depression? jadedness? - no games hold attention

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rsspectrumalt
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 28 Jul 2022
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 5

02 Aug 2022, 6:10 pm

Put into the haven if appropriate, but this feels equally game related.

On an almost yearly basis, I go through this couple week to couple month phase where no game, anime, or streaming series holds my attention. And the weirdest part is like, I WANT to play something or find another thing to get hyped about. Like I almost WANT a special interest to distract me from life, but nothing will hold my attention anymore.

Usually during these times, I try to find ways to become more productive. But my coding career is actually doing surprisingly well compared to the past, and what this "iteration" has inspired me to do this time around is ironically energy consuming in itself: exercise. I'm trying to get myself back in shape after a surgery and covid made me more sedentary than usual, thus causing me pain and loss of stamina equal to if I had exercised anyway. The end result is that at the end of the work day, usually after I've excercised before or after work, I no longer have energy to do anything BUT my usual hobbies anyway (rather than read some Vue.js documentation or work on coding side projects, etc).

However, this time around is... weirdly different? And that's where my posting in "Games and Video Games" comes in. In this time I've been able to play the following: Mega Man Xtreme, Mega Man Xtreme 2, Donkey Kong Land, a whole bunch of Final Burn Neo Beatemups (mostly CPS-2 like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs), and the remaining DLCs of metal gear rising. Yet if I try to play anything else that doesn't hold my constant attention, I uninstall or exit within 10 minutes to an hour. I also beat final fantasy strangers in paradise recently, shortly before this occurred.

It seems I need: "RAW UNFILTERED VIDEO GAME" type games. Just pure 100% attention span grabbing platformers or adrenaline-filled action games. Even sonic or super mario world romhacks don't do it anymore. It seems immersion and uniqueness help too.

So my question is two things:
1. Should I just wait it out and do my usual thing where I try to find other hobbies (and usually fail anyway)
2. Would you have any other suggestions for games that might hit my adrenaline craving? FPS like doom eternal or hack n slash in the vein of devil may cry. Have yet to play 5, I have it, and I've heard great things about it.

Systems available:
-emulation up to ps1 on my RG351MP
-emulation up to dreamcast on my Retroid Pocket 2+, just received in the mail
-an M1 macbook pro 13 with parallels that I use for work (this covers the great majority of emulation)
-an thinkpad t480 with basic intel graphics for any older windows games the M1 won't tolerate.
-an xbox series S with gamepass. (this includes emulation up to PS2 and Wii)



DogOfJudah
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 30 Apr 2012
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 385
Location: Here

03 Aug 2022, 4:39 am

If you're looking at getting into shape and playing games, I can't praise the positive effect my Quest 2 has had on my health.

Beat Sabre with custom tracks, is insane and is as intense as you want to make it, as you have to process like a hundred things at once. (Though i'm somewhat biased as I love rhythm games.)

Have you tried any of the bullet hell games that are out there ?? Cuphead is a good plaformer that you always have to be on the ball to play.



rsspectrumalt
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 28 Jul 2022
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 5

03 Aug 2022, 8:39 am

Heh I was considering VR for a while but it doesn’t quite appeal to me (in it’s current state). Tried it a bit at a friends house before too. Though the all in one nature of the quest series did have me interested.

Yeah I beat cuphead and the DLC lol, awesome game

Good point on bullet hells, I’ve always been interested in the Touhou series



r00tb33r
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 May 2016
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,778

07 Sep 2022, 5:03 am

I've considered myself a retired gamer for the past decade or more. I might play a day a month, usually something ancient like Doom, or a new source port of an old game that was only playable under an older operating environment before.

I don't know, maybe it's depression, bit I watch a lot of game review videos on YouTube, sometimes finding what looks like a diamond in a mountain of crap, but then... I just feel sickness at the thought of actually sitting and playing. I procrastinate, drink tea into the late night, watch more YouTube, and go to bed having not started playing a game. There seems to be anxiety associated with this activity. I find it very hard to try new things, and know better not to waste my time on things I've already played, obviously Doom being one of the exceptions.

I know inability to do things you enjoy is characteristic of depression. I dunno. But yeah.


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