I’ve gotten into gaming more again by simply sticking with indie games. No more 100 hour boring open worlds.
There is Something about a simple two hour game about a guy and his girlfriend getting stuck in the woods fending off the mothman.
Recently been just playing cozy games I used to scoff at. So much I’ve not only played more games this summer than the last few year but felt great joy actually finishing a game. Sometimes short and sweet is best.
You’re not crazy, you just need to get away from 40 hour long open world chore games
I started liking games again by going back to long open world games
Arcade style games that give you a quick hit are what I miss. Things that drop you straight in the action and don’t let up.
I think some are making a bit of a come back on the Indy scene though.
I got back into gaming with “bullet hell” games like Vampire Survivor and 20 Minutes till Dawn. All action and no BS, but they do get repetitive after a while.
I recently started playing Diablo4 and that was pretty fun. I am trying to like Baulders Gate 3, but my patience for dialogue and wandering around is not what it used to be, and it never was that high to begin with. It is an impressive game though, which might help me stick with it.
Bro. Broforce
I started playing Ys origin again, such a simple fun game with instant action and feels good combat.
Yup. That’s me. I have to have games where it doesn’t rely on you logging on for a few hours a night, every night…. yeah sorry not gonna happen with a wife who doesn’t like video games and a 2 year old to entertain.
Same, but for me it’s because of the depression
Pretty sure I’m in the same boat. Literally nothing is enjoyable anymore and I have 0 motivation to do anything “productive” after work since it’s all just more work…
My friends must think im nuts when they see me bounce from game to game to game within 1-2 hours because nothing keeps my attention lol
This has been me the majority of the time since about 2020, which I chalk up to depression and more recently suspecting that I have ADHD (I know self-diagnosing isn’t cool, I intend to explore this more formally eventually, but I have many reasons for suspecting it in general). Sometimes it’s bad enough that if something doesn’t grab me in 5-15 minutes, I’ll bounce off to something else and probably repeat the cycle a few more times before giving up and doing something else instead.
I find that I can’t really play modern games at all anymore. They just feel like work and are more concerned with monetization rather than being enjoyable to play. Modern experiences feel so hollow to me now. I miss when the main draw of a multiplayer game was feeling your skills improve rather than spending 100+ hours to get some skin from grinding out a battlepass. It feels like a chore. I fell off of TOTK in May and apparently haven’t been too eager to return to it. I’ve been doing a decent job sticking with Mass Effect lately though. Helps that it runs perfectly on Steam Deck so I don’t always have to be on my PC. It’s my first time playing ME1, which helps. We’ll see if I can stick with it through 2 and 3, which I played many years ago.
This has also led to me drifting apart from many of the people who I previously considered to be my friends. Most of them barely leave the house anymore and only hang out and communicate on Discord, which I am barely on anymore due to my general lack of interest in games lately, my general disinterest in modern games specifically (which is all they play), and my disinterest in participating in more voice calls after being in Teams calls during the workday beforehand. They also have significantly more free time than I do due to almost all of them being single, so the rare times I have tried to play anything progress-based with them has been a bust because I inevitably fall behind. It’s unfortunate to drift apart like that, but it took longer than it should have for me to realize that we probably weren’t actually that close if me losing interest in games is all it took for them to cut me out. Oh well.
I know, self diagnosing isn’t cool
It’s cool and useful as a starting point. The main thing is to be authentic and say it the way you said it: That you suspect it.
I know a few people on the suspectrum, and it’s fine as long as you don’t try and claim that you most definitely have the thing and that your self diagnosis is valid/means you should have access to healthcare/etc.
Thanks, I appreciate your perspective, and I’m glad to hear that I’ve been handling the communication aspect of it properly - I’ve never used my suspicion as an excuse or justification of anything, so far I have just told a few trusted people that I suspect I have it, basically like I said here.
I have experienced several financial rough patches in the past year (job loss due to my employer shutting down, for example), but now that things have seemingly stabilized, I hope to begin pursuing a formal diagnosis soon, and I look forward to doing so! Thanks again.
Need a different hobby. Electric unicycling is great for this.
Yup, that flame died out a long time ago.
Depression is a bitch.
And age :(
Now I only have game sessions that last for about 10+ minutes and only about 3 times per day at most.
My enjoyment in gaming has died out a few months ago and I have only been working for one year(23yo). My friends are still trying to get me back to Valorant and I’m having trouble explaining I have so many other important things that I need to do other than grinding Valorant. I just don’t have the time to improve my skill at that game because it requires so many hours and so many of those hours could give me a good coding project for my portfolio which would improve my job prospects. I do enjoy coding but coding all day outside of work is turning me into a robot.
Screw this capitalism society.
Honestly I’ve always hated any online coop / multiplayer game unless it had a significant single player aspect to it.
Multiplayer games are more like work, they aren’t just for enjoyment.
That’s quite true actually. I’ve had way more enjoyment playing singleplayer games than multiplayer games(unless they are casual coop like Stardew and the like) nowadays.
I still like fps but it requires too much effort.
Single player with cheats is where it’s at. Sometimes I like challenge in my games and with some games it’s the challenge that gives it flavor, like some wargames. But if it’s just a game where you play for some story or it’s about building stuff, give me Creative mode.
Also, “cheating” as long as everyone is in on it in multiplayer is fun. Of course trashing public lobbies with aimbots in CoD is just stupid, but playing a coop game like Raft or Payday with a friend and having the option of just turning off some of the difficulty elements so that you can focus on what makes it fun for you is awesome.
I’m a bit iffed by Payday 3 having some super strong anticheat that also kills mods. I’m not big on public lobbies anyways, why can’t I just give my money for the developer, get a game and play how I like it? Anticheat for public lobbies makes sense. But please let me turn it off for me and my mate who just want to have fun and are both in on it.
Lol, meanwhile my friends all want to play hard mode on Minecraft so they don’t play cheats lmao.
I stopped playing online competitive games a while back, the last ones were overwatch (1) and dota. Now I almost only play solo games and I have a lot of fun. Currently 110+ hours in TOTK and I’m far from done with it. It’s a category that’s far from dead and there are any flavor that could fit your tastes.
The only online game I keep playing is MK8D because frustration never last long and there’s no ELO ranking to be obsessed with. Also Splatoon once in a while.
Competitive games ruin the mood a lot for me. I know it differs from person to person, but as a person who usually takes games seriously it’s hard for me not to care about my skill within the game. It took me a pretty long period to stay away from competitive/skill-based gaming(fps and rhythm games) to be able to treat games as a casual thing.
I play val exclusively socially. Grab a couple friends and play a couple spike rushes or swift plays. Just hope on to chat to strangers in VC basically.
I have friends who want to play comp so that’s part of the reason why I stopped 🥹
Don’t fight it. Just find another hobby that deserves your time and move on with your life. Games haven’t been truly good for a long time. Unless you’re a Twitch streamer or an esports athlete, games shouldn’t be drudgery. “But it gets better after 10 hours,” “you have to get to the endgame before you’re really playing the game,” “you can’t say you’ve played the game unless you did 3+ runs,” “AAA games suck but indies are still good” Man, shut the fuck up, I’m too old for that shit.
If you want to capture the excitement of how you felt when you first played videogames as a child, find a different hobby. Seriously, find a hobby that’s completely out of left field. Gardening, fixing mechanical watches, backyard astronomy, raising an ant farm, croqueting, kayaking, trainspotting. You don’t have to be that aging nerd who constantly malds at how modern videogames suck while continuing to fall for nostalgia bait that’ll always fall below your expectations.
Games haven’t been truly good for a long time
Meanwhile, here I am loving gaming and thinking we’re in a golden age of gaming compared to my youth…
Or just engage in moderation like every other medium, it’s weird to me that playing videogames is automatically supposed to be a “hobby” but the same doesn’t apply to watching movies or reading books or whatever.
Couldn’t agree more. And even thought I hardly play games anymore, that actually makes them all the more special when I’m excited about a game and play it. It’s rare nowadays, but games like celeste or a short hike were really wonderful. Other than gems that really speak to you though, you really should find another hobby.
Agreed. My most recent binge was Stray, and before that it was The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening on the switch lmao
I don’t really play games but I absolutely eat up From Software games every time one comes out
Baldurs Gate 3 is the cure for me. It probably also helps that I haven’t played that type of game in ages.
Exactly, its not that I’m not interested in gaming anymore. It’s that none of the games released recently are worth playing.
In an endless sea of call of dooty clones and other derivative drek finding something decent has become hard. I want new ip damn it, not yet another remake or sequel.
Exactly. So sick of all the remakes and crappy sequels.
My time is currently split between Battlebit and Baldurs Gate 3. I’ve been having a blast with both!
Honestly I have less and less love for videogames that streamlined the gameplay into a cookie cutter trope.
I noticed having way more fun when playing indie games because you never escape the wierd shit develloped industry free from the general gamplay loops.
Use to do 10-15 hours on a free day. Now I have a hard time doing 1-2 without having to take a break.
Stop playing for a while and the love might come back (was like that for me).
I started feeling this way especially with the intro of micro transactions in games like Cod. Went back to play older games I’ve said I wanted to play at some point which has kept the flame lit.
Between the worsening monetization and the endless reboot bullshit (where older games are sort of erased by directly reusing their names) I am no longer interested in TRIPLE AYYYY games.
Games (mostly MMO) feel like chores to me now, sometimes it even like a second job. Grinding the same task for hours, go there, do this, kill that.
I stopped reading for maybe a decade when I started post-secondary education. I tried books during that time but it wasn’t until finding an author that resonated with me that the interest picked up again. I still mostly only read that author now but I try other authors in between.
Same with video games. I will slowdown or stop for a while but eventually pick it back up again when the right thing comes along.
but eventually pick it back up again when the right thing comes along.
And when the time is right in your life; which is what people really don’t understand until they experience it.
Yeah, same. I’ll go months without reading and then consume 40 books in a month before taking another break. Same with video games. #adhd is real for me, always.
I have recently gone back to Fallout New Vegas and I have been sinking tons of time into it exploring. It has reignited my love for single player games :)
from what ive heard trying different genres might help
I think I’ve been feeling this lately. I’ve always been a huge fan of semi-RPGs and open world games, but there really haven’t been many great ones in a long time (tried Elden Ring, needs difficulty slider).
I’m realizing I should probably branch out into something new, but I don’t even know where to start. I don’t tend to care for turn-based games, and fighting games aren’t my thing because of how long it can take to get decent at them.
Anyone have any recommendations for games that you don’t have to invest too much time into to really enjoy? I just don’t have the time in my life for a crazy investment and focus in a game.
To be fair, Elden Rings difficulty slider is the same as any other RPG… going off and doing other stuff for a bit until you’re OP for the part giving you trouble.
Also summoning people (or even the seamless coop mod that allows coop all the time everywhere) that’s also an effective difficulty slider.
I’ve had very little time to make an investment in gaming lately (not bad, just no time) but what I’ve found are emulators for old retro games and that has filled the itch quite nicely…the bonus is that if you put it down and walk away it’s not as hard on your soul (less guild about spending money or time). plus games are easy to pick up and put down.
Until you end up like me; spending more time messing with the emulator than playing, just to see how good you can get stuff looking and what other cool stuff they can do.
still a win!
This was me, until I discovered Super Tux Kart a few months ago. I play at least 2 hours a day of that game.
