Has anyone quit gaming for a few years?

I actually stopped playing for a few years in my early to mid 20's. Mostly because I was to busy going to bars chasing women unsuccessfully. But my gaming interest was rekindled by a friends 13 year old brother. We were hanging out together one night when he pulls out an N64 and asks if I know what an RPG was. Needless to say he was shocked that I knew what it was but was also a longtime gamer. So a few months later I bought a ps2 from someone in local bar with 10 games for $90! This was when Ps2's were still around $400. Yeah it was probably stolen,but the lady gave me a bullshit sob story. Anyway that was 2002 10 years later I'm still playing video games.

A 20 year old rekindle his gaming by a 13 year old cool....

Ive stopped gaming on the 360 since Mass Effect 2 came out (and i beat it), but i still game on the PC

nope. i have dips where i wont play much for awhile, but then it comes back around. i think thats normal for everyone. not just gaming though, like i'll have times where i barely listen to any music for months at a time, then i get really into music for awhile.

PS2s were $400? What?

Not all out quit, no. I go through periods where I don't feel like playing games, yes, but they rarely last for a long stretch of time. I don't exactly play video games all the time, but you know, to a decent degree.

havent turned on my 360 in many many months. still play diablo 3 if a friend is on. thats about it

I lost my desire to play video games other than Rock Band sometime this summer. I blame a newfound, incredible impatience with the medium; I instantly switch it off as soon as I feel like I'm wasting my time or things are getting repetitive. I was going to buy a Wii U by default later this year, but the thought of spending hundreds when I don't want to play anything for more than 10 minutes seems silly now.

Also, I only play Rock Band when we're drinking at the apartment. If I'm just playing it alone, I'm fiddling with the pro guitar stuff, which I assume is what keeps it from feeling like a waste of time to me.

No sir.

Nope, I have noticed I play less though and I don't really care to discuss video game things much any more.

I stop for weeks or months. Never quit for a year.

He pulls out an N64?

From where, exactly?

I didn't touch any console or pc games in the time between 2001-2005

I stopped playing games for about a year and a half starting in early 2008 when I started recovering from mental illnesses suffered during the previous two years.

I lost interest in gaming after I had a burn out syndrome caused by excessive Diablo 2 gaming :D It lasted 2 or 3 years. Although it didn't change my life a lot, I just spent the 2 or 3 hours that went into gaming with my other hobbies.

Yeah I stopped when I was in the early twenties. Travelled the world for a few years and then whilst coming down on acid I was at a mates place and we played RE5 on 360. Hell even the title screen was enough to convince me in that state. Since I had settled down I bought a big screen tv and a 360 and wear a shit eating grin.

There were probably months where I didn't play anything when I was a teenager, but that was really just because we were really poor and I could never afford any games. The worst was when systems broke.

There was a 4 or 5 year period where I didn't play video games. I had just grown tired of the frustration, repetition, and lack of progress I was making in most video games. I decided to quit video games altogether. I gave my Nintendo DS to my younger brother as a birthday present and payed little to no attention to gaming news.

I didn't start getting back into video games until Fall of 2009 where I started playing Crash Bandicoot 3 and Ratchet and Clank, two of my old favorites. My older brother and I were sharing a room at the time and he had collected a large library of games. I would pick one off the shelf and in less than an hour I would know whether I wanted to play the rest or not. If I liked it I plowed through it in a week or two, and if I didn't I never touched it again.

This allowed me a good way to catch up on the current generation. I went through Assassins Creed, Gears of War, Bioshock, etc. It was strange to see how much my style of play had changed along with the way games were presented. Games were shorter but with tighter pacing. When I picked up a game now, it meant that I was going to see it through to the end.

I'm glad I took the break. Coming in late to this console generation allowed me to really appreciate it and not tire of certain gameplay mechanics as quickly as everyone who had been there from the beginning.

Right now I'm going back to play ps2 games I missed out on because I either wasn't playing games at the time or I wasn't old enough. Right now I'm going through Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy and Manhunt. Now that I have more patience and skill with games I'm able to stick with the longer more challenging games of the last generation and see them through to the end.

TL;DR YES

No one. Never.

Yeah, I quit in 2008, together with my job of reviewing games for the previous 5 years. During that time I got progressively more frustrated with the choice (or better said lack of choice) the AAA industry was producing. I got tired of bitching about it, quit writing, quit playing. I returned to my 360 only lately with Deus Ex HR, but I did find a big interest for the indie scene in between.

Not years, but quite a while. My first year of college was pretty overwhelming (working, took as many classes as possible, etc.) But then Metal Gear Solid 3 set me straight. The solution? Sleep a lot less!

From 13-15 the only access.to games I had was the GBA, but that wasn't by choice, and there were plenty of games on that thing to keep me busy.

@OwnlyUzinWonHan said:

PS2s were $400? What?

yeah I was wondering the same

Mid twenties when I was travelling and working for a couple of years, didn't really have the time or inclination.

Since I moved back to Australia though I bought the gaming PC I wished I had as a kid and am back gaming hard.

I should hang out with more thirteen-year-olds. Wait, no.

@Hunter5024 said:

There were probably months where I didn't play anything when I was a teenager, but that was really just because we were really poor and I could never afford any games. The worst was when systems broke.

I am lucky to have a father who totally knew how to fix a broken Playstation during my childhood.

Gaming lost me for most of 94-96. The Genesis was essentially dead and I didn't get another console until I got a Saturn for Xmas 96, then bought a used PS1 less a little less than a year later (also the first console I ever bought with my own money). This was my sophomore through senior years in high school.

Nope, I love video games too much.

Yeah, around 2005 I didn't play any games for a year and some change.

Also I feel like I'm about to stop again soon. My interest in games is at an all time low point right now.

Years? No. Months? Sure.

@csl316: I passed a test in one of my college classes that I was completely unprepared for because I was playing MGS3 around the time I took it. I can't remember the exact course it was, but it was something history related, and the test included a lot of stuff from the time in which MGS3 was set. It was also the first game I'd played since the semester had started because I was taking a break from games in an attempt to try to focus on school while also holding down a rather time intensive part time job. I was unsuccessful, ultimately. Final Fantasy XII did me in.

early 20's mostly because I was working and barely making rent. Didn't have any video games. I missed out on a good part of the ps2 era.

I stopped playing video games when I was 14 years old up to 20 years old due to serious family problems and the storm of shit it brought on me.

Not really quit. I take breaks of weeks at a time, or have periods where I am not playing much because there is nothing out that I really want to commit to. As a side note I have quit TV. I have a TV but nothing broadcast comes over it. No cable, no antenna. I only use it for console games or DVDs. It has been years since I have had broadcast TV in my place, or watched a TV show.

I've been slowly losing interest in games as I have gotten older.  Now for the most part I only play games that can be fun in short bursts (open-world games, multiplayer shooters, sports games), because anything else doesn't really hold my attention.  I still turn on my 360/Gamecube 3-5 days a week, but I find myself quickly getting bored unless I'm playing with someone I know.  And I'm only 20, so I'm probably gonna lose even more interest as I get older.  On the bright side, because of this lack of interest, I'm thinking about skipping out on the next console generation which will save me a ton of money.  If I get bored, I can just play my old games.

I only play when I feel like it, which actually isn't that often nowadays. Just a few hours every week pretty much, I only really play a lot if I can get into a long multiplayer session with buddies.

Nah, and I can't really see myself quitting anytime soon. Sometimes games will get put on the backburner for other, bigger commitments, but I doubt I'll ever stop playing entirely.

Never fully stopped but I did only play like 25 minutes a week or something like that when I was finishing up school.

Every few years I tell myself that I am going to quit for a while, never permanently. Even so, I never manage to do it. I go through all the motions of purging my house of my old gaming stuff, selling it off, etc, but then something new comes around and I have to have it.

There was a couple of years during the PS1 days. I didn't play Metal Gear Solid until about two months before the second game came out on the PS2.

It's hard to quit gaming for a year. Because there's usually good games coming out.

No, but I only really started playing videogames in like 2007.

I have had periods of times where I haven't touched a game (the longest was probably a few weeks) but I don't see myself quit playing games anytime soon. Unless there's absolutely no new games that interests me anymore I will continue to play them. Also I still have an ever-growing collection of older games to finish.

took a break in highschool where gaming was considered "a geek hobby", picked it back up my senior year by playing MGS4 straight through in one sitting

Yep, around 2008-2010~

The year I moved and got married most gaming was almost nonexistant. It was in 2005 so luckily Guild Wars came out and I was at least able to jump on that through out the year with some buds to keep me going. That is pretty much the only thing I played for long periods that year in between moving to a new town and getting use to a big life change. I will never stop gaming. My grandparents and parents played board games and cards and still do. I will always be gaming.

Its funny how many people stop during prime drinking and partying years. Same for me. I probably stopped for almost all of college except Tiger Woords & GTA. I really have been riding a crazy wave since getting a PS3 two years ago. Followed by 2 360's and now a Vita. More games completed in the past 3 years than the previous 26. Time off is good, but I am more into it now as an adult than ever thanks to this site.

I take a break from gaming twice a year for a little over a month to study for exams.

I barely played any games at all between 2006-2008.