A person’s “golden years” are generally assumed to be their retirement years. A person lucky enough to retire in their 60’s generally has plenty of time to enjoy life without the pressures of raising children or working. I look back on my years between the ages of 14 and 23 as the “golden years of gaming.” Being in school and mostly supported by my parents (I lived at home for 2 years after college so I could save to buy my own home) afforded me 30 to 50 hours per week for gaming.

Needless to say, the pressures of work, home ownership, social life, and having a girlfriend cut into my gaming time to the point where I no longer consider myself a hardcore gamer. This doesn’t mean, however, that I have to abandon the hobby. Here are some “rules” I’ve set down to make sure I don’t feel pressure to spend an inordinate amount of time gaming.

1. No MMORPGS. Period. Having played Ultima Online during its peak years I feel that I’m pretty much done with MMORPGs. I just don’t have time.
2. Play Upper-Tier Titles ONLY. God of War, Zelda, Half Life 2, etc. Games that overwhelmingly receive glowing reviews are the only ones I’ll play. This allows me to play games the way I like to play them i.e. going through slowly and getting all of the hidden goodies. Elder Scrolls IV consumed well over 70 hours as did Final Fantasy XII but I felt it was worth it. When I get an Xbox 360 I’ll play Gears of War but not Lost Planet. The latter got good reviews but not great.
3. Three Platforms at a time. I’ll be breaking this rule later this year when I have my 360, Wii, PS2, and PC all hooked up at the same time. When I finish God of War 2 I’ll retire the PS2. Yes, this means I’ll probably never buy a PS3.
4. If a game sucks or is overly frustrating: stop playing it. This one stings sometimes, as I hate feeling like I’m out 50 bucks (see rule #5.) Sometimes a game just gets too goddamnned frustrating at the end and I’ll put it away. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was an example. It’s a great game…not too challenging but not too easy either (if you have a Gamecube or Wii I highly recommend it.) At the end though there was one last step-and-fetch quest that was long enough to make me cringe. My girlfriend finished the game on her own save file.
5. Don’t pirate games. If I were downloading games like a maniac from usenet or bittorrent I might feel the need to play games that I normally wouldn’t. I buy all of the games I play.
6. No Beta Tests, no demos. Call me when the game comes out. Tempting as it is to play a game before the public gets it, I decided I just don’t have time to squash bugs for some game company for free.