The internet is the reason I no longer enjoy video games

Back in the day (late 90’s) I could sit around for hours immersing myself in almost any video game. I would find every secret, would leave no stone unturned, and for what? Nothing but personal gratification. There wasn’t any way to share it with friends, outside of a landline phone call, and there definitely wasn’t an achievement system to keep up with all of your gaming greatness. You did it because it was fun.

I’m not sure I know how to game like that anymore.

Now, there are plenty of reasons that things have changed – one, I’m older now and I don’t have the time I used to. The rose-colored glasses of my youth have also been yanked away, revealing a much grittier reality that has ruined any imagination I may have had at one point, but also, I blame the internet and the weird need to game with friends to show off your skills and gear. Take for example a recent night of gaming. I was happily putting around on All-Star Fruit Racing (review coming soon), alone, when all of my IRL and online friends started gaming for the evening.

Image: Josiah Motley / KnowTechie

There became this weird obligation to play with them, and so I did. I stopped playing something I was enjoying to then meander around in a Discord channel for an hour trying to organize people, while waiting for others to eat, smoke, whatever, only to play a game I didn’t really want to play. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy playing with them, we had quite a bit of fun on Quake Champions recently, but again, it will simply be the flavor of the night, and we’ll be on to another game soon enough. There has to be a balance.

But with this ever-expanding Steam library and ever-shrinking wallet, comes one glaring issue – all of the money I’ve had to spend to keep up with whatever trendy game people (my friends) are playing. Instead of spending money on the games I may want to play, I’m spending money on the games my friends are playing. Yeah, this is my own fault, I get that, but I guarantee I’m not the only person that feels this. I think we sometimes feel because we can game with others, we have to. Game streaming and game subscription services could help that.

Image: Microsoft

This actually started as a news post, so let me bring this back around. The Xbox Game Pass is doing really great, according to Variety and Microsoft. Games Pass members are spending 20% more time playing games and have played 40% more titles. That is awesome news and gives a very solid use case for the future of gaming. We already know game streaming will become the next big thing in the coming years, but with that comes services like the Xbox Game Pass and Origin Access Premier that offer a Netflix-like way of delivering gaming content.

Knowing that I have all of this access to different games for a small monthly fee will most certainly help me break away from the desire to spend money on games to play with my friends, and hopefully put me back in the mindset of gaming for enjoyment. This type of access will not only provide the most bang for the buck but also put the focus back on the stories and experiences countless games offer that I will never have the bankroll to purchase.

This was a weird post, and I’ll probably revisit this in the near future, but the TL;DR version: I need to start gaming for the right reasons again and news like that above is a promising future for gaming.

What do you think? Was this post pointless or does it make any good points? Let us know below.

For more gaming news and reviews, make sure to check out:

• Fortnite encourages gamers to utilize two-factor authentication by offering a free dance
• Here are the best indie titles money can buy right now for the Nintendo Switch
• You may soon be able to rent an Xbox One directly from Microsoft

Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.