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[pramod]

I guess it's a bit hard to define what a "dark age" is. But here are some examples:

1. When you lost interest in a certain type/genre/console of gaming.
2. When you couldn't find enough things to play, or, just wasn't sure what you wanted to play.
3. When you actually stopped gaming, or gamed much less than you used to.

For me it never got as bad as #3, but for me the sixth generation (circa 2001-2006) was a weird time in my gaming life. That period seemed like a blur when I think back about it.

It started with the death of the Dreamcast and the "demise" of my favorite publisher, Sega.
And 2001 was also a rough year for me personally, I had both family and financial hardships.
It's not like I stopped gaming completely....in 2001 I played a ton of PSO, but as 2002 started and the Dreamcast faded away, so did most of my
gaming time spent on consoles.
I picked up a GBA for Advance Wars, but it didn't hold my interest for long.
Got an XBox, but I wasn't a huge Halo fan, so I mainly used it to play more PSO and CapcomVsSNK2 online.
Then also got a Gamecube around 2003, really enjoyed it at first, but then also lost interest quickly.
And yes, I also got a PS2 eventually, but barely touched it, not being a JRPG fan and very little interest in what the PS2 had at the time.
The fact that Capcom went into a weird experimental phase and we didn't get a new RE game for a few years also didn't help.
When I think back I spent most of those years playing Starcraft on PC, and really started to get into emulation. I even bought an Astro City and started collecting arcade PCBs.

Anyway, I don't think I got back into "regular" gaming until 2007 or so, when the 360 was launched and I dived right back into fulltime console gaming.

 

[JackSparr0w]

Three memorable eras come to my mind.

1. When I had a Playstation 1 because I had to give my PC away.
2. The year I was addicted to Dota 2.
3. When I got too much pussy during college I neglected my video games until I realised games are way more worthwhile.

 

[Saiyan-Rox]

I get gamers block a lot.

I'll go ham on a game and just not be able to focus on another one for ages but I'll still buy new ones lol

 

[Hayabusa83]

Ebbs and flows.

 

[Hayabusa83]

Three memorable eras come to my mind.

1. When I had a Playstation 2 because my PC was taken away.
2. The year I was addicted to Dota 2
3. When I got too much pussy during college I neglected my video games until I realised games are way more worthwhile.

Maybe you didn't get worthwhile pussy?

 

[intbal]

No.
Been gaming since Pong.
There has always been something fun available.

 

[BlackTron]

Well we have pretty much exactly the same past...sixth gen was weird, played PSO on DC into the sunset, liked a few GC games like melee, got a PS2 but ultimately ended up just playing Starcraft BW. Well that and Halo CE, the PC version even though I had an Xbox...which mostly got used for more PSO lol.

 

[lh032]

Dark age of gaming for me?

The present.

Many games, no time to play : (

 

[spookyfish]

Not self-inflicted, but I went through “the crash.” Started gaming with Pong, and then the Atari 2600. When ColecoVision came out, I was hooked. Loved that system, and even got the Adam upgrade. Games started to trickle, and then dry up. I was 14 or 15. For about 3 years, I would play my “old” games, and I bought an Intellivision II on clearance and enjoyed those games (early “retro” gaming, I guess).
Christmas of 87 jumpstarted gaming again for me, with the NES. After getting the Genesis and Super NES roughly together, I’ve been console agnostic and enjoying all avenues of gaming.
Now, I’m into Arcade1Up games with my kids, and I have two modded. I seem to be going backward, but it’s all been enjoyable.

 

[ckaneo]

Yeah, I bought a Wii U

 

[Fart Knight]

I remember

 

[lachesis]

PS3/Xbox 360/Wii Era and 1st half of PS4/Xbox One/Wii U Era.
I had a child, and basically gave up a lot of my hobbies. Plastic model making (toxic fumes from paint/glue), and also gaming due to lack of time/sleep and also being considerate my ex.
I mostly played games on portables off and on - but I had to sell off all my collections as home construction was costing more money than expected.

Then I got divorced, and bought a PS4 Pro, started gaming a bit by bit. I am still very much a casual player who plays maybe a handful games per year.

 

[Holammer]

Did a /played in WoW and noticed I had spent a full years worth in-game. I unsubbed and starting playing Real Games™.

 

[Sybrix]

Three memorable eras come to my mind.

1. When I had a Playstation 1 because I had to give my PC away.
2. The year I was addicted to Dota 2.
3. When I got too much pussy during college I neglected my video games until I realised games are way more worthwhile.

How much is too much?

 

[Fools idol]

I got hooked on world of warcraft for a good 2 years and it destroyed my relationship at the time.

Looking back, I was using it to escape the pressure of anxiety I was going through back then. I have basically zero anxiety now, but I still can't look at even screenshots of WoW without getting a bad taste in my mouth

 

[Raven117]

I didn't play most of the ps2 generation as I was in college at the time. I regret absolutely nothing as I spent that time doing awesome stuff with friends.

Since then. ebbs and flows.

 

[Amiga]

Kept switching platforms when they got cold so never had a year off gamming in 3 decades.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I stopped playing any games for about 2 years during the PS4/Xbox One/Wii U era because nothing interested me

 

[anthony2690]

Late PS2 era, I had more interest in girls & MySpace & hanging out with friends at the time and gaming took a back seat.

I have fond memories of going through FF12 and other jrpgs though.

& Playing lots of guitar hero

 

[nush]

and even got the Adam upgrade.

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

 

[tomato shrub]

PS360 was a really bad generation for me and it went on forever, while also spilling over into the first years of the PS4 era. I didn't care for all the devs chasing that Calladooty money, angry bald protags everywhere, only Nintendo DS (and somewhat PSP) providing good Japanese games and smaller experiences that weren't outright indie/XBLA. The "best games" of the generation like Bioshock felt pretty mid to me, just not my type of game.

Only since 2015 has gaming truly recovered for me, when AA games and good Japanese mainstream games made a comeback.

 

[Crayon]

There was a particular time. Early on in the PS 360 gen, I thought things were looking pretty bleak. Those brown shooters lol. Indies were just starting to come to those stores, though. That gave me the idea to start digging for them on PC. Then I started finding source ports, more emulators, etc. Nothing I didn't know was there already, but I had been spending most my time on consoles for years.

Also, I had always played my old consoles. Still do. And I started leaning more into that, too. I'd say for a good couple years, I was using a PS3 sparsely, low-powered PCs and old consoles. PlayStation 4 came out, I didn't care. The PlayStation 3 died and I just walked over to the drawer and plugged in a PS2. I didn't even think of replacing it.

I remember what snapped me out of it. Street fighter 5 announced. Right before it came out, there was that hilarious $200 pricing glitch for Walmart so I ran out and got that PS4. And I think I've been back on the train keeping up with new games since. I had lost interest in keeping up during that time and for a hot minute there I didn't even know PS4 was out.

Been going strong since then and I'm always anticipating new releases!

 

[MiguelItUp]

About to be 39 and I've hit way too many times where nothing sounds good. Everything you listed is kind of resonating in me right now. I want to play something but what I want to play doesn't currently exist. So I end up playing nothing. Sometimes I can push through it, and then it disappears. But other times I ride it out until it disappears. It's usually not too long.

Often there are moments where I think it's me, but then I look at what's currently available and if anything interests me, and realize it isn't on me. It's just me not being interested in anything that's currently available.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Yeah, when I thought about going PC exclusive like 5 years ago. I must have been high as fuck to make that dumb decision.

 

[rodrigolfp]

1. When I had a Playstation 1 because I had to give my PC away.

No one deserves this.

 

[T4keD0wN]

I have tried playing Jedi fallen order, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Chorus, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing The Ascent, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Final Fantasy 7 remake, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Evil West, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Shadow Warrior 3, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Kena bridge of spirits, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Outriders, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Necromunda hired gun, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing The Callisto protocol, it had shader compilation stutter. Sad (only game that fixed them on this list to my knowledge)
I have tried playing FIST, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Elden Ring, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing The Entropy Centre, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Gotham Knights, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I will return to this thread to tell you if i ever get through my personal dark age of gaming.

 

[Crayon]

No one deserves this.

That was a shitty time to be out a pc. My family computer had aged out right at that time, needing 4 more megs of ram to play any of the good stuff like Mechwarrior 2, Crusader, or wing commander 3. That 4 megs was $200, I remember. And even then, a cpu to catch that thing barely up would have been another ~$100. Then, 3d accelerators were just on the horizon and it made things really unsure. A whole nice machine was still like $3000 and I wasn't even sniffin that.

Damn had some good times on that 486. I came right when 16-bit games were getting boring and there were so many rumors and promises around cd and 32-bit that it was just pointless to pay attention to any of it. No-mans land. Getting ahold of dos games was a revelation. Doom, xcom, warcraft, Privateer, magic carpet.... way too much great stuff.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

About to be 39 and I've hit way too many times where nothing sounds good. Everything you listed is kind of resonating in me right now. I want to play something but what I want to play doesn't currently exist. So I end up playing nothing. Sometimes I can push through it, and then it disappears. But other times I ride it out until it disappears. It's usually not too long.

Often there are moments where I think it's me, but then I look at what's currently available and if anything interests me, and realize it isn't on me. It's just me not being interested in anything that's currently available.

Yeah man this sounds like me. Like I have an itch but nothing can scratch it.


For me I gotta say the dark age was PS4 generation. Don’t hate me GAF. I feel like I barely touched the thing. I can’t get into linear AAA blockbuster story-driven games or souls-like games no matter how hard I try. The few games I was interested in were also on PC which is my preferred platform. I got a PSVR, played Rez, then sold it 2 weeks later because I was underwhelmed by the other games + lots of them made me sick. Probably my favorite game I played on PS4 was Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age.

 

[ACESHIGH]

I think its the sixth gen for me. My parents said it was ok to get a ps2 around 2003 but I was not interested back then, I was more into music and concerts. I still played quite a few PS2 games at friends or relatives houses. I was also a teenager and somehow got in that phase were I was embarrassed about gaming. Later In 2005 my father built a PC where I played stuff like NFSU 2 GTA SA, Far Cry and Quake 4 but not much else. By then I was into college so could not game as much.

I finally got a PS2 in... late 2011! but I did not use it that much. I was about to sell it when I played Code Veronica once again and I got into the hobby again. Played a few PS2 classics like MGSII, RE4, GT3, GT4, Odin Sphere, Burnout 3 and a few more.
Then I bought a Wii, which I enjoyed quite a lot in spite of being underpowered. I almost got a PS3 in 2013, but the graphics looked like trash, not much better than what my 2005 gaming PC could do. So after making tons of research I went and bought a custom made PC, which I am still using today, with a few upgrades of course.

The backlog I still have to tackle is so inmense I don't see myself upgrading in 2023 at least. My PC sucks for sixth gen emulation so I could never dig deep into the PS2, Gamecube and OG Xbox catalogues.

 

[cash_longfellow]

I’m going through this right now OP…I went through a bad break up where we miscarried a child and lost interest in a lot of things I used to enjoy. I’m finally getting out of the lull a bit, but most recent games are ass anyway. 2023 looks really bright on the gaming front, so I’m hoping to get my mojo back, not only on the gaming front, but on the dating front as well!

 

[64bitmodels]

2017-2019, sort of. We moved to a new area after some stuff happened and i had nothing besides a Wii U.

In 2019 I hacked my Wii U and for the first time got to truly experience a great chunk of 6th gen games, most of my life up to that point was 7th and 8th because my pcs were too weak to emulate GameCube so I had to settle for ps1 and n64.
Then that same year I decided to boot up my 360 for the first time in half a decade and played a lot of childhood games as well as some other gems like MGS5 and GTA4. Then I got a new 3ds and switch in 2020, ps2, ps3 and psvita in 2021.
And then the grand moment happened where I got my PC in 2022 and since then I've been gaming in full swing, more hours in games than ever.
2017 to 2019 kind of sucked but now life is good again for me

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

I have 3 passions in life:
-Competitive pool
-Guitar
-Video games

I've learned many years ago that I can't "entertain" all 3 with the same level of devotion as I would want so I usually focus on 2 and the third one waits until I'm ready. Funny thing is the way the rotation works is never a conscious decision on my part but just a natural process.

For example when the pool tournament season starts I'll be all-in on that and then I'll naturally gravitate towards the other one that inspires me the most at the moment and recently it's been gaming. I know myself too, as it always happens, when I'll be done playing the games I was the most excited about I'll be a in state where I won't know what to play and boom one of my favourite musical artist will release a new album and I'll be all over that shit trying to learn the songs. Then when the pool tournaments end I'll play some summer games along with the guitar. I'm looking at you Zelda and FF16!

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

2019 I barely played. I got a new job as a bar manager and this thing sucked the life out of me that it was the first time I didnt enjoy/ have energy to relax with a game. I was there 6 days a week and even on my shitty little day off they would still call me and ask for details. Even my photography I dropped, I think I didnt touch the camera at all for a whole year, I was just a zombie.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Wouldn't call it the dark ages because it was when I started having sex with girls and spent most of my nights getting smashed at parties. I simply didn't have time to play video games but eventually I started missing them and went back to gaming.

It was actually pretty fun catching up on all those games that I missed out on in the period between 2010 and 2012. There were a lot of cool games that came out back then and some of my fondest gaming memories come from those specific games.

 

[SHA]

Rrod
Eastern western Market shift
Sega
Number of big games getting fewer and fewer
Fps
Split screen
Can't think of a clean sober period in my whole life except pc in the 90s , ps1&2 , Gameboy, atari ; sega was ahead of its time and I mean it specifically cause this phrase used to be something bad "at that time".

 

[Rickyiez]

Yes , when my dad bought me a 3DO from oversea instead of a PS1 back then . The worst thing was I only had one game for it

 

[spookyfish]

I'm so sorry that happened to you.

I wrote nice papers for school, but DAMN.
Coleco: “Let’s just do Cabbage Patch Kids and drop this fad gaming crap.”

 

[Rambone]

My video game dark ages are usually caused by women (completely puss whipped), work, responsibility, other hobbies and lack of time.

 

[Dust-by-Monday]

I'm going through it right now. I'm not even remotely interested in anything out right now and I'm not even excited for anything except for Silent Hill 2 remake.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Not really. There are slow times, but that’s expected. Outside of real life issues that conflict with enjoying anything. There’s decades worth of gaming technology to check out. I admit I do get fatigued. I remember playing through three Castlevania games after Bloodstained and felt very fatigued of the genre. I felt like I got a lot out of it, but I wasn’t ready to go back any time soon.

I feel it from other people. Have you ever been talking to people who only gamed like 15-20 years ago and their only reference are like 1-2 titles? It’s not the conversation that’s bad. It’s the fact that you can’t bring up anything new or a game in a series that was perhaps better. It feels like the dark times because I want to reference something that came out in the last five or so years, but I’d have to explain everything. My wife is like that. While I enjoyed hearing the Zanarkand theme song from FFX being played at my wedding. There’s like 0 point of reference to anything Final Fantasy related beyond FFX or what her ex played on the TV. There’s no discussion of any FF games before or after. I should be grateful, but at the same time there’s only so much I want to talk about those CGI cutscenes of Yuna and Tidus that I watched back in 2001.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Yeah man this sounds like me. Like I have an itch but nothing can scratch it.


For me I gotta say the dark age was PS4 generation. Don’t hate me GAF. I feel like I barely touched the thing. I can’t get into linear AAA blockbuster story-driven games or souls-like games no matter how hard I try. The few games I was interested in were also on PC which is my preferred platform. I got a PSVR, played Rez, then sold it 2 weeks later because I was underwhelmed by the other games + lots of them made me sick. Probably my favorite game I played on PS4 was Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age.

Yeah, I think we've all been there a bit.

I realize I didn't say my dark age! Honestly.... I think it may have been the PS4 generation for me too. That's where I played Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War (2018), Fist of the Northstar: Lost Paradise, and Berserk. Aside from those games, I was pretty much all on PC. I haven't touched my PS5 much, but the gen is still young, and I've had more experiences it so far than I did on the PS4 around this time.

 

[remember_spinal]

Mid ps3/360 era when everything big coming out was FPS military shooters or space themed military shooters with ugly grey/brown color palettes.

This was before sony brought me back in a generation later good single player action games. If it weren’t for Uncharted and Sony’s first party finding its footing with their type of games I’d probably have just givin up on gaming back then.

Relying on rockstar, capcom, and square enix for big budget single player stuff would be horrible

 

[Philfrag]

Yes, i was ready to call it quits. Then I played Half Life 2 for the first time.

 

[Editaur]

The PS3/360 era was fantastic but seeing companies test the waters with micro- transactions, online pass, day one patches was a new kind of disgusting.

 

[Arachnid]

Every year since the Golden Age of Silent Hill ended in 2004 is my Dark age. PT cancellation was the Age of Madness.

Soon, we will walk out into the light of our Age of Resurgence. Deliver us, Konami! Please!

 

[MikeM]

I have tried playing Jedi fallen order, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Chorus, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing The Ascent, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Final Fantasy 7 remake, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Evil West, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Shadow Warrior 3, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Kena bridge of spirits, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Outriders, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Necromunda hired gun, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing The Callisto protocol, it had shader compilation stutter. Sad (only game that fixed them on this list to my knowledge)
I have tried playing FIST, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Elden Ring, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing The Entropy Centre, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I have tried playing Gotham Knights, it had shader compilation stutter. It made me feel bad for supporting it.
I will return to this thread to tell you if i ever get through my personal dark age of gaming.

PC right? Need a console to shield yourself from this as well.

 

[kunonabi]

The end of the PS2/beginning of the Wii60 era. Fighters, RPGS, and survival horror games were all in a horrible state and I was still bummed about the Dreamcast. The GC was very disappointing in regards to Nintendo's output and I wasn't a huge fan of the PS2 as a console. The X360 didn't look appealing at all aside from Dead Rising for the most part and I was pretty much thinking of dropping video games altogether. I wasn't keeping up with news much so it isn't until I got my hands on the Wii that things started turning around and Super Mario Galaxy ended up being the title that reminded me why I loved the hobby in the first place. I'm not overly fond of the current era either but things are still better than they were then.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Dark age...

Xbox 360, Ps3, Nintendo Wii.

Worst time of my life... I was in University in hard times, the Nintendo Wii console was Horrible with PS2 power, Xbox 360 crashed RROD 3 times and destroyed my Gears of War disc... PS3 with the yellow lights... This generation saved me the PS3 Slim...

I didn't have a PC gamer, the University period was horrible in the first 4 years

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

The Wii/PS3/X360 Era

There were hardly any JRPGs on consoles and the more western games got the more turned off I became

PS4 Era I played mostly on the PS4 until I made myself a gaming PC and that's when more Japanese Third Parties started to release on Steam. So I ended up hardly playing my PS4 by the end of its lifecyle

But with Switch/Steam I fully got back into gaming. I haven't played this many games since the PS2 era.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Definitely, around late 2000s. My first game back was god of war 3 (also my First god of war at the time).

Im kinda in one again, though much more willing to let it die out completely. Dont like the industry's directions or tactics. 100% not invested in the hype for games. Dont have the time. Dont really want to give it any more time than I already have in this life. Its really just a footnote in my priorities these days. And im okay with that.