What prevents you from gaming more often?

beyond time constraints. people keep asking me to join them in the newest games, telling me how great the game is. when i watch game play all i see is same shit different skin. it seems there needs to be a new different game for my interest to be held. when the open world survival was created like dayz and ark and the like, it was glorious. the first few mmorpg's were an insane new level of role playing. i shit my pants first time i played doom or quake, cant remember witch i played first, then duke. i need a truly new style game that doesnt emulate the work i do/did in real life.
i keep chasing that dragon but strapping a tv to your face seems to be the next big step in gaming and ill be dead before it stops being janky.
at least im am massing a great library to pass on the the grand-whatevers, full of a bunch of my old faves. make sure your steam password is in your will, or written where a person will find it so the digital industry doesnt reclaim what you payed for. now im wondering the logistics of keeping a 100year old steam account active, another topic for another day.

I would say games being too expensive is definitely a reason, but I usually not in the mood to play certain games. Although I do gaming a lot, because I have no life, but many occasion I just do gaming related stuffs such as watching let's plays, streams, etc..
Also I play those games that requires your daily engagement and after a certain time I do burn myself out of those, than it just stressing me.
I do fall really deep into certain games for 2-3 weeks, but after that I burn myself out from those as well.

Also I do try to finnish games I have on steam/gog/epic, but it really hard to find motivation and time for them when you play those games that requires you to do daily quest and all. I always decide to gave up those kind of games, but then after some time I always get lurred back into them.

I used to play a lot, but after russia invaded my homeland I can't relax enough to enjoy games anymore, as I used to.
Recently my PC's PowerSuply burned after one of the emergency electricity shut downs which are happening due to russia's bombings with rockets and Iranian drones on Ukraine's infrastructure. So I can't play anymore at all, at least for some time,

Before all that, in my previous life,,, I had bad PC and there are not enough free time for everything and you have to prioritize other activities to have a healthy and balanced life,
Also, games are really expensive sometimes, especially new releases,
So, like, it seems almost everything is a problem..? D:

Got the time, the games, upgraded my pc.
It's just general depression keeping me from playing as much as I want. Can't concentrate or loose interest way to fast

Hopefully there are more incentives for people to play the game. bump

putin is a dick. should be an option seeing how it effects so many lives.

Just the necessity to work and sleep, nothing else (and my job is rarely time-consuming). I play way too much as it is, but these days I don't even blame myself for this, it's a pretty effective antidepressent (combined with pills, of course).

Crippling depression.

For me its a mix of a bunch of the pool answers and CGs number 2.
But another one as well, wich i call 'decision paralysis'. Its a bit like people wasting time on netflix choosing. Besides the limited free time, when i do have it i often take too long deciding on what to play...
...i also cant help but start playing a bunch of titles at once- i know all or most of then are games i would play all the way through, but my mood is weird- sometimes i dont get hooked by a genre or style (as i tought i would or have in the past), then months later im addicted to it.
When i first started noticing that years ago i was afraid my tastes had changed until i learned its a mood thing (i think, i dont know how to best describe it). Sometimes i know exactly what kind of thing i want but sadly most often i dont- so start a bunch of games until one click for the moment... then i later repeat it all until another one clicks. Its weird

For example i love the commandos series so i was hyped when i got shadow tactics blade of the shogun a few years ago... but at the time i wasnt getting into the headspace for the slow pace or real-time... now i am, and got desperados 3 and im having a blast with both

I also suffer with losing the mood, concentration etc- sometimes real life banging on my door or phone, stressing me out so it takes me out of the 'me time' of playing... but also PC gaming. My setup isnt best and i got disapointed in getting an amd gpu- its a great gpu when everything aligns, but too often something with the drivers and or a particular game and settings dont mesh, i need to change something and there i am troubleshooting instead of playing (and loosing my temper because of it)... sadly i cant afford to change anytime in the foreseeable future

Generally I need to diversify my hobbies, I'm already not using my "gaming time" too well.

Just upgraded but I simply already own all the games I like or they aren't released yet.

My depression and the fact that I constantly feel exhausted makes it hard to start a game let alone continue or actually enjoy it.
I did play some games last 2 months but those were all these cheap games that you finish in less than 1 hour which is basically almost mindless clicking, not that I didn't enjoy it, for as far as I can enjoy gaming, but it felt more like filling time so the day went faster than 'yay a fun game!' kind of thing, not sure if I explain it right...

Work. I have boatloads of money now but little free time.

Though, I still think this is way better compared to no money and lots of free time

For that reason I usually spend my time with other hobbies at the moment.

What are your other hobbies?

I voted "I prioritize other activities.", but let's be totally honest, I would play more games if I wasn't replaying my favourites over and over. (I just bought the Portal Companion on the Switch, for example!)

2 great kids, 2 jobs and a home under refurbishment leaves barely any time now. But kids grow, we can play more together sooner or later. I will have more free time to play after have our home redone. At least these are the things I'm telling to myself. I have great games I still need this time to be carved out of somewhere. Fingers crossed I will get there.

nothings prevents me, but a new gpu could really help me to want to play more

Free time is the clear victor in the poll, but for me, it's not that I don't have free time exactly. My problem is I want to do too many things, including hang out with my wife, who is not as much of a gamer (competitive or not) as I am. I end up quitting a game 2 hours early to spend time watching a movie with her or to get to bed early enough to help her with morning chores. I still get in 15-20 hours of gaming each week, but that's casual by my standards.

Depression like many others in this thread.

Chronic Depression that's already lasted more than five years and saps any energy and desire to do things (any things) I might have. I basically have to force myself to play games through a combination of guilt ("I promised I'd play this for X", X being an event/group/person-who-gifted-the-game-to-me-and-couldn't-care-less-when-or-if-I-play-it-but-I-have-higher-standards-than-that-and-imagine-that-they-actually-do-care) and OCD ("I'm a achievement hunter, therefore I achievement hunt."). That doesn't necessarily mean that I don't like games since I have to force myself to do anything (even as I write this I'm trying to force myself to take a shower, which I hate doing and have been putting off for over a week).

But since that falls cleanly under "Other" let's see to what extend the existing options apply or don't apply to me (cough totally not procrastinating about that "shower" thing cough):

• "Games are too expensive." - They really aren't. Or at least the ones I care about aren't. Yeah most """AAA""" games are ludicrously overpriced but they're also not worthy of any attention. I (and I'm sure the majority of SG) have more than enough games in my library which are just as good or better to last me a lifetime. There is really no point in engaging with the overpriced games at all. And even if it's some franchise I'm too "into" to ignore, I can always wait. "75% off and less than 7 euro or no deal" is kinda like a motto for me (which I've been breaking a lot lately for giveaways, but it was for games much more deserving than anything """AAA""").

• "I need to upgrade my PC." - I mean... yeah. I guess there's that too. I am always worried if I can run or not run anything too "shiny" looking since my laptop is over 10 years old at this point (some of its covering is starting to crumble off... O_o ). It's still a gaming laptop so it can handle most things... they just need to actually be optimized and that is apparently optional for a lot of developers nowadays. But, whatever, a new laptop would be wasted on me and would be so prohibitively expensive that I wouldn't have any more leftover funds for giveaways, and that is unacceptable. I'd rather spend what I have trying to make other happy (even if I don't feel anything... not sure what "happiness" is anymore) than waste them on something that I'm not even sure is actually necessary... <.<

• "I can't find an interesting game to play." - Definitely can. I've got so many games I'm interested in playing (in my Steam Library or otherwise) that "Which ones first?!" becomes a major issue on its own. Guess you could say I'm spoiled for choice in that regard... If only I had the energy to actually play stuff consistently... T.T

• "Not enough free time." - Oh, nah, I have all the "free" time. I don't exactly have anything else to do... I mean, everything is pointless and not worth doing so I don't have anything to do in general. That said, I won't deny that one of the reasons I refuse to "get a job" (other than it being as pointless as everything else) is because it would sap all of my time and remaining energy to the point where I can't play games at all anymore and that eliminates the one single "reason" people try to use to convince me to get a job in the first place... It's exactly what happened when I tried and it was torture...

• "I prioritize other activities." - "Other activities", lol.

...Uugh, why is that any time I answer a personal question it just ends up being a big depressive rant... I really should learn self-control and to just stay quiet about this stuff. <.<

Loadshedding in SA. Currently up to 10 hours per day without power as our State-owned provider cannot generate enough power without having to implement loadshedding. :(

Work lol, there is never enough time for games, not even mentioning backlog

For me, it's a cross between prioritizing other activities and not having enough free time. In a way, the first leads to the second. I do game, but I tend to stick with it more when I'm doing it with people, so a lot of time goes into World of Warships so I can play with a friend versus spending time by myself to knock out a game. I also spend a lot of time with family, friends, and church, and I have a 9-5 job that takes up time during the day that I could use for gaming. My backlog is the reason I joined Play a Game You Won on Steam Gifts events, but that is sometimes difficult with the little time I dedicate to gaming.

war

Health issues, mainly my hands. It has hamstrung me from playing certain genres of games too much/at all without causing a lot of pain. I have to be a lot more careful nowadays.

Games are no longer fun, so pornography is better