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WSPN’s Jeffery Zhang reflects on why video games aren’t as fun as they used to be.

The lights are dimmed except for the flashing screen in front of me. My eyes are glued to the screen, analyzing every move the cartoony character makes on the monitor. My headphones blast poorly-made gunshot sounds, and in the background, my friends are shouting at each other over whose character died first. My character is pelted with bullets, and within seconds, the bright green health bar in the bottom right drains, and a bolded word, “Eliminated,” spans across the screen. In the blink of an eye, my friends are arguing again about why we lost, and we all simultaneously click the blue “Ready up” button to start another game.

Those boisterous nights of playing video games have made up my childhood memories, but playing video games now has just become a dull activity to pass time. It’s no longer fun or engaging. People who were once avid gamers share the same feeling that now, video games lack the spark of joy and excitement they once brought so many young gamers across the globe. What changed?

To start, many of us aren’t playing the same video games we did when we were younger. As we grew up, we changed, and so did the games. I remember being engrossed in the endless possibilities of Minecraft. From building to exploring, my thirst for exhilarating, action-packed adventures was quenched by a block game with patchy art. For a 6 year old with more than enough time on his hands and an insatiable curiosity, this game was the culmination of everything I had dreamed about. I watched countless hours of building tutorials and spent my free time replicating them in the game. But, as the years went by, I needed something I could play with friends, and that’s when I discovered Fortnite.

Fortnite was the first game I fell in love with, but also the last video game I’ve truly enjoyed. This cartoon shooter game combined a building aspect with a battle royale shooter genre that took over the video game scene. Within a year after its release, Fortnite had gained over 80 million registered users. It was, and arguably still is, the most popular video game, and for good reason. The battle-royale aspect of the game not only makes the game chaotic and action-filled, but it makes it competitive and creates countless different unique strategies of winning. In addition, the option to play in a squad with your friends on Xbox established many friendships. Fortnite’s colorful and dazzling arena made it seem like I was fighting in a Disney wonderland and breathed a playful vibe into a more gloomy world of shooter games. But, as more and more video games are released, it seems as though none of them have the same spark that Fortnite had. Why is that?

You might think the games that developers have been releasing lately are boring and uninteresting to play. I admit that the unlimited creativity that was possible in games like Minecraft or the action and team-based play of Fortnite might be hard to match. However, I assure you that although some of the problem lies in the games nowadays, most of it lies with you.

We are not the same people we were when we were young. When we were young, we sought short-term exhilaration, something that could hold our attention. From the ages of six to 12, the only thing on my mind was what to do with my favorite video games. Now, there’s more for us to think about. We’ve matured, and we are no longer kids. Soon enough, we’ll be in college, paying taxes and doing the thing that’s most important to us. I’ve grown out of these blocky and cartoony video games because they were made for an audience that had not a care in the world and an unlimited curiosity.

Sure, I’ll play Fortnite every once in a while with friends, but it’s not as fun anymore. This entire time that we’ve reminisced about the games from our childhood, it was never the games that we longed for. The whole joy behind playing video games was the memories we made with friends as we played those games. Those seemingly endless nights of shouting and cheering, of adrenaline-filled, action-packed chaos are what we wish for. It was never the fact that the games changed, it’s the fact that we changed. We grew up.

It’s okay to grow up. In fact, it’s great. There are so many things to explore in life that we’ve never even imagined. All of the things you might have accomplished in games, you can accomplish in real life. The memories that you made while playing your favorite games will never go away. However, as old as you are, you will always remember the joy you experienced while playing your favorite video games.