Because i'm thinking thats happening to me.  Before i joined the Marine Corps, I was a Hardcore gamer/MMO'er.  Now that I'm in the Corps, i have A LOT less free time than i did as a civvy.  Now with 12+ hour work days, and going to the field almost every week (and leaving to Cuba in November), along with keeping up with my physical conditioning and gymnastics, I have very little gaming time.

So I thinking i'm becoming a casual gamer.  I still want to be a gamer and still play MMOs (I love them), I think i have to become a casual gamer.  In a way, its enlightening that I can actually "enjoy" a game now.  When i was hardcore, all i thought about was the end game, and never truely getting the full experience.  Back when i played EQ, i was a casual gamer.  Took me about a good year+ to get lvl 50 (along with alt whoring).  But I enjoyed all of it, and didnt care much about the end game, just cared about the now. 

So now I need to decided on a MMO to once again be a casual MMOer.  I'm debating between WoW (played first 6 months of game launch), WAR (will get it regardless to test out) and EQ2.

I noticed myself when I dropped from being 6-10 hours online a day, down to 1-4, that it made a huge difference. No longer did I worry about what I would get by doing what raid, or how fast I could level. Don't get me wrong, I still droll over gear, and like the occasional single raid mob.

Indeed the games are more enjoyable when you have no goals you want done quickly  that will take an extreme amount of time to get done.

MMOs have the habit of pulling people in and driving them to inappropriate attitudes, to a point of making people childish. So happy I can't blame MMOs for that, now I can only blame my parents for how they raised me... well could blame myself, but my dad is easier. ;)

EDIT gah coffee wearing, grammar/spelling is getting worserer.

I had to go through the same transition after I got married and had kids. Most real "vets" seem to be facing the problem. We just dont have the time to sink into games like we used to.

In the last 6 months I've gotten  bought a house, gotten married, and had a kid. So when I try to playhardcore I end up going to change diapers/burp/mow/work on the roof/work on the basement/ect...its a 100yr old  house, and babies take lots of attention, so do wives apparently.

Turns out I was pretty addicted to gaming, supposedly its the dopamine. Brain makes a lot of it while you game, you get resistent/dependent on it. Supposedly they are finding hardcore gamers who have "hardcore" jobs such as solider, firefighter, ect perform better since the can handle the adrenaline/dopamine better.

AoC is very casual friendly, but it is flawed. WAR seems like it will be a good casual game as well, so long as you get a good guild you can party with when you do have time. EQ2 did not seem casual friendly to me at all, though I just did the free trial then spoke to many people in game and on forums. But from all I saw it is not casual to raid at the end.

Eve is a very casual game, though I just did not care for it myself. It seems a very fun game, just takes a long time to get going in it.

Agreed Im married with 2 kids & have a fulltime job.Where do we find the time?Besides setting our alarms more early & staying up later :( I guess its the first sign of getting older

I used to play MMO's so many hours a day every day I'd fall asleep at my computer.

I play maybe 20 hours a week now and sometimes not at all.

Its not that I don't have more free time or have less of it.

The games I liked were changed in radical ways... or just changed over time to something I would have never paid for.

Everyone seems obsessed with trying to copy the "good" things from some other game .. one which I'm probably not willing to play.. so obviously won't be willing to play the new and improved cloned version.

Basicly the demographic or type of gamer they want.. isn't me.

So I'm a customer without a product.. more than anything.

I find most of the games out now.. boring, repetitive... rehashed.. to the point I can log out from one and into another and feel like I'm in the same game still.

And the ones that are "different" are still just not what I'm looking for.

So like I said ya I'm a consumer with no product I want to spend time on.

Originally posted by kidRiot

Because i'm thinking thats happening to me.  Before i joined the Marine Corps, I was a Hardcore gamer/MMO'er.  Now that I'm in the Corps, i have A LOT less free time than i did as a civvy.  Now with 12+ hour work days, and going to the field almost every week (and leaving to Cuba in November), along with keeping up with my physical conditioning and gymnastics, I have very little gaming time.

So I thinking i'm becoming a casual gamer.  I still want to be a gamer and still play MMOs (I love them), I think i have to become a casual gamer.  In a way, its enlightening that I can actually "enjoy" a game now.  When i was hardcore, all i thought about was the end game, and never truely getting the full experience.  Back when i played EQ, i was a casual gamer.  Took me about a good year+ to get lvl 50 (along with alt whoring).  But I enjoyed all of it, and didnt care much about the end game, just cared about the now. 

So now I need to decided on a MMO to once again be a casual MMOer.  I'm debating between WoW (played first 6 months of game launch), WAR (will get it regardless to test out) and EQ2.

I think I am now a casual player having been hardcore before.  In part, the lack of quality of MMOs of late is responsible but I think it is also a function of just having been there and done that.  Many have said elsewhere that nothing compares to that first MMO experience, the awe and wonder of it.  I think this is true but more than that I think as the genre grows up it also grows old in the sense that the wonder of this virtual world just disipates.  As such, I play typically daily but for only a little time and I even will skip days if I have something else to do.  I also notice that I am levelling slower and while I am still driven to 'achieve' in game I am not obsessed with that next level or that great bit of gear.

Fultime job ha! I took on on-call/weekend work (from home) when I found out I was to be a daddy.

I am a casual gamer and I enjoy games MORE.

I was a (a) Guild Leader of raid guilds in both EQ and WoW;  and (b) Officers in raid guilds in WoW and EQ.

i enjoy gaming much, much more as an "ordinary" and casual player.  I play Everquest, but I am optimistic that WAR will get me away-from EQ for six months or so.

I always end-up back to EQ, but I am getting a bit sick of it. 

Yep, I used to raid in wow (pre-bc), and there's no way a game will ever get me to raid again.  It wouldn't be so bad if raiding was actually fun, but there's very little fun involved in raiding.

Started causal, got hooked, gone harcore, now gone back to semi-casual.

Honestly, i miss the "good ol'days" when i was a clueless damn noob, running around asking what the hell should i do next

Hmm... maybe not.

Bah! Big text of how hardcore gaming isnt something one can keep on doing forever, but damn computer crashed... Pff. No wall of text for you!

i used to be a hardcore gamer years ago. now, just like everyone else, i got older. with age came alot of new responsibilities. now i play every now and then when i'm given the chance and i dont take mmos as serious anymore as i did. i believe its part of "growing up" as a hardcore player and the majority of them will eventually face it. i have tons of friends whom i used to play who have  all gone threw this. real life responsibilities will always come first and foremost.

dont be surprised though 30 years from now, you hear about of 65+ year olds retireies with nothing to do, playing  mmos hardcore again.  senior citizens battling that raid boss, arthritis, and carpel tunnel syndrom for teh epic loot and the rights to brag.

I feel ya OP I went from being hard core to being a Navy man living in Japan where even if I wanted to raid I couldnt find any asian guilds to do so. I think gaming companies are finally realizing that many of us that started the mmo boom back in the early 2000's dont have time for the raiding game anymore and are going to be implementing more 1-2 hour grouping type options with nice rewards. Many folks claim to many these days are wanting instant gratification, when we actually just want to have some meaningful gameplay in a shorter amount of time and not feel like were total dump because we cant compete with mr 40 hours in game a week guy.

It happens... sadly

Was pretty hardcore until I left DaoC.  U cant really be hardcore anymore imo, cause the MMOs out now are so incredibly easy, even raiding is a shadow of what it used to be.

lol@ WoW raiding,   its only hard at times because of all the n00bs playing that game.

Originally posted by kidRiot

Because i'm thinking thats happening to me.  Before i joined the Marine Corps, I was a Hardcore gamer/MMO'er.  Now that I'm in the Corps, i have A LOT less free time than i did as a civvy.  Now with 12+ hour work days, and going to the field almost every week (and leaving to Cuba in November), along with keeping up with my physical conditioning and gymnastics, I have very little gaming time.

So I thinking i'm becoming a casual gamer.  I still want to be a gamer and still play MMOs (I love them), I think i have to become a casual gamer.  In a way, its enlightening that I can actually "enjoy" a game now.  When i was hardcore, all i thought about was the end game, and never truely getting the full experience.  Back when i played EQ, i was a casual gamer.  Took me about a good year+ to get lvl 50 (along with alt whoring).  But I enjoyed all of it, and didnt care much about the end game, just cared about the now. 

So now I need to decided on a MMO to once again be a casual MMOer.  I'm debating between WoW (played first 6 months of game launch), WAR (will get it regardless to test out) and EQ2.

Welcome to growing up.

I like to relax and play games a bit now. I don't raid anymore, I play when I want, not when the game or raid or friends tell me to.

Same situation as everyone else once I got my EMT and got hired on a Fire Department. I went from being able to play FFXI competitively (Most time consuming MMO ever) to hardly having 3-4 hours a night to devote to gaming.

Personally, I'm looking forward to when I'm in my 60s and retired so I can get back into MMOs full time :D

Originally posted by Arcken

I had to go through the same transition after I got married and had kids. Most real "vets" seem to be facing the problem. We just dont have the time to sink into games like we used to.

       Yeah alot of players have went from hardcore to casual......You go through alot of changes as you get older and often time is a major issue.....Also marriage/kids/job tend to change alot of things also.

Originally posted by Theocritus

Originally posted by Arcken

I had to go through the same transition after I got married and had kids. Most real "vets" seem to be facing the problem. We just dont have the time to sink into games like we used to.

 

       Yeah alot of players have went from hardcore to casual......You go through alot of changes as you get older and often time is a major issue.....Also marriage/kids/job tend to change alot of things also.

Yep. The two posts above cover it for me.

Still am a hardcore gamer but only with less time to spend on the games I play.
 

Hardcore to me is HOW you spend your time in a game, not how long.

All good posts.  Just got back from the field after spending days on post.  Im going to refine my search of a game to play...and maybe not end up playing any...

Growing up sucks.

Gaming, as a hobby, should always take second seat to your life's goals. This is a natural progression of maturity.

I too went from hardcore when I first started. Back when I got married I also started playing UO. Since my wife worked eves, I would be on most of the night till she got home. Once we had our first I slowed down a bit, but was still managing 4-6 hrs a day in UO. More kids came my time gaming went down. Now that kid number 5 is here, my time gaming is maybe an hour or two  every couple of days.

I am a similar situation exept i am in the Army and i stopped being a hardcore gamer when i went to Basic Training and I started back up in A.I.T(advanced individual training) because we would have a couple of hours of personal time. I  am now stationed in Fort Hood and now i  a casual W.O.W player now while i wait on WAR. I would love to become hardcore again but i dont have the time. Hoorah! from a Hooah!