Topic: Are We Running Out of Gaming Time, Not Games

I’m curious how other Nintendo gamers in their 30s and beyond handle this.

For me, the problem isn’t a lack of games anymore. It’s the opposite. There are more great games than I’ll ever have time to play.

The real challenge is time.

Between work, family, everyday responsibilities, and other hobbies, gaming has become something I need to actively make time for. Finding people in a similar age group with matching schedules can be just as difficult.

A few years ago I started a Discord community to connect with other adult gamers, and it’s still running today. It helped, but I still find myself struggling with finding reliable people to play with, deciding what to play next, sticking with a game instead of jumping to the next big release, and simply making time to play in the first place.

Tracking my collection or backlog was never the issue. There are plenty of apps for that. What I felt was missing was something that helps turn “I should play that game someday” into actually sitting down and playing it.

That eventually led me to start working on a small project called Couch Co-Op Club. Inspired by the couch co-op days many of us grew up with, it has evolved into a simple iPhone app focused on helping adult gamers organize sessions, manage their backlog, and find people to play with.
The app isn’t really the point of this post, though.

I’m genuinely curious how you handle gaming as you’ve gotten older. Do you have a system for your backlog?Do you schedule gaming sessions? Do you mostly play with friends you already know? How do you stop yourself from chasing every new release?

If you have ideas for features or tools that could help adult gamers make better use of their limited gaming time, I’d love to hear them.

And if anyone is interested in trying the app and giving feedback, I do have an iPhone TestFlight available.

The amount of time I spend gaming has definitely changed over the years.
Back then, playing 5–7 hours a day was almost the norm, and I honestly didn’t have enough games but other than school, I didn’t have any other obligations...

Now that I’m over 40 and have a family, time is a bit tighter, even though I’m lucky that my wife and 11 year-old daughter are also gamers and have their own Switch 2s.
On top of that, I don’t play online multiplayer games anymore, unlike when I was younger. I almost exclusively play story-driven single-player games, with the occasional couch co-op session with my family or when friends come over (a round of Mario Kart World, Mario Party, or Tennis is always a hit).

As for my Backlog, I think I have over 100 games on it (and the number keeps growing month by month ^^) and I’ve accepted that I’ll probably never play all the games I own, some were just for the sake of collecting.
I don’t plan at all because it wouldn’t feel like fun to me anymore if I were to plan out exactly when and how I’d play each game, etc.

If a game has a good story and good characters for me, I’ll play through it and then see what I feel like playing next. I also switch up genres every time so that not everything feels the same, for example, if I finish Resident Evil Revelations, I won’t start the next Resident Evil right away, but maybe a Mario game, then a JRPG, then an adventure game, and so on.

"Do you have a system for your backlog?"

• Are you talking about those websites some people use that keeps tabs across their gaming profiles and games that they own? I have one but I don't use it, so no. My backlog is my game library(physical/digital) that's it.

"Do you schedule gaming sessions?"

• No. In my opinion, scheduling anything that I'm not obligated to schedule is a terrible idea (for me). I'd rather just do things when I feel like. I believe that planning just adds potential unneeded stress or worry.

"Do you mostly play with friends you already know?"

• Yes. I play MP games and have always been reluctant to random friend requests. Idk how people befriend strangers online and can actually vibe with one another long term. I've even heard stories of IRL relationships/marriages happening from it - lucky them, I guess. Though I did try to mingle with players at one point, but the result was always the same; we'd add each other and most likely never play with each other again and one of us ends up deleted, lol.

"How do you stop yourself from chasing every new release?"

Easy, most of them don't appeal to me. In my opinion, gaming was in its prime 6th - 8th generation while it peaked during 7th generation. Most of my time gaming now is older games and multiplayer.

Also, how old are you @Scrubelicious? I know you're in your 30's, but how old?

Today is a stark contrast to when I began playing video games. In the early 80's I lived in a single-income home. Money was tight, new video games were only given at Xmas. But then you join the workforce and there's more petty cash to throw around, you have more options.

These days thousands of games are released every month on digital platforms. Steam alone had 21k new games made available in 2025. Most of those are shovelware cash grab mobile games of course. Visibility is a publisher's number one challenge in an industry swimming with tens of thousands of games to experience.

Too many games, not enough time to play them. Personally, I tackle the backlog by hopscotching genres. RPG one week, Platformer the next, maybe Run'N'Gun after that. The problem is...there's a myriad of live service games. The few I'm enjoying and currently juggling the weekly tasks for are Warframe, Where Winds Meet, and Warhammer 40k: Darktide.

It's difficult to get after the backlog while I'm in the live service trap.

sigh

Bury me with a controller in my hand. Perhaps I'll get caught up in the afterlife?

Turned 30 a few months ago. My relationship with games is strange. I have a fixed work schedule during socialable hours, but not too many commitments outside of that beyond some family-related things. I wouldn't say I have much in the way of hobbies outside games, though I may occasionally binge a tv/film series.

As a result, time isn't as much of an issue for me though whether that is a good thing or not is debatable. I do have lots of games, some of which I may never get around to playing, but in the case of a lot of those games, they were dirt cheap. It is not a problem as they are all single-player and work offline (with a couple of exceptions), so I can get to them anytime. In terms of new releases, I just wait for price drops in nost cases.

In terms of getting the mindset to play, I don't have a schedule for gaming, as I feel like that I am almost treating leisure as work. if I am not feeling anything in particular, I either pick a random game on the shelf, or even let backloggery choose for me. I then try and play it just for a couple of hours and see what happens. I either get inspired, or I stop playing and find something else to do for the day. Recently did this with Frostpunk, which is not normally the sort of game I would play. I have attempted the main campaign 3 turns and have failed around the same point each time, where I got frustrated and stopped, but now a week later, I actually want to try again. That said, it is sometimes better to accept the game you brought isn't worth your time if you are not enjoying it, and perhaps even return/exchange it. You already have limited time, so better not to waste it.

As I said above, pretty much all my games are single-player with some minor exceptions. I have never been much of a social butterfly so I can't give advice re the friend thing; the friends I do have who play games have very different tastes to me, but I have also never felt the need to look for others to play with.

Do you have a system for your backlog? No.

Do you schedule gaming sessions? No.

Do you mostly play with friends you already know? No.

How do you stop yourself from chasing every new release? I don't.

Might also be will power.or energy. I have amassed quite the backlog over the years. Will never play them all. Might as well stop buying new games and be fine, lol.
Which is why I decided to go only for physical s2 copies for the time being and get the rest digital if/when the eshop prices have dropped. Really not that big of a deal to wait a couple of years for a game I might actually never get around to play. Lol