If you need to take a break from gaming that's fine. We can get burned out done anything and ditto with games. But I also sense a lot of nostalgia in your post and how everything was always so much better in the past. Yes, some things WERE better in the past and I can even agree that the Golden Age of gaming was between 97-02 but even today we get so many good games and thanks to amazing technology we have the best graphics ever and more processing power to render big worlds.

I loved Bastion for its story-telling and cool setting. I loved Skyrim for fixing most of the issues with Oblivion. I loved Deus Ex HR for being faithfull to the DE name. I loved Batman AC for its open world and cool setting. I loved Star Craft 2 for providing a great RTS.

Pretty much all of your games for your C64, NES, SNES, Amiga etc. have that in common that you cannot play them because the hardware is no longer available if/when it breaks down. I don't like DRM either but that's no reason IMO to stop gaming when the effect of DRM is the same as that of old hardware no longer working.

I too have been a gamer for 25+ years (since 87 when I was 10) and I still love this hobby. Gaming has gotten more mainstream and is big business these days and what is "in" changes with the zeitgeist but I don't take that as a personal insult but instead I just find the games that DO cater to my needs and with sites like GoG that is easy these days. Thanks to Steam I can play games that never came out in stores here in Denmark and I love that. So I still love this hobby and hope that I will never change that. Gaming still gives me that magic buzz that great stories, amazing worlds, good gameplay can. Yes, there are more drivel today but there has always been drivel. You just need to find the good stuff outthere.

I can understand that decision. It's a logical consequence of the current development in gaming: the more inconveniences are piled up around the hobby, the higher the chance that people are migrating to other hobbies. It's not as if gaming is the only option to have a good time.

I'm glad to hear that you'll stick around. :) That way you'll also get the news when the indie revolution brings convenience, originality, and creative audacity back into gaming, and perhaps that'll rekindle your interest. :) (As you see, I'm slightly more optimistic in that regard.)

Well, for what it's worth, I think that was very well written. Although I can't quite relate (I'm a survivalist by nature, I can easily adapt to my surroundings and so forth), I completely understand you, because that was and sometimes is my ire with the industry. But like yesterdays pizza, that too shall pass - or at lest evolve into something better/worse. No matter, I can live with my backlog of old games AND with the new generation. They're somewhat different, but each has their own appeal to me.

what are you all talking about hoops and inconveniences?!? digital distrubtion has made gaming more accessible than ever. it was never easier to buy, download and install games than it is now. why else do you think Steam and other digital platforms have become so popular?

its a waste calling yourself a gamer or anything related to gaming if you can't change and adapt to the new trends of gaming , obviously people never stopped gaming when the market crashed in 1983 , nor the people stopped gaming when companies switched from console to console , technology to technology , series to series.

As a gamer all i want to do is play games , drm is the last thing on my mind , just such a waste of time thinking about all that , you are fan a particular series or particular type of games? then just pick the games from it or games that are like it and have fun share the experience with others instead of wasting time thinking about useless crap like drm .

gamers should talk about quitting gaming because they are not getting their favorite game or series or lack of time etc , instead the new age super anti drm epic gamers today do so by saying drm made them quit , what a waste , should have stuck to playing physical sports if you were going to get annoyed by something like drm . horrible trend these days :O

I do support the general aims and philosophy behind GOG, the Humble Bundle and - to a lesser extent - the Groupees bundle, but I'm personally skeptical about how long the industry at large will play ball with it. I don't doubt that in a few years animosity against DRM will have died down (either by DRM opponents giving up and fleeing the platform or just abandoning their position). At that point I fear for the future of DRM-free efforts. You see, I don't really agree with that perspective. I'm obviously not saying that gaming has taught me everything I know, but gaming got me interested in a lot of the topics that I'm interested today. Gaming encouraged to read up more on Roman history - a pet topic of mine - and was one of the main driving forces behind my studying languages and ethnology (Captain Blood, if anyone remembers it). Who wouldn't?

Quite possibly, but I think the recent problems with Sony have shown that floods/fires/natural disasters whatever can wipe your game collection out. Your games are being stored on physical media somewhere out there.

Funny actually that you should mention that, because I just pulled my old C64 up from the basement last week and it and all my games still work perfectly. Beats any emulator anyday.

Not at all. If you're fine with the way things are heading in gaming, then go right ahead. I'm not looking to stop anyone, nor do I claim to be able to. I'll still be playing my old games from time to time, just nowhere near as often.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

What a disturbing, yet oddly intriguing mental image.

Most of the games nowadays, as the OP says, are tied to an online account (if not more) which is tied to an online server. And this includes retail singleplayer games. As we all know, before this, you wouldn't need an internet connection (which is paid for) to create an online account (which is hosted on a server which sooner or later will cease to exist), to finally play the game you legally bought. You may be fine with this, but many others aren't. Unfortunately many people don't care. They like to be treated as pirates.

I don;t know what to say really. If you want to quit gaming. that's cool. It's not like I totally disagree with your bleak outlook for the future of gaming . I'm not particularly excited about the next gen either, and I have a hard time thinking of many games I want that are going to be released this year. Still, I can't just say I'm gonna quit gaming forever, cause I can't rule out that something will eventually appeal to me in a year or two or whenever.

Also about digital distribution, Fred pretty much summed it up my thoughts with the
line "I'm still playing games the same way i have been for the past 20 or so years. DRM never gets in the way". I know of course that people have had problems with it and it could happen to me . but so far I haven't really felt this" leash" around my neck. I buy the games for ridiculously cheap, play them till I'm tired of them, and am most likely done with them for good. It's pretty much the same thing that would happen even without DD and drm, except it's actually cheaper and more convenient for me. I don't get upset by the idea that I might not be able to play the games in 5 years or whatever, because most likely I wouldn't want to replay them again anyway.

The way things are headed in gaming has nothing to do with me enjoying games.
You don't like DRM? Get Drm-free games.
You don't like games tied to an account? Don't buy them.

Yeah, but apart from buying, downloading, and installing, there's this tiny other activity that gamers might care about, which is, you, know, playing. ;)

I agree with you that buying games and getting them to your machine has become easier. I don't think installing has become either easier or more difficult, online distribution allows for quicker improvements but also introduces its own set of potential troubles, especially when DRM needs to be wrapped around the product. Actually playing the game has become less convenient though - I didn't have to take care to be always online for my old games, I didn't need to worry about hardware upgrades invalidating the last of my limited activation keys, etc. Finally, collecting games has become impossible for many games (which is probably one of the reasons why passionate, collector-oriented gamers are looking for a different hobby).

I think a version of this was on Futurama? And yes, I agree.

Can I have your stuff?

As if you could choose to buy the same game with or without DRM...

Agreed.