Growing Up

As we grow older, we become less disillusioned with life. Many things lose their "special" place as we become accustomed to them as being normality. Normality is not special, as it occurs frequently if not all the time.

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During our growth, more things in our life are left behind, unfinished/ or going against our plans: unreached goals, unrealized accomplishments, dreams unfulfilled, passing of loved ones, ending of relationships, etc. These real experiences may sometimes take a toll on an individual. Other times they remain as experiences, that again nullify the “magic” behind something new. As more experiences are lived through, it feels as though there are fewer possibilities for something new and exciting.

Children explore asking many questions trying to familiarize themselves with the world and how it works. Their joy is in discovery, and often games allow them to exist within another realm – that will be initially new and interesting to them. Younger children receive joy from exploring and discovering what their bodies and their worlds do. As you grow up, this changes. Around the ages surrounding puberty, interests shift from exploring to – ‘how relationships function?’ Finally, in adulthood majority of the time, we don’t find as much fun in “let’s see what happens” playing. It is expected that by adulthood, people are very familiar with their environment – so they can survive within it. Games become tools for potential stress relief instead of exploration and the core principle of “play”.

Additionally, as we grow older, our priorities change. When adulthood begins, we are quickly introduced to many new concepts that cause a lot of stress (such as working, paying bills, etc). For that reason, gaming or playing games becomes distant and only a “spare time” activity. Games can still be seen as fun; however, the priority is survival for that reason there is less of a feeling of fun as the adult brain is too concerned regarding adult topics.