For me, the attention span isn’t the problem. I have been going on DOS2 and Factorio benders over the last couple years. For me, it’s about making sure that I don’t have some niggling anxiety in the back of my mind ruining my concentration. Got chores done? Dinner prepped? Laundry done? Animals fed? Game time baybee.
The trick is to push through the anxiety and truly become a worthless pile of shit destroying kids in online shooters, running solely on off-brand Cola, microwave pizza and self-loathing
Ah, I see you’re a man of culture as well
Absolutely crush them into the ground.
On one hand, playing stuff like Minecraft with my kid is super rewarding.
But on the other… is it possible to learn this power?
This dude games.
Oh man, Factorio is the black hole that has absorbed the most hours of any game I’ve ever played. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it much in my youth, but it’s the perfect fit for me now!
Spot on. You have zero responsibilities at that age, except for maybe some homework and a few minimal chores. As an adult all you can think about is the endless todo list.
I’m 41 years old, and I can’t pay attention to video games for more than about half an hour.
Unless I’m smoking pot, in which case I can play video games all day.
Wake and bake then Path of Exile.
I find I focus even worse when I’m high, I just want to get up and do stuff, like stretch or exercise. I definitely didn’t do that when I was younger and smoked, so idk what’s changed.
deleted by creator
Shit. Really?
I didn’t realize it wasn’t really a thing people said anymore
Perhaps you select the wrong games. I kinda stopped gaming for some years. More than an hour was exhausting and most of the games are really boring. Then i rememberd how i loved transport Tycoon and got ottd again. Tanked LOTS of hours into that game. Half a year later i stumbled over factorio again. I bought it in beta and disliked it. Lots or ottd players followup with factorio, so i gave it another try and DAMN iam hooked. Played 60h in the last few weeks, mostly 1-2h hours per day. Its crazy.
skill issue
You just gotta find the right game. I discovered Satisfactory last year and had to uninstall it after a few eeks because I was staying up till 2am playing. I am 40.
The right game can cure depression
The right game can cause depression, because I have no impulse control and will shurk my responsibilities to play it.
Sigh. I do love me some satisfactory though.
Isn’t it less fun and more preying on the addictive aspects of gaming?
It’s kinda like life Sims, ala Harvest Moon. Give just enough time to finish out your day. Extend the need to progress by fluffing out interactions. Make there be lots of little progression increments.
It’s less good game and more preying on dopamine routines. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yb5CINrC5E I get games have similar feel good spikes. Like loot/number simulators which are mostly idle games with more effort for how easy they are. But min/Max Effiency games like many games that have day/night stamina cycles are just keying in on that dopamine rush on a filled day, which doesn’t feel different than loot box games in the end. My time at Sandrock was my last one that felt great for a bit then you realize so much is pointless fluff gated by time dumps for no reason than to increase their playtime metrics.
Thanks, that’s worth a look!
deleted by creator
I think for me a lot of games just don’t challenge me in a meaningful way anymore.
I’m the opposite. If it’s a story driven game, I don’t wanna die. If I do die, you better make sure I don’t have to repeat much. And you’d better make sure I don’t die twice in the same place.
Old style save anytime is much preferred to checkpoints, but I feel barely exist in AAA games anymore. I’ll put up with checkpoints if they are very frequent. If you make me repeat 30 mins I’ll probably just stop playing.
deleted by creator
Fuck yes, I’m not repeating the same fight sixty time so that I can balance the vague satisfaction of having defeated a video game boss with the fact that I’ve wasted three hours of my time. Also it completely brings me out of the world/story.
I’ve abandoned a fair number of such games.
I installed Civ 6, played one game on easy and uninstalled it because I knew what was going to happen if I went down this road.
Try Civ Revolution. It’s an older game but it holds up and you can do an entire campaign in less then 2 hours.
You’re like a pusher telling me “Don’t take heroin, here’s morphine instead” 😳
More like methadone? 😅
I feel the same way about Baldurs Gate 3, I’m only pushing 30 but after playing for less than 20 minutes I had a mini pre-intervention with myself like, “okay listen up you geek, remember staying up until 4am every night and surviving on popcorn chicken and coffee isn’t sustainable”
If retirement homes don’t have videogames when I’m old, I’ll lobby for voluntary euthanasia. Aging is a straight negative. Arguments about it making life meaningful are copium. I can have a meaningful life of gratitude without my body falling apart.
Also the fact that you feel like you should be more responsible and doing something else. That’s what eats away at me in the adulthood/fatherhood
deleted by creator
off topic kinda: op, what’s your favorite game platform (yes it can be arcade)
(disclaimer: I didn’t make this meme, but I do share the sentiment of rapidly losing focus/mental energy when gaming now.)
Favorite of all time? The SNES. It felt like the peak of 2d graphics before the slate got wiped clean for 3d, so we saw a ton of great games from devs that had been playing/creating 2d games for decades.
Favorite currently? PC. I have a switch, steam deck, and PS5 as well, but 99% of my playtime is on PC.
I was just saying this about the SNES to my SO last night, funny enough. GBA almost matches it, and for largely the same reason: experienced 2d devs, putting out their last hurrahs before the transition to ugly young 3d
Exactly! And don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of great indie 2d games out there now, but back in the SNES days, these were THE devs. You can tell the difference in polish from having been made by the biggest and best studios.
hmm 2 portable consoles and yet most time on pc. do you perhaps not go outside?
Are there more games out there or something?
well yes there’s gamestop and bestbuy
For…decades?
I had to go back and read up on the early history of video games. SNES came out in 1991, and yeah - looking at arcade games, Computer Space came out in 1971.
Video games are older than I realized.
Oh yeah, it all started with the arcades. There was a whole culture attached to it, and they were very popular.
I think it’s fascinating to learn about how the developers figured out how to do things back then, the limitations, scaling/distribution, and then the rapid arms race between customers and devs to make games harder and harder to beat. There was an excellent documentary about this on Netflix a few years ago, but I can’t remember the name off the top of my head.
This is how I felt until I played Valheim and BG3. I think my preferred genres have just shifted. I need something I can relax and play at my own pace. I use to only play competitive shooters, where I needed to be “on” the whole game. Now I can only play a shooter for about an hour before my mind starts to drift and I lose interest.
I am beginning to feel like I only play video games because it feels less lazy than watching tv.
It’s like I’ve just been doing it too long. I don’t even see the game anymore I just see “fetch quest” “grind” “xp rate tuned to encourage microtransactions”.
Even leveling up is like, why? To what end? To face a “harder” enemy, to level up, to face a harder enemy, to level up…
I can’t think of a game I want to play for even an hour.
Legit y’all I wish I didn’t feel like this. Should I take some time off from it or are there any games that aren’t just literally the same thing I’ve been playing since 1993?
I was feeling that way last year for a good 2 months or so, was seriously considering turning in some of my high end gear for cash and getting my streambox upgraded
Then Battlebit Remastered dropped and I realized I was just really wanting a good Battlefield-style shooter and there wasn’t one to scratch my itch
It’s started up again recently, and upon further reflection I’m in a driving game mood but all the ones out there RN are fucking oof
So maybe it’s the type/quality of the games you’re trying out that’s the issue
I think the type of game really makes a difference. Games with fetch quests, a laundry list of waypoints on a map, and tons of bland cutscenes in between simple gameplay put me to sleep now.
Challenging games keep me better occupied, because it’s fun to be solving a puzzle of some sort (even if that puzzle is “how to approach this boss”). Strategy and tactics are consistently fun for me too.
deleted by creator
FromSoft games are my absolute favorite. Seeing myself getting better and mastering a challenge is peak fun to me.
deleted by creator
I have a habit of playing those for a few days and then becoming so enraged I put it down for a year. I actually just picked PS3 Demon’s Souls to finally get platinum.
deleted by creator
Join the Factiorio cult
A cult I will shamelessly declare I am a member of!
Unfortunately the limitations of my pathetic meat suit mean I can only play factorio effectively for about 32hrs straight before needing to power down.
May I introduce: War Gaming :)
I think that’s the fault of games rather than me.
A lot of games are the same generic open world bollocks and it’s honestly just exhausting.
I’ve put over 400 hours into vanilla terraria and recently started the calamity mod, first day I put like 6 hours into it.
I don’t play every day, I just don’t have the time/energy. But when I do I try to make it count.
That being said, we used to play Edward forty hands and try to beat ocarina of time in a single evening, usually staying up until dawn despite the copious alcohol.
I’m not the stallion I used to be, but even an old horse has something to prove.
The steam deck is nice for this. It’s am absolute slayer of backlogs.
I just got a Steam Deck, and I bought Baldur’s Gate 3. Pretty sure I’ll finish it on my deathbed. It feels like the hour here or there that I manage to play is not getting me anywhere fast.
I find the Steam Deck is fantastic for people who have a lot of tiny moments with not much else going on, and for those who travel.
I feel this way pretty often, but then I open Factorio again and the night turns to day quickly.
