I'm in my late 20's and this is my first year since 2018 that I have not done adult recreational sports (softball and flag football) in the spring and summer. The reason for not doing them this year is because my wife and I had our first child and I did not have time to play like I usually do between work and the new child. I thought I would miss playing sports, but I really don't.

I loved sports as a kid, but playing adult sports the last few years really wore me down. I was always the captain and even the event organizer for one sport and I really liked it at first, but as the years went on I noticed it was tougher to really enjoy it. Getting people to come out each week was the biggest problem. Even people I knew personally would get super flaky and cancel hours before the game kicked off, often leaving us shorthanded. Then other teams were also a challenge. I lost my super competitive streak years ago so I really just want to have fun and get some exercise, but some people seem to be unable to accept anything short of a win and appear willing to do anything possible to improve their odds of a win including cheating or being abusive. This constant bickering of reminding opponents of the rules, only to then be accused of being rule police became very frustrating. Often I felt like my team would be very flexible to avoid conflict and it still didn't guarantee a smooth experience at all and there would still be unsportsmanlike conduct from the others. Our team wasn't always perfect either, but it was almost always the result of reacting to unfair treatment. We even had one team who mocked our female pitcher and made sexist comments. We complained to the league and the team was thrown out of the league immediately, but our pitcher was shaken heavily by the experience.

I have been heavily contemplating if I want to go back to adult rec sports, and I really struggle to justify it. I've been so much more at peace not playing and I find I enjoy more going to professional sports and just watching casually rather than playing myself. Adult sports just feel so different compared to playing when I was a kid where it was about having fun and making friends. Now it just feels like people are only interested in winning and dominating their opponent even if it's a meaningless game. Why do people do this? Should I just quit forever or should I give it another chance?

I've been having some thoughts lately that I would have believed crazy just a few years ago. I'm starting to think it might be time to move on from my PS5 and triple A gaming as a whole. I've had a PlayStation from the PS2 all the way to the latest generation of consoles. I remember fondly time spent roaming the lands of Fallout 4 or getting lost in the great Naughty Dog games Uncharted and the Last of Us. I was giddy beyond belief when Uncharted 4 came out in 2016 and after a recent replay it still holds up. I'm noticing as I'm getting older that gaming isn't providing me that same excitement like it used to, and I can't remember the last time I got lost in a game after Last of Us 2 came out.

I'm wondering if it's time to pawn the PS5 and move on.

I think the main motivation that is killing my drive is the direction the gaming industry is heading. I was a big Madden fan for alot of years, but now EA has effectively killed that franchise with their unwillingness to invest or inovate. Other games now feel like they are becoming like that and selling out to just get you locked into a subscription model with their game (gta online with their recent subscription comes to mind).

Recently I've been cutting out subscriptions in my life as I feel it is better to own rather than effectively rent media. Netflix and Spotify are now raising their prices and looking back, I could have just bought the movies I liked and found another way to stream tv. It's clear these companies just want to take the power away from you and keep you paying forever for the same content.

I look at my PlayStation and I just see a big subscription box. The games don't even do it for me much anymore. I've been finding the games that do excite me are the small indies like Firewatch in the past and Dredge which I have heard great things about. If I want to play indies, a PS5 feels like a bit of overkill for that. I could get my on my Switch and a laptop. Maybe even a steam deck would be a worthy trade in.

Anyway, I wanted to get others thoughts as it sort of depresses me to think about moving on from a system that I've had since childhood, but it also feel like it's time for a change.