When were you most heavily into video games?

At what point in your life were you most heavily into video games?

“Heavily into” being defined as a combination of; spending the most total time on, spending the most % of your disposal income on, talking/reading about video games for the most total time, and being the most emotionally invested in video games.

I was pretty big into video games as a pre-teen. We owned a NES. Mum would pick up the video game themed magazines, for me. Later we moved up to a Sega Mega Drive. We'd play as a family as my mum, sisters, uncle, etc, would pick up the additional controller, or pass around the NES Zapper. I'd make progress myself. I'd keep and re-read the magazines. Friends and other kids in the school playground would swap tales, or hints, and trade cartridges. All in good moderation to playing outside on bikes, climbing trees, or with a football, and other general monkey business. These were good times.

Into and throughout my teenage years it was the PSOne and PC, towards the PS2. I began spending more time on all things video games, playing, reading, commenting, reviewing, and my disposable income was mostly dispersed as such. As others were drinking and partying more and more I was happily journeying these digital worlds. I had a great group of friends, sizable, who shared these interests. We balanced it with football, the cinema, concerts, and typical socialising for that generation. These were also good times.

My late-late teens to early twenties saw video games dialled back somewhat, with a period of eclipse, before returning. I got into music, and guitar, and working out, which took over for a time. These eventually faded over the years, in part due to meeting a girl, now my wife, and working an actual job to earn a living. I don't recall video games as much specifically. I simply wasn't keeping up to date with releases, nor news. I retained a PS2 and a GameCube to fire up occasionally.

Into my mid-twenties I started to return to video games more and more in my spare time. Mostly with a PS3. I would eventually purchase a desktop computer after years away from that platform. I played a lot of different games. Only a select few made lasting impressions.

The PS4 and Wii U carry us forth to the present day. The latter being that which reignited my enjoyment and my love for video games. I also began to amass retro consoles and their games much to my happiness. Modest as our collection is. My wife also began to share in the hobby more and more.

I suppose it was my earliest eras that were the most enjoyable, and my most invested, for time, and for enthusiasm. It is these eras where most of my favourite games arose. Although, I must say, I still discovered some gems even in the downturns. I also have a fondness for the recent years with PS4, Wii U, and 3DS, as well as select moments on PC.

Hands down early twenties. Finished my undergrad, had a part time job while I waiting to go travelling, then did a masters while still working part time.

So that is basically the 360 era for me, used to stay up late at night playing games since I worked evenings for a while. It really helped that I had a great online community in Games TM forums to play Bad Company 2 and COD4 with. I mean this is also a great community but I find playing harder these days due to full time job and the fact it's North American centric, where as Games TM was British. There was team we would have too many people to be on the same side in BC2.

jrralls wrote:

“Heavily into” being defined as a combination of; spending the most total time on, spending the most % of your disposal income on, talking/reading about video games for the most total time, and being the most emotionally invested in video games.

See, the weird thing is these were all different different times in my life.

- The period where I was mostly invested in brainpower was likely late elementary to junior high. I subscribed to Nintendo Power and put the posters on my wall, I had the free time to play games literally all weekend if I could get away from it, I I would play the same games over and over because I was limited to Christmas presents or rentals when I had enough allowance for my collection, and would argue with the other kids who were too nerdy to do anything athletic during recess about what games were cool or sucked, and I would have strong opinions whether I ever played them or not.

- Between the ages of 17 and 23 (1997 to 2002), when I was in late high school and then went to university, I played the odd CD-ROM adventure game but for the most part I was completely uninterested in video games. I was way more interested in drinking (which I did a lot), clubbing (which I did a lot) and getting laid (which I didn't do much of.)

- Between 2003 to 2006, I had returned to school for a second time, and decided to do a better job of it this time, meaning I didn't take on a big part-time job and spent more time studying, which meant I was constantly broke. This ironically led to me spending the absolute most time on video games, even though it was the fewest video games that I drained all enjoyment out of it, and the least amount of money. Civilization IV, various roms of SNES RPG's I never played in my youth, and most importantly, my copy of Neverwinter Nights. Between the campaign, expansions, and user-made modules, I likely spent the amount of time playing that game that usually is spent on MMOs by others.

- Between late 2007 and 2013, I had gotten my first office job while still living where I was from being a student again, and I was both without any responsibilities and too stupid to realize I should start saving, which meant my extra income was off the charts. I basically spent all the money and indulged in everything I was missing. A new HDTV, all 3 consoles, and I built a new PC basically every 2 years, with the latest video card sometimes more often than that. This also meant I was hardcore into gaming as a hobby, so it's when I was writing the most about games (as I had discovered this site) and listening to podcasts, reading reviews, etc.

Most time? High school, because high school students have the most free time (and don't appreciate it). I'm probably never going to play any game enough exceed my high school playtime on Civilization II and SimCity 2000.

Most disposable income? The percentage has gone down as my disposable income has gone up, so I'd have to identify where the curves intersect. I certainly spend more in absolute terms in recent years. I'd guess the highest percentage was a few years ago when I was freelancing but not making a ton and backed several Kickstarters. (That paid off because I got to play a lot of them this year.)

Talking/reading about video games? Probably now, since I get paid to research them.

Most emotionally invested? 2012, I guess. I was going to conferences and was really invested in conversations about what a videogame was and what their potential is. (These days I don't care what I call the things I spend my time on and I'm interested in narrower questions rather than celebrating the potential of the medium as a whole.)

2008-2012, Left 4 Dead thru Dark Souls. Lots of great times playing multiplayer with you lot. Lots of money to spend on games. Lots of time as I was often alone and awake, as I tried to figure out how to help the person I married work through mental illness and self-destructive behavior. Zombie shooting and booze were conveniently close by. If not for games I probably would just have had booze, which would have been bad news. Things are not perfect but have certainly improved.

2006-2013, I'd say? Had to move far, far away from live music or anything like that, girlfriend at the time was really into gaming, and it just felt like so much was happening, like it was this major cultural phenomenon. It had this rich history worth diving into and this promising future. It was something special that you could enjoy no matter where you lived.

Then, much like Britpop, the moment was over and it was a shell of its former self. Please don't put your life in the hands of games like Rock Band, they'll throw it all away. Because even GameStop doesn't want your fake plastic toys anymore.

jrralls wrote:

At what point in your life were you most heavily into video games?

Probably a tie between the 90s and now.

Though likely more so now due to my blog, but also SO MANY MORE GAMES. Gaming infects so much of my waking energy. It's part of my DNA.

Early 2000's playing Everquest. I remember spending weeks working on my bard and paladin epic weapons quests and 4-6 hours a day farming Plane of Valor and Plane of Storms for experience to get Alternate Advancement points. The 1st time my guild did Plane of Time, we raided for almost 24 hours straight. I bet I was playing between 50 and 60 hours a week for a couple of years. Every time a new video card was released I would buy it in hopes it would reduce the lag during the 72 man raids.

Honestly, it's been fairly constant for the past 38 years, barring a couple times when I was traveling for work 24/7 and living out of hotels, but even then, I eventually went out and bought an OG XBOX that got packed into my suitcase when it was time to ship out to the next hotel.

Sydhart wrote:

Early 2000's playing Everquest. I remember spending weeks working on my bard and paladin epic weapons quests and 4-6 hours a day farming Plane of Valor and Plane of Storms for experience to get Alternate Advancement points. The 1st time my guild did Plane of Time, we raided for almost 24 hours straight. I bet I was playing between 50 and 60 hours a week for a couple of years. Every time a new video card was released I would buy it in hopes it would reduce the lag during the 72 man raids.

Exactly the same in terms of most active being most hours spent each week; however looking back I would probably say more "engaged" in the 1984-89 timeframe. Back then I was in the Royal Air Force, and had a Commodore 64 initially and later the Amiga 1000.

Console gaming wasn't the big thing it was in the US, especially early on, and gaming was far more niche; the result was a 4 or 5 people virtually camping out in my room anytime we weren't on duty; particularly memorable thing's we'd play co-operatively included Quo Vadis.

Many hours were spent chasing down the $40,000 prize for the first to reach the golden scepter hidden within its 1024 screens of seamless scrolling, non-saveable platforming hell.

The Amiga took things to another level; games that I remember causing folks to crash overnight on more than one occasion included R-Type, Elite and Lemmings, but two always stand out, namely Shadow of the Beast and Menace; perfectly melded addictive gameplay and exploration in ways we hadn't seen before.

I now recall our Commodore Vic 20! This was, I believe, my first venture into video games. It wasn't a part of our home for very long. I assume it was borrowed or perhaps sold on. I was relatively young. I remember playing Invaders (a Space Invaders clone), Frogger, Duck Shoot, and Skyhawk.

The Vic 20 began my interest in video games. It was the Nintendo that ran with it and cemented that interest, though, and I often attribute everything to that system as a result. It sparked video games a family orientated activity, for us. The Commodore Vic 20 was essentially a singular activity. The Nintendo had some serious longevity where as the Commodore Vic 20 was but a fleeting visitor. I still occasionally reminisce of my time with the Vic 20, though, limited as it was. I loved Invaders.

Man, completely forgot about the commodore 64 playing Project Stealth Fighter and Pools of Radiance. That was so long ago. Wow, I can't believe I forgot about that because we spent a lot of time playing that thing in the late 80's. After that it was a Tandy 1000 playing Champions of Krynn and Curse of the Azure bonds. Then I got into MUDS in Junior High and I have been forever hooked on MMO 's ever since. Curse you Ronin & Gizmo DikuMUD!

Veloxi wrote:

Probably a tie between the 90s and now.

Same here, except I don't have a blog to blame it on now. There are just a lot of great games out there! 90s me would be a little jealous.

ShynDarkly,

I've watched that Shadow of the Beast video twice now. Menace also looks ace. I wish we'd had an Amiga 500!

Its a shame that CBM went down the tubes the way they did, the Amiga has a very specialized chipset that allowed it to pull off all manner of video trickery in ways that are still hard to pull off cheaply with modern consoles.