I'm bored when I play games but I still want to play them

[LostSoul]

Hi. I'm a 35 years old guy, diagnosed with bipolar depression type 2. I'm not playing games for about two weeks. Things are going fine, but I want to share my experience to see if some one else experienced the same thing.

I become bored fast when I play video games, but at the same time I have a great desire to find and play a game that makes me feel good. So I spent a considerable amount of money on Steam buying games only to see if I like them. Sure, I do a search first and only buy games that I think I would like, but even so it's a lot of games. There are many games in my library that I didn't even installed. And it don't happen only with games. Lately I can't even finish a movie because I become bored and stop watching halfway, so maybe it's not a problem only related to games.

My theory: When I was young I was very introverted and shy and spent most of my day playing video-games. I think I played around 12 hours a day. And there were some games that gave me some great experiences, like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, among others. The thing is: I want to have those experiences again. No, not others experiences, I mean the exactly same experience, the same feeling. So I search for games that would give something similar. But I am also open to find other games that could give me other experiences that were enjoyable to me in a different way too.

So I had the idea of replaying the games that gave me the best experiences when I was young to see if I could experience it again. But, even so I felt that feeling, something said to me to stop, because it would be very time consuming. Currently I'm learning how to draw and also writing short stories. I think I can't play games because I know they are making me not pursuing my other dreams. But I don't know why I can't watch movies. It's because short attention spawn? I can read books if I want and I could watch movie in the cinema (before the pandemic).

Thanks!

 

 

[Ivan Daniel]

Hey man it is so cool that you are into writing short stories, because there's a lot of power in that. You said that: "something said to me to stop"... if could put a name or face to that "something"... what do you think it could be? 

Because it sounds like it cares about you and is fighting for you...

[chiliflavor]

On 5/2/2020 at 11:10 PM, LostSoul said:

Currently I'm learning how to draw and also writing short stories.

Welcome @LostSoul! 

WoW, I'm exactly on that scenario! Haha. I miss playing old games but when I play it, I feel lonely because—like what you said—I know I have to put so much time on it in order to enjoy it the same way again. But as other returning players have said, maybe it's just the nostalgic feeling that tells us to play the game all over again. In movies, I usually fall asleep too (when watching in netflix) especially if it's not exciting/interesting at all. I rarely finish a TV series as well, I easily get bored; usually first 2-3 episodes only then move on to the next series haha!

It's really awesome that you are drawing and writing at the same time! Maybe that's why you don't finish movies at all, because you can write your own! 👌

Good luck! Hoping to read one of your stories someday. 😄

Edited May 12, 2020 by chiliflavor

[giblets]

It's important to understand the difference between nostalgia and desire to play games. I played a lot of emulation for that reason - anything newer than 16bit I really wasn't interested in. Give me Tetris and Super Mario all day (like, literally all day...). It wasn't that I wanted to play them, it was I used to enjoy them so much when I was a kid, and I thought I was way happier when I was a kid. Adult life is full of responsibilities, pressures, anxiety, and loneliness. It is not as simple.

Maybe a step in the right direction is when you feel nostalgic, rather than firing up a game or buying something off steam, you watch a video on the making of it or a documentary? For example, when I want to play emulators I used to watch A Fistful of Quarters or The Ecstasy of Order instead. Yes it still wasted a few hours, but it was the lesser of two evils in my mind - waste two hours, or waste a whole day? Walk away feeling great about the 80s, or be preoccupied for a whole day?

[Kopetote]

Hello @LostSoul,

I thought it just only me that can't watch movies for a long time, even I can't tap my mobile games because I feel easily get bored. I still seek for this problem that "why I can't playing games anymore" for no reason. This happened to me back 2012 that my play time become less and less, until now I can't even playing games and feel waste of time.

But in my case for watching movies. The reason why I can't watch movies for long time, because of my mindset that "movies are wasting my time" and I can't ejoying watch it. And second problem when watching movies is a lot of thought coming when watching, like "I should do this, why I'm watching?" or "Maybe I need to buy some eggs today" etc. And i have some solutions for this scenario:

1. The first solution of my problem that works for me is: I accept myself to wasting my time for watching my favorite movies and say "after this, i'll do what should i do" (I think self discipline is the most important for this case). Because I allowed myself to wasting time to watch, i feel, I'm enjoy and not worrying about wasting time nor worry about something related like homework or task (but you should do it before watching).

2. And the second solutions is: I always bring my phone and keep my Google Keep app open, so when my thought come, i'll write it down and forget about it. After watching, I'll see what's my thought when I was watching, and never worrying to forget while watching.

 

Maybe, it can also impelemented while playing games.

 

Sorry for my english, I'm still learning. But if you not understand what I wrote, lets disscuss it.

[GrainSiloEnthusiast]

In all addictions we consistently chase that first high and the best highs. I am in a very similar boat to you, I am completely bored of video games but for a while I still felt compelled to play them. I bought a bunch of games I didn't need, some of which I never even opened once before deciding to quit. I replayed FFVII and FFIX near the end because I got a lot more enjoyment out of replaying games from my past than any of the new games I tried, because I wanted that high of those specific games and all the memories that came with them.
And frankly, a lot of the time, playing games is a waste of time. Even with games with really good stories, I find it more worthwhile for me to just watch the cut scenes on YouTube rather than spending another 50 hours grinding.
I personally don't feel like I'm wasting time by watching movies but that's probably because I primarily watch non-fiction educational movies or very well made art pieces of movies and have very high standards for what I'll actually sit all the way through.