I remember the first time I played IGI. It was my first FPS game and being little, I found it way too difficult. By the time I learned to properly play FPS games, Call of Duty was the hot topic and yes, as you can imagine, it was a blast. I loved every second of those games. 

Early gaming memories

I cannot remember my first gaming experience. But I do remember playing Contra. I remember having way too much fun with ‘chicken Invaders’ and as weird as it sounds, I remember ‘Empire Earth’, an RTS game being one of my early games, along with Virtua Cop, House of the Dead and Need for Speed. 

Those were the days. Sometimes I played for hours at a time and ended up having a headache, which of course meant that my parents would get mad at me and for the next few days I got very little gaming time as punishment. But those memories still beckon me with lustre. 

Then I started to grow up. 

The best gaming years

Without a doubt, my best gaming years were my university days. I used to sit at my table, staying up all night and tilt this way and that way along with the controller in my hand because I was playing FIFA career mode. Sometimes I used to call my friend, have dinner together and then play a one on one with both of us wanting to pick Real Madrid as our team. 

It was always fun to play with a friend but sometimes my friend used to skip our gaming sessions. For those times I focused on single player games and this is how I found out that Assassins Creed Black flag is one of the best games in that franchise. I experienced games with amazing stories such as: Specs Ops-the line and The wolf among us. There were games like Vanquish and Titanfall 2, that made me grin like an idiot because they were just so much fun. 

Those were happy days. I thought they would last forever. I thought I will always enjoy gaming, I thought I would game as much as I want once I am a proper adult.

I was wrong. 

Gaming as an adult

Before I tell you what it is like to game as an adult, let me tell you how it feels to be an adult. 

It’s a terrible experience and it feels like a trap. You get back pain for no reason, you have so many engagements and responsibilities, you have to earn your own living and worst of all- it’s not what it looks like from the eyes of a child. 

I still like games and I still play. Or at least I try to play but I fail miserably. 

There are just so many things going on in life that there is barely any time left for gaming. From waking up at 8 and preparing for work to going to bed at 12:30am, there is not a single second left unassigned for gaming. 

So, if I want to game, I have to readjust my schedule, or worse, stay up at night. And regardless of however long I stay up late, I still have to get up early in the morning, go to work and repeat the same thing. Again, and again and again. 

By the time Friday comes and I finally get a day off, I feel too exhausted to sit in front of the computer and fight a werewolf. 

Those days I do sit to play a game, it often feels like a chore. Sometimes I feel like I ‘have’ to finish this game because I installed it. This takes the fun out of playing. 

I want to play to have fun, not because I ‘have’ to. 

Sometimes I pick up a game after watching the trailer and good reviews, only to find that this particular game is not my cup of tea. At this point, it feels very frustrating to get rid of that game and look for a new one. This hunt for other games is also tedious and my exhausted mind can not bear it. 

Sure, now I have a gaming PC that I did not have before and it makes it easier to game but the other factors in life have induced such a confounding situation that gaming is just not as fun as it used to be. 

But I have not given up on gaming. I still play, and I still play for fun. But the playing frequency and desire to play has changed a lot over the last decade. 

Is it a struggle to game as an adult? You bet it is. 

Do I see myself stopping gaming? Absolutely not.

Can it still be fun? Of course, it can be. 

You just have to find the right game that stimulates you and find the right time to sit with it. It might not be as good as the first time you played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but it can still be enjoyable. 

Just because you have become an adult does not mean you have to give up on your hobbies and things that make you happy. Life is difficult on its own anyway, might as well game a little.