Reading & ranting..

[Alienblue]

Although I have a dozen game systems and hundreds of games, I am increasingly aware of how little time I actually spend gaming. I DO play every day, but rarely more than 30 minutes; and hour tops. I actually spend twice as much time READING and "TALKING" (on forums) about games then I do playing them.

It wasn't always thus; when I was in my late teens-early 20's I played Coleco, C64 and NES for many hours a day. I can remember some all-nighters!

Have others noticed this-? Do you read about and discuss games more than play them? Just curious (ok, nosey).

[m0zart1]

I haven't played a lot lately.  That has more to do with my work load lately than anything else.  In fact, I think you wrote me an email I need to respond to -- I forgot all about it.  DOH!

[VideoGameCritic]

It's funny - I've received emails from people saying they don't play games anymore and really don't have any desire to, but yet they still love reading about games on this site!

[Atarifever1]

As I've said before, I completely gave up on modern gaming in the PS1/ N64 era, but I occasionally bought magazines and visited websites to read up on the industry. 
In the last few years, there have been times when I spent more time reading about games than playing them, but right now I'd say I spend an equal amount of time doing each (as I've had to cut back on both).

[Dennis]

It's a phenomenon to be sure.  I'd say about half of the people on the DDR website I frequent don't play at all anymore.  I'm also a coaster enthusiast and frequent enthusiast sites, but I rarely ride roller coasters anymore.  And I probably play about 2 hours of video games a week at most.

 

Of course, I surf this site at WORK.  If I could play games at work, I would.

[ActRaiser1]

Yep, same thing here.  Okay, this sounds bad but playing a game can be "work" while reading about them is usually a far more relaxing endeavour, at least for me.

[Steerforth]

I am the same way. There is a "Calvin and Hobbs" comic where Calvin's dad is trying to convince him that the anticipation of having something is better than actually having it, and Calvin thinks he is full of it. But I think that is very true, and applies to videogames as well. I think that is why people end up tearing apart and nitpicking games like Twilight Princess. Its in development forever, delayed many times, and you get it and say, is this it? OoTime was better than this.

[a1]

[QUOTE=Steerforth] Its in development forever, delayed many times, and you get it and say, is this it? OoTime was better than this.[/QUOTE]

Maybe you did.

[andrew]

I too mostly read instead of playing these days and have only essentially played two games over the last two months: goldeneye and super mario 2 japan but in short bursts: 20 minutes here and there about 2 -3 times every second day. I did play Rampage total destruction all afternoon yesterday to finish it and boy does the game get insanely hard to complete the cities at end just like world tour. I don't know why you have extra lives, you essentially have infinite lives. Lose all your lives and get three more every time. The ending sure sucked it press start kept flashing during the ending cimematics as if they didn't want you to see the crappy ending they came up with.
 Sorry for getting sidetracked.

[bluemonkey1]

Now I see why the Wii is so popular.