothing at all. Lately I'm playing (for example) old Activision games for the 2600 on the Steam Deck, Kingdom Come: Deliverance on PC, Power Wash Simulator on Xbox, Scarlet Nexus on PS5, and Picross on Switch and 3DS. And a bunch of other stuff. I tend to jump around to different titles and see what sticks.

 

[Bryan^H]

I have gamed zero hours in 2024. Like some of you, my interest at this point is pretty much exclusively retro games - I loved Atari 2600 and NES as a kid, and some of the SNES games, but I’m simply not good at anything more modern - my skills do not lie with navigating multiple buttons across three dimensional spaces so that pretty much rules out anything from the last thirty years.

I swear this isn’t a threadcrap and here’s why. In the fall I became a first time homeowner and I’ve slowly but surely been consolidating years worth of things stored in various relatives’ attics and basements under my new roof, and I’ve found my old SNES, as well as my Nintendo Wii that had my favorite NES games installed on it. I’ve set up a little area in my basement with these (and I hope one day to get the new version of the Atari 2600 console) and I’m hoping to bring some mild gaming back into my life. I loved listening to records and playing games with the game volume turned down as a teenager and I’m looking to get back into that a little bit. I don’t see myself doing it every day but maybe once a week or every other week.

The 8, and 16 bit era was just amazing. You should get into it again, those games are magical.
Maybe your kids will enjoy them too someday too. A few years ago one of my friends was playing his SNES with his kids at eight and ten years old at the time. He said they absolutely loved the experience. Pretty cool!

Interesting timing for this thread as I just ordered a new PS2 to replace my original one, which finally [and inexplicably] gave up the ghost. I've never been into modern gaming but absolutely love certain retro games from the golden arcade era.

I wanted to buy a PS5 to give modern gaming another chance since I've dabbled with it in the past but was surprised at the lack of backwards compatibility. Since this is basically an unwritten rule in computing, I expected a PS5 would be able to [without a subscription, etc.] play games originally created for earlier iterations of the console.

Even with the new PS2, I'll likely spend less than a couple of cumulative hours per month.

Awesome. I love the PS2. Enjoy, and game on!

Not nearly as much as I would like

Sorry to hear that. Life sucks sometimes!

I "cycle" through all my consoles. It usually amounts to (at most) 2-3 hours on a weekend, maybe an hour on some weekdays. Some days nothing at all. Lately I'm playing (for example) old Activision games for the 2600 on the Steam Deck, Kingdom Come: Deliverance on PC, Power Wash Simulator on Xbox, Scarlet Nexus on PS5, and Picross on Switch and 3DS. And a bunch of other stuff. I tend to jump around to different titles and see what sticks.

Yeah, weekends are pretty much the only time I game. Which is kind of difficult because usually I juggle my options of how to spend my time, and most times I'm outside doing something or another. And not gaming.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

While there are some older/retro games that I have fun playing (mostly my favorite handful or games I've never played), I can't stand playing them on original hardware. Nostalgia makes me look at an old PlayStation or Super Nintendo and feel the way I did as a kid playing games, but having to deal with memory cards, slow loading times, uncomfortable controllers, no save states, not being able to just pick up and start right where I was before, not being able to play on-the-go...it's annoying.

The Switch NES/SNES/N64 controllers are a good balance of nostalgia with the controls but modern conveniences.

 

[John Dirk]

This is by far my favorite from the golden era classics but I also have the Williams, Capcom and Midway collections.

 

[garyrc]

0.00 minutes,

 

[Steve Y]

View attachment 219842

What an amazing collection, brings back memories. I still have all of my PS2 discs, so I was able to transfer my favorites to my Steam Deck. It's especially great to have games with licensed music and art that will NEVER get re-released digitally (like Frequency and Amplitude and the original versions of GTA3/VC/SA). The PS2 is still one of my favorite older consoles. Games like Outrun 2006 and Splashdown 2 can't keep up on the Deck, but most everything else plays great.

 

[John Dirk]

Mods. Please let me know if this needs to be a separate thread.

Looking for some guidance. I just bought a used PS2 console from eBay [I know...] thinking it would be a simple plug & play replacement for my original unit, which unceremoniously died a couple of weeks ago. When I received the console and got it setup, I discovered it was a Japanese model intended only for use in that region. The system language cannot be set to US English, something I wasn't expecting, and it won't load any of my games. It's my fault as the eBay listing did mention it being a Japanese model but didn't exactly detail what that meant, for the uninitiated. I just figured I'd have to change the language, etc, for use here in the Americas. "Nope."

In my research to resolve this issue I came across something called Free McBoot. From what I can tell it's a boot loader that runs from one of the memory slots and can therefore bypass the original system loader. The new console has an included HDD. I'm wondering if I can buy the Free Mc Boot [irony noted] card, boot into it and then copy my games from disc to HDD. I only have about 10 discs.

For the experts out there, is this feasible, and if so, how do I go about copying the discs once I have the Free McBoot card.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

John - I don't think that's how it works and won't work quite like that. Chances are, you're stuck with a Japanese console and either need to get Japanese games for it or sell it and get a US one.

 

[DaveF]

I bought Zelda TOTK release week, played about 20 hours the next two weeks, and haven’t touched it since.

I play Apple Arcade games, like Grindstone or Finity, a fair bit particularly killing time on airplanes.

But my gaming fell away a couple years ago. Life got busy and I changed what I spend my “fun” time on. And gaming doesn’t make the cut currently. I miss it but I also don’t desire to spend my time gaming.

I’m sure I‘ll return to it at some point.

 

[John Dirk]

John - I don't think that's how it works and won't work quite like that. Chances are, you're stuck with a Japanese console and either need to get Japanese games for it or sell it and get a US one.

Thanks for the reply. Can you provide more detail? The seller says it will work and it seems to be an inexpensive and risk-free option. I'm inclined to at least try, before ordering another console.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

John - I stand corrected: