I know its a little silly to ask the Escapist's crowd, but do you think you will ever stop being a gamer?
Also, do you think that gaming is something that people "grow out of," or is it a form of entertainment that buisy people have little time for, like television or reading?

I think, someday, gaming may go on the wayside for me while get a full-time job, or I reach enlighenment or something like that.

I'm a college student going into my 2nd Senior year, on my 4th Co-op rotation, and will have more and more responsibilities soon enough, but I will hopefully never, ever stop enjoying digital entertainment in which I control the action. My tastes my change to shorter titles or playing only the best storylines or even more casual titles, but I hope to be involved some how in the industry with hardware or development.

So the short answer: Gamer 4 Life.

I will certainly continue playing games - I am considoring a job in the gaming industry, so I don't think I'll stop playing games any time soon.

I grew up using games as an escape and now that I'm older, I use it for stress relief (Nothing like killing hoard of people to relieve a hard day at the office) so I don't think I'll ever quit being a gamer.

I don't know what life will throw at me in the future, and I don't know how gaming is going to evolve. So for this I just don't know.

Maybe, when I'm 90 something, ill be sat in my little cottage playing the PS12, or the Nintendo Poo or whatever. Or maybe I'll quit, either because I have more important things in life, or maybe games become insanely easy or, hell, the games industry may die out all together when the aliens come and we are their little pets.

We don't know what the future might bring, no one does, so just go with it.

I work full time already, but I still find enough time to play about an hour a day. I doubt I will ever stop until I physically can't play anymore because of arthritis or something. I also have a large group of friends that still game who work full time and have kids /wife to contend with as well.

D_987:
I will certainly continue laying games - I am considoring a job in the gaming industry, so I don't think I'll stop playing games any time soon.

I know, I totally lay games all the times.

I sit with the hens, and they're all like "Dude, wtf? You can't lay eggs." And I'm like "Duuuuuh! I lay games, kay?"

OP: Yes, I will continue playing games, although I'm certian I will grow out of most RPG's at some point, a process which has already started - And I'll most likely end up just playing Football Manager and Pro Cycling Manager.

Football Manager is "Worldwide Soccer Manager" in the US, I think.

You know...I certainly hope so, I -plan- to be still playing well into old age. And by that point have such a vast wealth of gaming knowledge to impart, that I can hopefully direct that generation to the classics of old. Of course, if everything goes as planned.

God i hope not, i'm 15 and i think if games move to all casual i'll drop out and i'd hate that.

Depends on how you use the term.

I mean, I certainly play a lot of games. Then again, I also read a lot of books and spend a lot of time doing bad comedy routines to people who are forced to put up with me because punching me would get them fired.

Really, I consider gaming a hobby, like papercraft or tooling around with cars. I scoff at the very idea of 'gamer culture' because it tends to be used by the very gamers I'd least like to associate with.

That said, I intend to continue playing video games until the day I die. I find the idea that 'playing vidya games = immaturity' hilarious, because I don't view them as being different from any other hobby, or even from reading and watching movies. You wouldn't call someone immature for reading books, why should they be immature for playing Katamari Damacy or Advance Wars?

They're interactive entertainment, and they're an evolving art form. Like movies in the early 20th century, except with more boobs and gore.

So, I'll keep playing.

Though I will admit to being entirely pathetic in my love for the Touhou shooters.

College has tightened the amount of time I can spend gaming, but I still fit it in somewhere. I want to game till I die.

s0denone:

D_987:
I will certainly continue laying games - I am considoring a job in the gaming industry, so I don't think I'll stop playing games any time soon.

I know, I totally lay games all the times.

I sit with the hens, and they're all like "Dude, wtf? You can't lay eggs." And I'm like "Duuuuuh! I lay games, kay?"

OP: Yes, I will continue playing games, although I'm certian I will grow out of most RPG's at some point, a process which has already started - And I'll most likely end up just playing Football Manager and Pro Cycling Manager.

Football Manager is "Worldwide Soccer Manager" in the US, I think.

lol, I didn't get it at first - but just forget it, I type to quickly I often miss a letter,but it always seems to be a crucial one too...

D_987:

s0denone:

D_987:
I will certainly continue laying games - I am considoring a job in the gaming industry, so I don't think I'll stop playing games any time soon.

I know, I totally lay games all the times.

I sit with the hens, and they're all like "Dude, wtf? You can't lay eggs." And I'm like "Duuuuuh! I lay games, kay?"

OP: Yes, I will continue playing games, although I'm certian I will grow out of most RPG's at some point, a process which has already started - And I'll most likely end up just playing Football Manager and Pro Cycling Manager.

Football Manager is "Worldwide Soccer Manager" in the US, I think.

lol, I didn't get it at first - but just forget it, I type to quickly I often miss a letter,but it always seems to be a crucial one too...

I only tease you cause I love you!!!!

i dont think i'll ever stop playing games entirely, played my first video game on the sega mega drive when i was 4-5, and 12 years later im still enjoying them. Allthough a bit less with school becoming more important each year.

I'm 17 and have been playing since before I was three (Obviously most ov the was sitting on my dad's lap as he played but oh well). I've been a gamer all my life and plan on being a gamer for the rest of it. I play games a lot but what with school, a social life, looking for a job, applying for college I can see my playtime bing drastically reduced in the near future. But just because I'll play less doesn't mean I'll stop. It just means games will last longer for me. :D

Janus Vesta:
I'm 17 and have been playing since before I was three (Obviously most ov the was sitting on my dad's lap as he played but oh well). I've been a gamer all my life and plan on being a gamer for the rest of it. I play games a lot but what with school, a social life, looking for a job, applying for college I can see my playtime bing drastically reduced in the near future. But just because I'll play less doesn't mean I'll stop. It just means games will last longer for me. :D

Or you are like some of us who still buy them and then they stare at you from the shelf... and you feel so bad for not having the time to play them.

D:

Gamers do not just walk away...they adapt!

Got a desk job? You ease into PC gaming at work!
Travel a lot? Grab a game boy!
Shipped out to war? Hook up an XBox and tell your C.O. all this Call of Duty is practice!
...Or just milk Unemployment/Welfare/whatever and just never leave home and play all day.

Some_Jackass:

...Or just milk Unemployment/Welfare/whatever and just never leave home and play all day.

Please... Don't even joke about this. You have no idea. I'm a Gamestop employee (if that wasn't obvious from some of my other threads) and you don't see the people I do coming in obviously on welfare and spending all their money on games.

I have a full time job and a gf and I still make time for games. At times I cant be bothered but thats more to do with all the releases being crap at the time.
The better question is with us slightly older gamers who have seen pretty much all there is to see, will we grow tired of all the rehashed games and lack of originality and quit because of that.

Gaming is one of my many hobbies and I don't see myself dropping it anytime in the immiediate future.

Would I be able to? Sure. If I ever, for example decided I wanted to devote a good deal of my time to mastering the ancient arts of meditation at a temple in tibet or something or if I was selected to represent the human race at an interplanetary convention, or if zombies invaded, or if I had to band together with a group of angsty teenagers to overthrow a -

Merde! The time may come when I will no longer play videogames but apparently I'll never get it out of my head. That's a scary thought.

The mere thought of me not gaming makes me laugh. I will continue to game long into the future and I can't see myself stopping as such unless it interferes with my work to such an extent that it would be beneificial for me to stop.

But then I'll always have that DS next to the bed... so even then I doubt I'd stop.

Absolutely I'll always be a gamer, though I expect the type of games I play will likely change. I somehow doubt I'll be as willing to put up with the kind of frustrations and nonsense when I'm 70 that I do now. (Bad controls, lack of story, etc.)

I've been gaming for nearly 30 years now, in one form or another... don't see myself stopping any time soon.

-- Steve

Well, I'll be 40 next month, and I've been playing games since I had an Atari 2600.

So.... yes. Not only will I be a gamer for life.... I already am.

;)

i'll be playing as long as i can hold a controller, or watch brightly colored bloom without an having epileptic fit. i'm hoping for the eventual creation of full-body 3d immersion gaming. doubt i'd get to breach and clear a room otherwise.

Really, it depends on how shitty games get in the future. It's okay now; there's still a lot of good games with a few shitty ones in between. But as time goes on, that margin is going to change. It'll be "a few good games and a lot of shitty games" and then "One or two games worth playing" and then "All games suck." At which point I'll be forced to break out my "old school" 360 and play that. If it isn't RROD'd by then.

I'll still be a gamer in spirit, but I don't know if I'll be playing them or not.

I dont plan on ever quiting gaming, although Im sure my girlfriend will eventually make me slow almost to a halt. I find that I have less and less time for gaming, which makes it more and more important that I only play the best of the best.

Currently replaying Superman 64 for the 3rd time. <--- BEST GAME EVAR!

I've been gaming since I was 4 years old, I've got a kickass computer, and I'm doing perfectly well financially. So I see no rational reason to stop.

I think I will continue gaming for a while, but maybe, somewhere down the road...

I will always try to be a gamer, but that may not always be possible.

Might switch to PC gaming instead of console gaming in old age, so I don't have to try and use the controller.

I can't do it anymore, not enough time to finish, and not enough money to get them >_<

Clear Sky, BIA: HH (which, looks okay), and Mercs 2 is coming out like, in the next week..

I haven't even finished my old games, which were designed to be played till the end of time.

I sure hope so. Starting college in a week. I guess we'll see.

Its an excellent question.

I grew up in the 70s. I was a geek for the most part. Started gaming at the old arcades with Pong. My first home-gaming experience was with Commodore Pet (4k of ram, yeah you read right). The games were just attrocious, but I was hooked. My first real gaming rig was the Apple IIe and it was an awesome experience. Still remember all those great games in green and black (choplifter, captain goodnight, the original ultimas). My first consoles were in my late teens (my parents wouldn't let me have an Atari/Intellevision/Coleco) a Turbographix 16 (regretted not getting the sega genesis) and an original gameboy which I bought with my own money. College came and I started my PC gaming life, and shortly thereafter PS1, N64, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, 360, wii... and here we are...

Then there was W.o.W.... I was obsessed for a while, being a couple of years. When I came out of that cloud, I frankly didn't want to LOOK at a screen. Took sort of a break from gaming. These days though, I'm back to the good old days... I'm about to turn 36 and feel that it is just part of my life. Not a major one, but something I do here and there...

I'll always be a gamer, though I sometimes wonder if I will not be able to compete in CS anymore as the kids get crazier with their energy drinks and whatnot...

Unless new games keep coming on the market that are innovative and genuinely fun, nope. And it seems that time is approaching faster than I thought. Eep.

Think i'll always be a gamer. I'm closing in on 30 and even tough my playtime has gradually gone down from 16 hours a day to 1-2 It's still my preferred recreational activity. I can't wait untill I get retired and can play games all day, and just imagine the graphichs we will have in 35-40 years. Really my life right now is just about getting the kids, family and work deal out of the way so I can start saving up for my retirement gaming rig.

mrnelsby:
I'll always be a gamer, though I sometimes wonder if I will not be able to compete in CS anymore as the kids get crazier with their energy drinks and whatnot...

Now there's something interesting.

I'm from Denmark, and I follow the Danish counter strike scene (I have to, really, since me and some mates are starting a clan hoping to enter DEL quite soon. DEL being Danish Esport League, which is restricted to pretty much top 20 clan in Denmark)

While I consider myself pretty good at the damn game, I can't help but be outclassed by 13 and 14-year olds. I will cry about cheats, as none of these players have yet to compete on LAN, but I still know that they can't all be cheating, which saddens me a bit.

I even knew a guy, when he was 11, he played with Lithium in Denmark, that's an oldschool clan, that eventually had about 6 months of fame, after they were the only Danish clan to have ever beaten "GK", or "Gatekeepers". Everyone in the clan was between 16 and mid-twenties, but damnit if he didn't play with them when he was 11.