Tales of an aging gamer: Why don’t I pick up a controller as often as I used to?

Enlarge / Gaming, circa 1946, may have been easier for older players when compared to present-day rounds of Fortnite. (credit: Getty Images / Archive Images)

Despite a wider variety than ever before, video games don't have the same effect on me as they used to. That might not sound like a problem to some of you, but it is to me. I have played video games from the early days of my childhood, starting somewhere around the late '80s. I became heavily addicted to my Game Boy as a kid, and I can still remember the thrill I felt the day I bought my first PlayStation 22 years ago.

Gaming was like breathing. It was the biggest part of my life as a teenager, one of my priorities as a college student, and eventually one of my most expensive "hobbies" as a young professional.

Then all of a sudden, after thousands of hours spent playing across genres and platforms, boredom hit me hard for the very first time in my early thirties. Some of my favorite games soon gave me the impression of being terribly long. I couldn't help but notice all the repeating tropes and similarities in game design between franchises.

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