Perhaps you need a hobby of some kind, something to do while you are having a break from playing video games?
Most definitely. It just feels awkward since I've been playing games for ever (there's a VHS tape of me "playing" on a Commodore Amiga as a 2 year old).
Maybe it's actually a good thing, given that I can now enjoy it as an entertainment thing and not as a 'main interest', because it can become rather compulsive.
I should stop derailing now, I guess. ![Tongue :P](http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/Smileys/aaron/tongue.gif)
This topic probably deserves its own thread (here or in general). But I can't resist posting just one link: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/ (with special honor to item #4, which dictates most of my game-buying decisions these days)...
"Wait a second. Is it possible that those old games didn't do anything magical with their programming to create "immersion," and that, like my kids with GTA, I "immersed" myself in those games because I was playing them at a time before I was dead inside?"Hahaha, so good. Thanks for sharing that. Even though my problem does not seem to be with age or kids (as I'm single and don't have kids, and I'm on my early 20's), and even though I got all the points (and I think I agree with all of them), I think in my case, it's mostly a mindset issue.
Warning - Unnecessary personal derailment:
I always had a weird habit of getting games and consuming them down to their core. I DID enjoy games in the normal way as a kid, but as year passed, the more this happened: I'd strip their mechanics in my mind, trying to create an intuitive sense of the design, and trying to figure out all the "whys" and "hows". Then I'd drop it forever - and in recent years I've even started dropping games before finishing them once I feel I figured them out enough, since a lot of plots are just recycled or predictable, or the "grind" to finish it is not as rewarding as having the game figured out.
However, sandbox games like DF, Minecraft (modded), The Guild 2, Kerbal Space Program, the X series..those can make me go compulsive - exactly as I kind of was with LEGOs as a kid, but no one calls a kid playing with toy bricks "compulsive". Sometimes I do re-visit my all-time favorites (like StarTopia), and I can enjoy them without compulsion.
I'm dealing with that weirdness nicely nowadays, and once something is that big in your life, you can easily find lessons and self-knowledge in it.
The solution here would be to find a creative hobby I'm not too scared or worried about stepping in. Like Game Design, Game Development, or technical+creative stuff that doesn't involve videogames. Or even writing - but I'm kind of scared of writing, since I'd end up just writing recycled stuff without noticing or something.
In recent months I've been thinking that maybe I'm just trying to use games to fulfill a craving (or needs) that they aren't designed to fulfill. That's the thought I've been working with nowadays, and it's making me WAY less critical (in the destructive way) and mad at games and everything else, really. I only get mad when it's a scam/fraud/imoral/illegal stuff.
Anyways, I'm writing all this because I see many people in the same situation. RL friends who think or are told they are 'addicts' (during compulsion), or 'nerds' (when being too critical), and have no idea what to think about themselves and all that.
This got a little deeper, sadder and off-topic than I wanted.
![Tongue :P](http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/Smileys/aaron/tongue.gif)