*The* gamer-oriented question...

[Losfer]

I find myself radically losing interest in games these days.  Mostly because I hate protagonists are snot nosed twats that are six or more years younger than I am.  It's great when you're 16 and you see a 16 year old protagonist with a big sword and you go: Whoa, I totally could BE like him!

...But when I got older, the thought that I am playing a character like Squall or Tidus makes me angry, cause I /see/ kids like that out on the road, albeit without a magic sword, and I curse or roll my eyes.  Cause I just hate kids.

Seriously, I got Dark Cloud II awhile ago cause everyone always went on about how cool it is.  But when I played it I hated it, cause the lead character is some overly happy child.  ...And the battle system seems to have been snatched from another game series that is quite obvious.

And everything is so cliche and generic.  There are only so many times you can save the magical girl who not so secretly likes you from the ultimate incarnation of evil before you just say fuck it, let him use her magic powers to blow up the Universe.

Give me characters who are justified in doing things, not some guy who is lol on an adventure of a life time !  ...Or alternately, some emo dunce who is just there by circumstance and wants nothing to do with anyone he is adventuring with.

I dunno, maybe I'll just stop playing games now.

[Testament]

Entirely?

I don't see that happening.  But, I'm an adult now and there just isn't enough time anymore.  Between school, work and social life my playtime has been seriously cut back.  Not only that, but I don't really get excited about playing many games anymore.  I use to be able to play anything and at the very least find some of the good, now I just automaticly see the bad and don't even bother with it.

However, I still get very excited when a Shin Megami Tensei title manages to make it over here.  The latest Xeno- or Suikoden game are also things I look forward to.  Though I still play all the other RPGs around, I can definitely see a time when I play only when I play certain titles and nothing else.

[Professor Gast]

I have become jaded when it comes to games, in particular RPGs. I played Grandia III and did not like it, while Kingdom Hearts II, Final Fantasy XII and Ookami are all catching dust on my shelf. I played about an hour into each of them, but did not feel the urge to continue playing them at all, in particular not Final Fantasy XII. Instead I ended up playing Sega's Nouryoku no Toreenaa on my PlayStation Portable a lot. I also liked the second brain trainer for DS which I played in Japan a bit. May be I have written too much about games, I don't know. Apart from the Xenosaga games, no RPG has mentioned to entertain me recently, though. Hence the only RPG I'm kinda looking forward to play is Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra.

[rubenxce]

I will never stop playing games.  When I was younger I had nothing better to do so I would play a game on a saturday for 15 hours.  Since know I am older and I have university/work/take care of my parets/ etc. I play less becuase I have more responsabilties in Life.  But I will always play games.  Doesnt Matter what time of game if its an RPG or Solitare its part of my life.

[Morwan]

I don't think I'll ever quit gaming entirely, but I'm getting pretty damn close. Few games can grab me these days, especially RPGs. I'm tired of playing some teenage douchebag or a bubbly preteen. Voice acting is really breaking it for me- I hate the sound of a teenage boy's voice, and it dosn't help when the dialogue is poorly written... Which has been the case with 99% of the RPGs I've played (KHII, anyone?). SMT games are the only RPGs I can get myself excited about anymore, but I still have trouble completing them.

When I really think about it, I'm probably going to be done with games as soon as the current generation dies down. Between school, science, my girlfriend, and prepping my car for autocross, I now have better things to do. Gaming was something I'd do to pass the time, but I've found that working on my car is a much more rewarding experience. I'd much rather put $500 into my car than buy a PS3 or XBox 360.

[Dincrest]

Then again, some games like the Megami Tensei series, Ever 17, Hourglass of Summer, The Longest Journey, and others have young protagonists, but they're deep and very well-written.  

And many PC adventure games like Syberia or AnimaMundi (to name just two) feature adult protagonists who think, act, and talk like adults.  Then again, PC games generally are better platforms for more mature, adult type games.  

I think most any game with a storyline has its gritty, more "adult" stuff and its teenybopperish stuff.  15-year-old Justin in Grandia is very different from comparably aged Eikichi "Mischel" Mishima in Persona 2: Innocent Sin.  Both are teenagers, but Justin was written in a more childish manner while Eikichi was written in a darker, grittier manner.  

Among the love-adventure genre I play so much of, the 15-16 year olds in Hourglass of Summer are better written, much much MUCH deeper, and often more mature than the college-aged characters in Ai Yori Aoshi, who are often shallow, immature, and/or just plain stupid.  So depending on who's writing the story, characters regardless of age can either be well-written or poorly written.  I'll bet even your average 15 year old would think a typical RPG teen is childish and nothing like 15 year olds s/he knows.  

So I wouldn't necessarily discount a game solely based on a protagonist's age, though some teenage protagonists are very poorly written.  In much the same way, I don't discount a band based on age if their music is good.  I'm 28, and quite a few bands I enjoy all have musicians younger than me.

And don't get me started on the "M for Mature" rating.  I mean, something like Fear Effect is truly mature in terms of its storytelling and all that, while something like Conker is disgustingly crass and immature.  But both get M ratings.  But that whole discussion on age vs. maturity is another one for another time.  

Okay, back to the thread at hand.  Quitting gaming, and beating the burnout.

[Eusis]

Both are teenagers, but Justin was written in a more childish manner while Eikichi was written in a darker, grittier manner.

Dude, how the fuck can anyone nicknamed "Captain Underwear" be dark and gritty? :P

[Dincrest]

Oh, behind Eikichi's clownish veneer lies a very twisted, disturbed, and troubled kid, with a LOT of depth.  Definitely one of the most interesting characters in the Persona series.  

Either way, teenage Justin seems like a 6-8 year old while teenage Eikichi seems more like a teen... Though you *do* get to

Code:

see him, Tatsuya, Lisa, and Jun as 8-year olds in flashback sequences and Maya as a 14-year-old in those same sequences.  Those kids had depth.  

[Esper_Crusader]

I'll quit when i get arthritis in my hands or I die.  Also, I'm still single so if i get a woman who hates videogames...well then I'll have a problem.  I do get into phases every now and then though when i can't be bothered with gaming because of shit that's going on but it's a life-long hobby of mine dating back to the atari days so i can't see it ending anytime soon.

[Akanbe-]

In addition, it was so liberating when I sold a shitload of my video games on Ebay.  Sure, part of it was so I could buy a bass amp, but it was great because then I felt like my monstrous backlog was no longer an obligation where I had to beat them all.  Gaming then became fun for me again, because it didn't feel like an obligation (and thus, like work.)

Yeah this actually helped me out a TON.  I had so many games that I needed to finsh that everytime I'd sit down to play something I'd feel like it wasn't fun, but more I was doing it just to get through it.  Hell I sold my cube and xbox and a good 90% of my PS2 games.  It felt real nice, I almost sold my PS2 but I'm glad I didn't cause I'm startin to get back into a few games.

yeah..  when i look at all the games come out in the fall, i'm kinda excited for them but at the same time not.  I still have DDS2 to finish (finally started making progress again) and Suikoden 5.  Grandia 3 is there too, but that's only if another one doesn't come out in time.

Right now, I wouldn't say it's a chore to play.  It's hard to get myself to sit down and PLAY, but once I do, I enjoy playing and have fun.  The only problem with this is that I don't make much time to play anymore.  In theory, I still like video games a lot.  It's just one of those things anymore where unless the game really grabs me, I seem to eventually ditch it (and maybe play later).  

Actually, I'm starting to think this next console generation may force me to quit.  I cannot justify dropping that much money for anything but a Wii anymore with my current amount of gaming.  I guess we'll see.

[Dincrest]

*nod* Gaming is becoming prohibitively expensive these days, and since many of us have lives outside of gaming, $600 would be better spent elsewhere in our minds.  After all, to many of us, as much as gaming has "grown up" a video game system is still "a toy."  At least the Wii isn't a bank breaker.  And given that consoles have a much shorter lifespan in the US than in other countries, it's hard to justify spending $600 on a "toy" that will be obsolete after a handful of years.

[Stubs]

It could be awhile before I quit gaming completely. I'll every once in awhile take a break from gaming though, because of the stuff going on in life. Like when I'm in school I don't really play much, but once summer hits I catch up on the games that I miss.

As of for the next-gen, I will be getting the Wii first. I will eventually get the rest of the systems after many years and quite a few price drops later.

[Merkava]

I've realized that I haven't been playing many games lately. I think it's because I haven't had anything new to play, but being in the IB program at school and theater sometimes leaves me too tired to do anything but watch tv and sleep. But, once I get my hands on a new game, and it happens to be a weekend or break, I play just as much as if I were younger. My love of games will never die out, and I've never even given that idea a thought. There will be less time, sure, but I'll always enjoy the gaming time I have.

Though, seeing that I'm getting a summer job to get the PS3 payed for, and it's the most excited I've been towards gaming in a long time, I have a feeling my interest has not decreased in the slightest. :P

[Haven]

Gaming has been such a huge part of my life and I dont think that will ever change. I just cant go out and buy every single game that comes out and find every single thing in it over a 5 day, 60 hour marathon like the days of old. I can do that with WoW though, or anyother MMO, cause my GF and I play together^^.

[Superflat]

For me, I can't tell just yet. I am almost 16 and now going into junior year (which is ungodly hard at my school, but I guess it's that way everywhere) so that might prompt a change in my gaming habbits. I think that even though I might try to conduct myself in a more mature manner I don't have the experience necessary to make a decision like this right now. If I had the choice however, I'd hope that I could keep playing for a good while, hopefully with a future girlfriend/wife, and then with kids because that would be really cool.

But now for annother argument, by the time I'm 40 (ie. in 25ish years) just imagine where gaming will be. As Akanbe and Dincrest said, the cost of the next generation game consoles is rediculous, as is the cost of games. Sure, my parents help me a bit with console purchases, but $600 bucks for the non-tardpack PS3 is quite rediculous, even with help from my parents. I'm still digesting the $60 price tags for most of the X360 games out there, especially when most of the games I want right now are $40 or less. Returning to the point, how much will a PS6 or XBox-whatever  or any console of your choice cost? Upwards of $1000 with $100 games? And then put inflation into the equation? Thats a day I don't want to see.

So maybe by the time I get older things will change drastically ($5 says there'll be an apocalypse >_<), and I probably won't have nearly as much time as I do now, but hopefully I'll still be gaming.