Enjoy

Have to say, the steamdeck has been great for this.
Pick up exactly where you left off, press the sleep button to pause exactly where you are. I tend to play on story mode now because I don't have time to grind and just want to experience the game.
Sits beside the bed so once the kids have been put to bed and if there's down time it's pick up and go.

I was able to retain time and money for gaming and other hobbies by having a vasectomy.
Edit: Typo
- Yeah, I had plenty of time and money for gaming and other hobbies before having little mischievous halflings. Now at least two thirds of my free time goes into them instead of me. Would I love more me time, absolutely. But I also love them and I feel incredibly privileged to have the time that I can spend on them and I can't fathom not wanting to spend time with them.
  But this is more about letting potential future parents know that children are a fucking huge commitment and you better have your own life sorted because you won't have time to fix your shit later. Kids are post-campaign content. You finish your main story and then if you're looking for some challenging content, you get kids. Don't get kids during your main story because then they become your main story.
  
  Referring to kids, quite aptly, as "post-campaign content" /chefskiss
- Yup, there's plenty of time to have fun if you don't have to manage lil' ones. Not saying people who want kids shouldn't get them, but moreso that people who don't necessarily want them and just see it as something people have to do should consider a childless lifestyle. It's better for everyone that way.
  
  Same. I would love to see a global societal shift towards viewing not having children as a perfectly normal thing to do.

I can't be the only one whose parents strictly limited video games and who plays way more video games as an adult.
- Same here lol
- Representing. My top 3 steam games are over 2k hours each with plenty more above 1k.
- I destroyed online MW2 for endless hours back in the day but now I can get about an hour of AC Odyssey in before my thumbs go numb and start to hurt from carpal tunnel. I might have to go back to PC gaming

Nah. That's nonsense.
A career? Fuck that noise, statistically you will never make enough to make the effort worth it, get a job that offers you what you need and doesn't demand more bullshit from you (although i understand some places just won't let this happen). Family? Frankly i think having kids is a mistake regardless, but once they are old enough you shouldn't be a helicopter parent anyway. A partner? Good partners let you have some time for yourself and your hobbies (and that goes both ways!).

I haven't played a game for more than 30 minutes in years.
Once you have a big boy job, responsibilities, and a family (if you choose to do so) game time ends up being really low on the list of priorities.
I'm sure many will disagree, but you just can't devote time to such things once you are an adult. You have to outgrow such indulgences or life will smack you in the dick. If your car is broken, the dishwasher is being an asshole, you need to refinance, the kids have music lessons, the dog is old and needs to go to the vet (again), your mom needs someone to replace her hose faucet, you just can't sit around dicking around with a game.
- I respect that, but at the same time, if you don't make time for leisure, 30 years will disappear down the drain in a blink of an eye. Nobody is going to make that space for you; you have to advocate for yourself.
  
  This. I lost 7 years to a well payed job I needed due to financial mistakes I’m still recovering from. My new job pays about 25% less but even then I’m down to 25 more month until I’m done. I don’t remember anything of those 7 years except when covid hit and I got super depressed, and that one time I was dating this girl for 3 months and I willingly made time for her, like taking a 4 hour walk or urbexing for a day. Now I’m back at doing nothing but work and housework, cook dinner and being "forced" to spend the evening watching movies… longest time in the last 2 years was a 3 month job training, felt like a whole year.
  Get out, do something, get new experiences. Make time for that.
- I just play games with my kids, there’s no reason why you need to stop. It’s like saying you don’t have 30 minutes to read, yeah, of course you fucking do.
- The real issue here is actually just your opinion of games. You consider games to be “sit around dick around” time wasters.
  If that’s all it is to you then yeah you’ll naturally find yourself moving on as basically anything else will be more fulfilling.
  Games to me are a form of art which have the power to change lives. A medium I’ve been continuing to develop an appreciation for my entire life, alongside other pursuits such as music. As life gets hectic into adulthood I’ve found that games are far more meaningful to me now than ever before.
  And I’m not sitting around looking for time to kill. I make time to play because of how restorative and life affirming it is. Games like Citizen Sleeper, Spiritfarer, Outer Wilds, To The Moon, Slay the Princess, Hollow Knight, Eastward, Arctic Eggs. Some experiences stay with you forever, expand the depth of your empathy, and steer your heart towards kindness.
  I don’t know what’s gonna happen to you if you try to crank out endless rounds of Call of Duty to the point where it interferes with you taking your dog to the vet. But I’m 100% certain all working adults would benefit from engaging with meaningful art regularly. Be it games, books, film, etc. Whatever strikes you.
  
  I switched to books. Portable, cheap, can start/stop any time. Can read in down moments, can listen on long car rides.
  I started playing Outer Wilds. I just don't have the time to prioritize it to the point where I can enjoy it.
- It's absolutely possible to balance all of what you've mentioned with a bit of time for yourself. Less than when you're younger, yes, but you can make time for yourself. In fact, I'd say it's the wiser route since it fights general burn out, which is all too easy to fall into given how long that list of responsibilities can be.
  I've heard some say they prefer to do something less interactive with the downtime they have, which I competely respect, but saying you can't devote time to personal hobbies as an adult simply isn't true. It just takes more concious effort
- This is complete BS. Think of the traditional cliches of dad puttering around in the garage, watching the game on TV, going on a fishing trip - is anyone questioning how he has time to do these things? When a hobby is worthwhile to you, you make time for it. This just reveals your bias that playing video games is not a worthy way of spending leisure time, which is a super boomer take. The average age of people who play video games is 36.
- Retirement is amazing. Game time anytime.
- While I definitely have less time for things like that, I still find time to play some games usually by giving up a little sleep and playing after the kids are asleep and tons of chores have been done. I can't imagine that you still don't need some downtime, you can't just be "on" all the time without it heavily affecting your mental health. I hope that you have simply found other pursuits that do that for you.

"Then buy me this game"
"No"

The thing I wasn’t prepared for was not the lack of time, it was the lack of desire to play games.

Not sure if adulthood or chronic depression.
Not sure there's a difference.

Adulthood is fine, I've got plenty of free time for gaming. It's parenthood that's the time sink.

I started playing Wind Waker in February and finished it in the middle of June, took me 50hs to finished it, so barely 10hr per month. Is the only game I played. And I don't even have kids.
- That's pretty good

I see where you’re coming from but idk if I agree.
Gaming has been one of the few consumer hobbies that has improved over the last few decades.
Sure, companies are greedy, but just like music, we are living in a golden age of access, such a huge library is available and no more console exclusives. A steam deck will give you generations of content.
Gaming is also a lot more accepted as an adult now. And honestly, so much of everyone’s time is spent on a phone that it’s pretty easy to replace that with a handheld that goes on standby instantly.
I think your talking about abundance of free time, which yeah I agree adulthood has no mercy for, but ironically gaming is one of the most effective hobbies if you have little time.

I think for me it’s a combination of the “time” people are mentioning, but also boredom. When you’re younger, everything is new. When you’re older you start noticing the repeating patterns in media. It’s the reason I also stopped watching anime. If I play a game now, it has to really be something that new that will hold my attention, outside of a couple of franchises. Outer Wilds for example, blew my mind.

Carpal tunnel is a removed
- You know, I must have a skeleton of above average quality. I type on a normal keyboard with some bad habits and have done so since I was a teenager. You'd think I'd have carpal tunnel syndrome from wrist to ankle by now but no I'm in good shape.
  
  Mine went away almost entirely when I switched from mouse to rollerball, but I do still get something similarly unpleasant when I play PS4 for too long

I was broken from the start, but also lucky enough to be born in a country that gives me the help and time to find what's wrong and fix it without asking for anything back. Because my road to be able to work has been, is and will be long I have so much time to enjoy what I can (within the bounties of my illness) and games are a big part of that. Gaming has helped me so much, and I wouldn't trade my unthinkable amount of hours exploring these cool worlds for anything else.