>It is true that some people, as they get older, claim to find games less interesting. In my opinion, some of them simply jaded a bit, and would be a good thing for them if they tried to find enjoyment again in the small things.
There are also people who still find enjoyment in small things, just not in games. It's not like computer games are that enticing beyond a certain point.
You can wonder around shooting aliens or casting spells, or exploring space colonies, in some commercial game that's basically the nth clone of 1000 others before it so many times before it loses interest...
It's like watching superhero movies for life. Yeah, people do it. But people also learn to appreciate more mature movie plots than "kid finds out they are unique, has responsibility to save world" or "millionaire with faults devotes time to fight supervillains", as their life experiences (e.g. kids, divorce, health scares, job trouble, mortality, love affairs, betrayal, etc) are not exactly the same as their brooding misunderstood teenager years when they wished they would "show everybody" anymore...
That is exactly what I was talking about! You are portraying games as "immature activities" like "superhero movies", rather than just "movies".
The same way there are more "mature" movie plots than those that you are (kind of) mocking, there are also more mature books than children stories, more varied music than pop summer songs and, indeed, more games than your "nth clone of shooting aliens".
By the way, I have had a nice daughter and health scares like anybody else, and no, that has nothing to do with maturity or with games becoming boring. There are many game genres and of course you like different ones when you are 15 vs. when you are 50. I literally thought like you in my early 30s, when I had literally zero free time and kept thinking "yeah I am past that, leave it to the young generation, I am responsible now".
There are also people who still find enjoyment in small things, just not in games. It's not like computer games are that enticing beyond a certain point.
You can wonder around shooting aliens or casting spells, or exploring space colonies, in some commercial game that's basically the nth clone of 1000 others before it so many times before it loses interest...
It's like watching superhero movies for life. Yeah, people do it. But people also learn to appreciate more mature movie plots than "kid finds out they are unique, has responsibility to save world" or "millionaire with faults devotes time to fight supervillains", as their life experiences (e.g. kids, divorce, health scares, job trouble, mortality, love affairs, betrayal, etc) are not exactly the same as their brooding misunderstood teenager years when they wished they would "show everybody" anymore...