In the past, I've had stretches of maybe a few weeks, a month or so tops, where I haven't gamed much or at all - but as of right now it's been several months since I've done any gaming.  I did convert my main machine to Linux a month or so ago, and did test some games under it, but it was just testing; I didn't play.

Why?  Well, as you can see, we've taken a lot of road trips so far this year, and that's been extremely fun and exciting.  There's also the brewing we've been doing, and brewing/beer education when we're not brewing, plus the food stuff (the chicken group, etc) and just other stuff that happily takes up my time, so gaming just hasn't been on my mind.

Another reason is that the games themselves and the way they are played have changed a lot.  I don't mind the focus on easier content ala WoW and the rest.  I do mind the evaporation of community, though.  Unless you have a large guild of friends, you don't get much "community experience" in most MMOs nowadays.  It was normal to have open conversations in pick-up dungeon groups or zone-wide chat back in earlier days.  Now, not so much.  A RDF group in WoW is silent.  Zone chat is nothing but Chuck Norris jokes and [Anal] links.  And it's not just WoW - that's just an easy example.  Ah well, things change!

I still follow the industry in a general way via Twitter and blogs and such, but I haven't had the desire, much less the time, to actually play anything.

It may be that I'll take up single player games, which can be taken in much smaller doses, instead of MMO gaming in the future.  Lizz has always enjoyed watching the more "cinematic" games as I play them - Dragon Age, Bioshock, and the like.  That may end up being a good winter pasttime when we have to hole up inside much of the time.

So, have I retired from MMO gaming after nearly 14 years?  I don't know.  If I ever get a desire to play heavily again and the time to do so, I may pick something up.  For now though, both the time and the desire to invest that much in a game are just not there.