Oversaturation

Tony, this one is for you

It's a fairly common occurrence in the forums of most video game websites to see a post wherein someone professes their recent apathy toward the hobby.  Usually, it goes something like, "more than half my Steam library is un-played games, but I can't be bothered to give any of them a try."  Or, "I have boxed games still in their original shrink wrap, but all I've been doing recently is watch LP videos while playing minesweeper in another window."  Well, to all gamers who feel this way, don't fret.  You're probably just burned out.

The same thing happened to me awhile back.  For about two years (from 2008~2009) I hardly played anything aside from a couple of flash games like Last Stand and Gemcraft.  I also still read reviews and occasionally frequented message boards just to see what was going on.  Otherwise though it was basically an extended hiatus.  The truth is I didn't miss all that much.  Of course, some interesting games came out; Dead Space, Flower and Valkyria Chronicles to name a few, but I got around to playing all of them eventually.  Sure, I missed out on the zeitgeist, but the early discussion threads were archived for posterity and other folks inevitably started new "LttP" message threads as well.  Overall, there weren't any negative consequences to my absence.

Rolling dice can be surprisingly fun

So, what did I do with the free time I used to allocate toward playing video games?  Lots of things, but rather than talking about my personal life in exacting detail let me just say that video gaming, as a hobby, isn't particularly conducive to good physical health.  Hiking, swimming, cycling and enjoying nature are all great things to do weather permitting.  Even if you're not the outdoorsy type there's lot's of other kinds of games out there such as board games and tabletop RPGs, not to mention classics like chess or card games (no, not the collectible kind.  I'm talking about tradition yet fun stuff like Hearts or Rummy).  Obviously you need real life friends to play these kinds of games, which if you don't have any, means you might want to make some.  You know...by interacting with real life people face-to-face and all that.

As for video games...don't worry.  They'll still keep doing their thing.  Meanwhile your Steam library isn't going anywhere.  Any games you happen to miss out on will remain available for purchase through online retailers for the indefinite future (most likely at discounted prices and with less bugs to boot).  So, get out and experience all the great things life has to offer.  Video games will still be around when (and if) you decide to come back.