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!

You get older, you get careers, wives, husbands, children....it's only natural to play less and less as the real world demands more of you.

I have known people that had 3+ kids and a wife and job, and they spend 4+ hours a day online.  I feel sorry for their families...I really do. 

 First, to the op and the others who said they serve, Thank You. 

But as for the topic of the post, welcome to becoming an adult. 

Originally posted by ianubisi

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

QFT right here. The older you get the more responsibilities you get, the less time you get to spend playing games. I still play alot but definitely alot less now than I did 10 years ago.

I don't think I ever really had the gamer genes to be hardcore.

My first MMO was UO, and I played it religiously. Like all day, and whenever I wasn't play, I was macroing.

If that was hardcore then I suppose I was at a point, but it didn't feel like it.

DAoC I played constantly too, largely due to constantly having to power-level up friends and guildies.

When WoW arrived, I instantly got into raiding and had my first experience with DKP. Here's where I felt I was encroaching upon "hardcore", attending every raid, everyday. It burned me out, and I abruptly quit WoW.

Ever since then, no MMOs been able to hold my attention more than two or three hours at a time. So I find myself enjoying MMOs like City of Heroes, and feeling ill inside when I read about any upcoming MMO that seems like it'll support raid culture inclusive of DKP.

I'm not compatible with it.

i was a hardcore gamer. i used to play 6-12 hrs/day. now i play 1-4 hrs/day (4 if its a really slow, really boring day). personally... it wasn't the job or marriage that got me, me and my husband own a small business, and i do all the books and what-not, so i spend most of my time at home on the computer as is. i just really got sick of every game being the same thing. straight up BORED of it all. i canceled all my subscriptions a while ago, and picked up playing eve, though casually, cause it was a nice change for me from all the typical mmos.

and now.. i'm just waiting for another good game to throw me back into the hardcore phase

Originally posted by zaxxon23

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.

Just because you are casual doesn't mean that you don't raid.  I am a very casual gamer and I love to raid.

If I purchase a game I will invest a good amount of time into my gameplay. Why buy a car if you are only going to be driving it around at 20MPH?

I was pretty much hardcore, raiding 5-6 days a week, 4-6 hours raid every day. All the other hours went to farming and such, slept 6-8 hours, everything else was wow wow wow wow. Now Im pretty much laid back, need to work for the money so I can live, and I got a girlfriend since a half year back, so that also affects the gaming, when you work.. You can still be semi-hardcore and raid 5 days a week, but when you get some kind of a social life it goes down to minimum hours ;p. Im pretty much casual now, I raid 2 times a week and spend some hours at some other games like AoC and so on.

Allthough, I think when Warhammer comes out Im gonna get in trouble. Probably the end of my social life again. Lol.

Married with a two year old and my raiding days came to a close as soon as my kid became mobile, which was somewhere around 9 months.  Anyway, as for a game recommendation for a casual game and something for a change you can download Tabula Rasa for a free trial right now...actually you can get it for $5 and 30 days of play.  It has its issues and lacks content at the upper end but is casual friendly.  It draws a lot of hate from the this particular website, but its not a bad option when you only have a few minutes and want to kill some bad guys. 

thats a good thread.

its normal that people go from hardcore to casual. im a good example of it but not mmorpg-wise. I used to be be hardcore fps gamer (UT99 for the win!). Played ALOT!. All started around 8 years ago when i found UT at school. I was playing it for at least 7-8 h per day. That made me pretty good player and got me some awards and wins ( mostly domestic, but also in european competitions - www.clanbase.com ). After few years, other duties/activities came around. Started going out, dating, and spent less and less time in games. When i look into my xfire profile i know its less than 1/3 of a time i played really. No chance ill get even close with any game to these 600h of UT or even 250h of Anarchy Online. My girlfriend, work, and general real life activities take alot of my time but i don't regret it. It's natural, that people find other points of interest while growing up. I will never regret all the time i was hardcore gamer - it gave me alot of fun and im still proud of what i managed to acomplish including long-time friendships that started in UT community but they are still going in reality.

my english is still crap tho :F

I really hated my last 9-5 and with such rigid hours I use to fit in 30 hours gaming some weeks.

Now Im not playing anything waiting for WAR beta and previously I was playing DDO for 45mins-1hour per day.

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I got a job with flexitime so I can work 12 hour days followed by 6 hour days if I want and given the freedom I went DOWN to 1 hour per day gaming lol.

I went from a hardcore to casual gamer. I used to grind and raid all the time in EQ. Now I just play here and there, a bit at a time. The biggest thing that changed for me is that I got bored with games in general but particularly MMORPGs (every game is the same to be honest). However, despite this, I can still enjoy these types of games in small doses if they possess the traits I like.

And actually, that's another indication that my playing style has changed: in choosing a game I looked mostly at raiding and the "end game" before... now I'm far more interested in lore and how immersive the game experience is.

Yeah work knackers me so much that the last thing I want to play is a mmo when I get home really, unless it's fun. Even console games are too much for me now, I got a great game called Bully recently. How much have I played of it? bugger all.

The other factor is mmos have got a bit old- they're all the same kind of formula.

Real life happens that's for sure. I consider my self a hardcore gamer but some times life gets in the way and you become a casual gamer for a few months. I don't think it matters though, games are meant to be fun and kind of a get away from life so if I were you, I wouldn't really worry about it. Just have fun when you game and if people complain that you're not on enough, screw them because it is just a game.(I know...I said it) if life requires time from you it's ok because the game will always be there(atleast the good ones that don't get canceled) Anyways there isn't much out there right now and so alot of people are taking a brake from games, and your not the only one.

Yeah, used to hardcore like mad back in the EQ early days. Raided with the best, played 8-18 hr days. I mean, what do you expect? I was a part time college student. The sad part is, most of those people who I raided with, never advanced in life. Atleast 10 of them are STILL hardcore playing/raiding in WoW and they are still living with their family/jobless. As sad as it sounds, playing hardcore is an addiction. Heck, I hang out with people who quite literally are online, all day... every... day... and they have been doing this for 10+ years. I feel sick to think I used to be like that but atleast I had the balls to back out and actually... you know, get a life?.

When I played Ultima Online, I worked 12hr days and it was the BEST time in my life for MMO gaming. The less time you have the more you appreciate your gaming. When EQ launched I quit my full time job and had insane amounts of free time. I found myself enjoying the games less and less as well as becoming more jaded and picky. Bottom line is, people who play all day are going to complain more often, because they have more time to sit there and complain and pick apart every minor flaw. People who work and provide for society ( the ones who don't hardcore raid or play all day) are going to enjoy the 1-4 hrs a night they may have after a hard days work. They don't have time to complain and they value the GOOD things about a game rather than the bad. They want fun, because... they work all damn day. That's the difference.

So if you know someone who is a lifeless shill and does nothing but plays games all day, call them out, tell them to get a god damn job and they will enjoy MMO games more once they get past the addiction, and yes it is an addiction when you game all day for years.