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

I’ve been bogged down working multiple jobs/studying since 17 (I’m 40 now) so I tend to keep a loose schedule (like 1-2 hours after work or during my lunch break). My main thing now is trying to move away from forever games like starfield/bethesda games, farming sims and fighting games. Or at least side car them to something I am trying to beat. My vision is getting worse (preexisting condition) so I’m focused on beating stuff before I offload my collection once my vision tanks.

I'm lucky with my job situation, so my limited time with games is not as limited as it could be. (though I imagine it could be more limited in the relative near future, for various reasons)

But nowadays, I would say the biggest issue of time, especially now that both my Reddit and Twitter accounts are essentially gone, is the games themselves. 20 hours, barring some RPGs, used to be the most time you'd need to spend on a game, now way too many of them are just too long. Why does Pikmin 4 need 40 hours of content? Why does Mario Odyssey need 500 moons to even get to the final challenge, let alone the countless optional moons? Why did they decide BOTW didn't have enough content, apparently, when making a sequel? There's nothing wrong with long games, but I do feel increasingly disinterested in them, more often, and are less avoidable if I want to play Nintendo's major releases. I feel like I'm gonna abandon the concept of sidequests for some games at this rate.

Arkham Knight locking the true ending to 100% completion, a game that is a prime example of having more content purely for the sake of it, I could go on...

That on top of indie games that do have a solid 12-20 hours of content, sometimes way more, that cost 20 and then end up on sale for 4, only adds to the lack of time to actually play them all.

Like back in the day, on Gamecube, the only games that had more than 20 hours of content were a few RPGs. Even the open world ish games, True Crime, Simpsons Hit and Run, Spiderman 2, they weren't THAT long unless you obsessed over the most insignificant extras for 100%.

@Scrubelicious Welcome to adult life. I have struggled with this for many years, in fact its one reason I am ot into gaming as much as I was when I wqs younger.

You basically have to admit that you are not going to get to every game you want too thats just a sad fact, if you dont you're going to seriously stress yourself out and at that point something that is suppose to be fun and relaxing turns into a job. After excepting that you arent going to get to every game thinking about which games or series are your absolute favorites. For example mine are Borderlands, Forza Horizon, Dragon Quest and a few others and play only those games or series, and mostly importantly play one game at a time. Hopping back and forth with such limited time just stresses you out more cause then you start thinking about well its going to take this much longer to complete Dragon Quest XI because I am playing that and Fallout 4 for example at the same time. For games that you want to see the story but dont make your list, these can be one off games or series that you just dont have time for, I suggest looking for a Let's Play on Youtube there are some good ones out there that you are able to get the full story and some of the good ones cut the boring parts out like grinding or crafting and break up main story obectives into short videos that you can watch and get the story,

Next up dont worry how long a game is. Hearing that a game is over 80 hours long can be stressful and make you think well I only get X amount of hours per week to play I will never finish that, but keep in mind when advertisements say over 80 hours of gameplay they are talking about everything, story, achievments, side quests etc. And that leads me to my next point. Also keep clear of the internet particularly of forums and comment sections that may and possibly will contain spoilers. Everyone plays games at their own pace and of course people cant help but post their achievements such as Wow I defeated the Dragon Lord's final form I had no idea he was the son of the knight you killed in the beginning. By seeing or hearing such spoilers can put a damper on the game from you and make you feel damn I need to hurry up and finish that game. It can also make you think holy crap they left it open for a sequel I need to beat this game quickly.

Set up reasonable goals for your playtime. You know how much time you get to play each time so set goals that you know you can accomplish. For example tonight I'm going to do the Necomancer's castle. On top of that dont worry about achievements or side quests, just stick with the story. Despite what people may say doing achievements and side quests don't make you a true gamer its padding added by the devs to keep you playing their game. A true completion of a game is when you finish the main story everything else is nothing. Also included in that is MMO type games or games like Diablo with end game content. Most of that stuff is just to keep the player playing. Does doing the same raid, daily etc. over and over to get max gear add to the experience of the game, no, not really its busy work to make people feel important. It doesnt add to the story and in an MMO once the new expansion drops that gear is worthless and you dont need it to play the next chapter kn the game. I have come and gone in WoW for years I play through the story and then stop and wait for the next expansion no problems at all.

Those are my tips for dealing with life as a gamer and still enjoying the hobby.

What I've started doing is categorising some of my games as 'main' games, which means games like RPGs and Metroidvanias where you can't just pick up and play a few minutes here and there; you need to remember where things are in the game, what your objective is, what's happening in the story, etc. I generally only have one 'main' game on the go at a time and I play it whenever I feel like making progress on that kind of game, but if I want to play something else, like a platformer or rhythm game, I'll just pick up whatever game I feel like. It's not a perfect system and it still takes me quite a while to finish anything, but it makes the backlog a bit less overwhelming because only 'main' games are actually backlogged as such; all my other games are more of a library that I can just dip into whenever I want.

I have something slightly similar, but its become more "what games make sense to play between commercial breaks with the relatively small amount of tv I still watch?", which is also relevant to "what games do I have no strong need to play in tv mode?", which is usually smaller and older games (also not online games). When I have nothing else, its usually some random 8 or 16 bit NSO game.

I may not be 30 yet, but close to that age (28. Will turn 29 in the middle of July). Despite that though, I feel like I can comment on the subject of this thread since I have just as little time to play games as others close to my age.

I’m spending most of my time and weeks these days preparing for a portfolio as a software engineer. One of the things I’m preparing for that portfolio is an app I’m working on to further demonstrate my skills from my craft.

On my free time though, after I’m done with my work, I’ll space up 2 hours or so into working on a game of mines. Though, I’m not trying to over exhaust myself in doing so. I’m hoping by listening to music or doing something else on a 30 mins time slot, after working on my game almost-each day that is, will give me further energy to progress on my project.

I will allow myself a few days in the week to play games on my spare time instead of game development, to go with the subject of this thread after all. I would like to think I can watch a movie or read a book instead on those days if I wasn’t too caught up in something, hah.

I don’t have a backlog problem either. I have an interest in playing Platformers and RPGs for the most part. The former I only want to play if it’s fun and unique from other Platformers, and the later I want to play if it’s unique too and clean to my liking. I would say there are not a lot of games like those these days as well as kinds that have delightfully cheery, or exciting adventure–like emotions. (Though Nintendo offers plenty of what I want already in the Platformer genre.) I want to play my favorite genres with a unique twist, as to be exposed to different ideas of games with those genres I like. I think it makes more sense than playing a game that’s just a throwback to a game I’ve already enjoyed. If anyone has any suggestions, I would like to read them. ^_^ I’m also open to playing titles not of those genres, but have the same moods I formally mentioned.

I'm a seasonal gamer. I go through phases, but never once have I ever been addicted, maybe during a stint ot two in the very late 90's or early 2000's with PS1 & Dreamcast, but that was it...For me, it's impossible to get addicted to gaming simply because you can't veg' out on a sofa like you can with a movie or YouTube. games involve eye cordination, a lot more thinking, you're in control of the character etc. It's a lot more demanding, and the time required to get through some of them goes beyond a 2 hour movie.

So there's a level of comitment, high engagement and skill level that doesn't carry on over to something like a movie, unless you're binging multiple series strictly in terms of the time you're devouring. I usually stick with NewWave pixel art styled retro games because they don't take a life time to complete, maybe a few 2 - 2.5 hour sessions(1 a day) spread throughout the week. I honestly can't game for over 2.5 hours, my eyes start to strain, i get the gooey eye'd effect, and I lose interest and wanna do something else. Although, when i went hard on Resident Evil 2 & 3 Remake for PS5 back in early 2023. I managed to pull off two 2.5 hour gaming sessions in one day when i had the time with a solid break in between.

And lets face it, anybody can sit back and watch a 2 hour movie, or binge on a series. But who can say they've beaten all 3 NES Ninja Gaiden's? Adventure Island? Castlevania III, Ghosts n' goblins etc. the sense of reward and engagement with a video game far surpasses any movie imo.

I don't know, if more and more of the games that I enjoy keep getting censored in the future and because of that I start getting "older" games only in the future (at this potential point in time, a lot of people will probably call 2010s-2020s games "old"), I may actually be able to play all the games that I want to in my life 😂.

I honestly wasn’t expecting this many thoughtful replies. It’s been really interesting reading through everyone’s different approaches to gaming as we’ve gotten older.
One thing that really stands out is that time itself doesn’t seem to be the only issue. Energy, motivation, choosing what to play next, accepting that we won’t finish everything, and not turning gaming into another obligation all seem to be equally important.

There are a lot of good ideas here that I hadn’t really considered, so thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. I’m slowly making my way through the responses because there are some genuinely interesting perspectives.

@Kellvasion I really like your approach of rotating genres. I think that’s something a lot of us stop doing once our backlogs become overwhelming. Accepting that we’ll never play everything is probably healthier than constantly chasing completion.

One thing I’ve been experimenting with in my little app project is helping people decide what to play next without making it feel like a schedule. Would something like that appeal to you, or do you prefer keeping everything completely spontaneous?

@nomither6 I completely understand the scheduling part. Several people here seem to feel that turning gaming into appointments makes it feel too much like work, which is actually interesting to hear.

I can also relate to the “add someone once and never play again” experience. That’s probably one of the reasons I started thinking about this topic in the first place.

One thing I’m trying to figure out with my own little app project is whether gentle recommendations and finding people with similar habits work better than actual scheduling or random matchmaking.

And to answer your question, I’m over 40 myself.

The live service trap is probably one of the best descriptions I’ve seen in this thread. Those games don’t just compete with our backlog, they compete with all of our available gaming time.

It actually makes me wonder whether many of us are struggling more with attention than with time itself. That’s one of the things I’ve been thinking about as a podcast topic or even with the app I’m dabbling with.

I definitely relate to a lot of what you’re describing.

I find your “play it for a couple of hours and see what happens” approach really interesting. Sometimes deciding what to play feels harder than actually playing. Letting something choose for you removes some of that pressure.

There is also the pressure I spend money on this game and I need to finish it.