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
Need a different hobby. Electric unicycling is great for this.
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.
Best of luck getting diagnosed! I know in a lot of places it can be tricky. For me my GP did it for my ADHD, apparently it was that clear and obvious.
Yup, that flame died out a long time ago.
Depression is a bitch.
And age :(
I’ve gotten into gaming more again by simply sticking with indie games. No more 100 hour boring open worlds.
Ok going through this now.
I never thought it’d be like this though. I thought that video game would literally stop being fun. Like I’d grow out of them or something and not find them enjoyable anymore.
But that’s not it. They are still fun and enjoyable. What I didn’t expect was that my mind would be so full of responsibilities that it would just be impossible to enjoy video games. As if there just isn’t enough room in my brain.
I’m sitting there trying to play but I’m just thinking about all the things I need to do tomorrow. Or this week. Or this month.
There is just too much to think about that I can no longer enjoy not thinking.
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What platform are you playing BG3 on? I was thinking about trying it.
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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.
Games (mostly MMO) feel like chores to me now, sometimes it even like a second job. Grinding the same endless tasks for hours, go there, do this, kill that.
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.
My enjoyment of games didn’t die, but my tastes in genre changes. Online FPS just isn’t for me anymore, I now prefer slower single-player story games
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.
This isn’t unique to video games*. It can happen with anything that you spend a ton of time on, and either burn out on or start to develop more refined taste in. I’ve had it happen with:
- novels
- board games
- movies
- people
You start to see patterns, tropes, or just plain get burnt out on something. It’s a sign you either need to take a break, or that your tastes have simply become refined enough that you require a higher bar to find something interesting.
I’m in my 40s and definitely don’t play games as much as I used to. But there are still times I get sucked in and have a great time. Most recent example: Cosmoteer, a spaceship building game with loads of freedom and creativity. I’m also looking forward to the Factorio DLC and the Dyson Sphere Program combat update.
Edit: case in point that I can still get excited about games: I finally tried Shadows of Doubt and, wow, what an interesting game. It’s like a Deus Ex shadowy sneak-around world with detailed voxel simulation.
* though the enshittification phenomenon is a real thing, and why people should play more indie games
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.
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.
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!
But messing with that stuff is fun right?
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 :)
I play different games is the big difference. Lots of singleplayer of various genres. I really like engineering games, colony builders and RPGs.
Do you have any recommendations of good engineering games ?
Factorio comes to mind. More of a factory builder, but I’d describe the gameplay as being a lot more about designing stuff and figuring out good solutions. If you have ever felt a slight bit of achievement after getting something to work in a programming language or some engineering discipline, this game will be like crack for you! And I do mean that literally. I spent 50hrs within a few weeks on it, loved it, couldn’t stop thinking about it, felt like it was better than socializing and then realized that it took me months or years to get to the same playtime in any other game I own!
My favourite for the last few years has been Stormworks. It lets you build a lot of various vehicles with a lot of creative freedom. You can use out of the box controls, get a bit more advanced with the in-game microcontroller editor or go even further with lua scripting. I dove in blind and love it. Then there’s transport, logistics, rescue, research etc. missions to complete.
Others I have played before are Scrap Mechanic and Besiege which are a lot more lightweight and easy to get into, but with less advanced building possibilities.
Oh, a fellow stormworks enjoyer !
There’s dozens of us!
We should make a community !
Play some games completely different from what you’re used to.