Its not your age, it's the games you're playing. There's a ton of great games out right now, but if you're playing the same kinds of games you've always played, maybe you've outgrown them. You could be frustrated with their mechanics, or think their progression isn't as good as the old games, maybe you cant see as well or grind as hard as these twelve year olds on adderall, whatever it may be.

Try playing games you enjoyed before. You'll probably still like them. Branch out into different genres, even if it's something you don't know if you'll like or not. I don't care for top down games, but gave Hades a try and absolutely loved it. Maybe try to play remakes/remasters/new takes on old games. The REmakes for Resident Evil (particularly 2&4, I liked 3 but it gets a lot of deserved hate), and even the continuation of the RE franchise in Biohazard and Village are fun and scary. Just some recommendations. :)

You're getting older unfortunately. I've been watching this happen among my friends for a long while now. They all slowly grow up and leave gaming behind replacing it with other hobbies or interests. Your free time becomes more limited the older you get and the more responsibilities you aquire in life (career, spouse, children, etc.). I'm one of the last hold outs from my childhood friend group, and even I'm slowly starting to lose interest in gaming. I don't think I'll ever give it up entirely, but it definitely doesn't hold the same appeal for me that it once had.

They don't have the same punch but there are games that will bring that excitement back.

I would argue it's a side effect of getting older.

Not that you're growing out of games, but moreso that you're spending more time working, and doing other life related things that gaming no longer feels productive of fun.

I'm working full time and take online classes, but I really love gaming still, I've just had to find games that respect my time, since my time is so precious to me right now.

I've grown to loath multiplayer match-based games because it's the same thing over and over again with nothing to show for it, while things like DOOM, Skyrim, Dishonored, older assassins creed games, and various indie titles are all quick, fun, to the point and offer good stories that I enjoy.

I just can't deal with round after round after round of the same thing. Or an MMO where it's just "Do this for hours and hours to grind out this skill and that skill"

Like I want to play the game, not click 30,000 times.

I'm over 40 and finding wands in Noita fills me with joy.

"So, this one homes on enemies, has triple cast and delayed explosions... Hmmm, but what does orbital and bouncy do together?"

*shoots near beehive*

>Entire screen explodes

And I just restart the game with a grin. I feel like that game made what actual magic would be. Starting the game by silently teaching us about the dangers of fire was a stroke of genius. It's always fire with magic, just weirder, bigger and wilder types of fire, and both me and my enemies don't command it, we simply live in a world with it. Nothing but a video game could make me experience this. Nothing but a video game could generate near endless amounts of endlessly unlearnable amounts of raging wildfires to be amused by.

There's nothing really "new" anymore, at least not mechanics-wise. Sure, graphics have become pretty good looking. But it's all still the same RPGs, first person shooters, and other shit from the 90s. When I see modern FPSs, I'm still seeing Wolfenstein 3D from 1992. Not a damn thing has changed.

Definetly the second one.

The classics are the best. 🕹️

Microtransactions are killing, or have killed if you're cynical, modern gaming. Whether you have disposable income or not, it is viscerally tedius to try to escape into a game just to be pestered to use real money. I play games to avoid our capitalist exploitation dystopia, not further engage with it.

I've largely abandoned live games for this reason. I used to be good at online FPS, but it just isn't worth the "buy this skin or you suck" every single login bullshit. I've been modding the Bethesda games and there's really no getting bored of those world's with constant new enthusiast content.

Probably both. A lot of games really do suck ass. CoD is just comically bad in so many ways.

There's some cool stuff out there, though. battlebit is aces, better than any CoD or Battlefield in years. Hunt Showdown is unqiue and cool. Darktide is an awesome horde shooter. Warframe... is warframe. Deep Rock Galactic is fun spacedorf action. Splitgate mixes up old school HALO:CE gameplay with portals that let you pull off cool kills or radically change the movement rountes across the map. There's ARMA3 and Reforger if you like milsim, with varyiung levels of milsimminess from "Sir yes sir" tryhards to people who just try to use basic infantry tactics and cooperate. There's apparently a huge star wars mod scene right now.

It's both. The 90s are never coming back, and you'll never be however-old-you-were-during-the-90s.