I’ve fallen into a deep gaming rut lately. What helped “get you back into” gaming and rediscover the magic of video games?

I, like many gamers, grew up playing Pokémon Red and Nintendo 64 and was obsessed with Nintendo products. I graduated to a PS2 and PS3 and became super into Metal Gear Solid and Call of Duty and Fallout. Also spent a ton of time with the Guitar Hero series. I loved the escape gaming brought me and it genuinely helped me relax.

Fast forward a few years and I hadn’t really played a video game between the years of like 2011-2017. College, moving cross country and busyness of life kept me from gaming. Finally in 2017, I bought a Switch and Breath of the Wild and felt the same magical feeling I remember when I first started playing Ocarina of Time, or the first time I booted up Metroid Prime, or Metal Gear Solid 4. I started to get into online gaming and made a lot of friends. I played my Switch frequently for a few years.

During the beginning of COVID lockdowns, I turned more to reading than gaming and my Switch gathered lots of dust. I ultimately ended up buying an Xbox Series S when it was announced because I’d never owned an Xbox system and Game Pass really intrigued me. I went through a phase of being very into Destiny 2, Halo, Gears of War, Forza Horizon…a bunch of games I had never played before.

Then, a divorce, a new job change, another cross country move brought new levels of stress to my life. I lacked an attention span strong enough to focus on a video game. FPS’s seemed boring, online games couldn’t keep my attention long enough to get through a match, and eventually I’d just leave a game on the pause menu while I messed around mindlessly on my phone. Gaming wasn’t even a way for me to decompress anymore, it seemed more like a chore I was procrastinating—which sucks.

I’ve fallen deeper into this lately, as more life changes have come along. I work a stressful job with long hours. I’m now a stepparent to two young boys. The little free time I have I spend walking the dog, reading, and trying to just let my mind settle and decompress. Let alone, if I try to turn the Xbox on or have the Switch on my lap, it turns into a whole event where the kids want to sit and watch and participate and ask tons of questions (which is fine, but sometimes I just want to do something by myself for me!)

I miss the time of my youth where gaming was a relief and a release for me. I miss how I felt when I first got a Switch and felt so excited and so nostalgic and reinvigorated and looked forward to playing a game! Now…I feel like I can’t even consider myself a gamer.

So. That’s a long winded way to ask if anyone else has gone through similar ruts, or fallen away from gaming, and if so, what games helped you get that spark back? What games brought you back to that nostalgic feeling you had when you first got into gaming? What games help you decompress after a long day? What games have you recently become obsessed with in such a way that you look forward to playing them and are always thinking about them?

I want to get back into gaming. I want to feel the magic again.

Prion,

Check out the System Shock remake if you have a gaming PC. I recommend Dying Light as well; the parkour traversal and zombie physics are unmatched.

'Return of the Obra Dinn' is another favorite of mine.

Games that hold your hand and provide waypoints to every objective (i.e. built-in walkthrough syndrome) strip the joy for me personally.

Daydreamy,

Perhaps emulation might get you interested. Replay the games of your childhood. Emulation also offers save States so you can immediately save or reload without silly save point mechanics, though you can stick to that if you want. This would let you basically get 10 minutes in here or there.

Get yourself an anbernic rg351or other models, or a steam deck. Anbernic's models can emulate generally up to ps1 and sometimes n64 or psp. I played through several childhood games on my 351m. Steam deck can emulate most things, namely ps2 ps3 360 and switch, but I've only tried psp thus far.

OkayMate,
OkayMate avatar

If you’re up for a challenge and an adventure my recommendation would be Elden Ring. It gave me that exact feeling you’re describing.

DerWilliWonka,

I have went through a similiar phase a few years ago after starting university and moving to a different city. A few years later I had the opportunity to get me some nice computer for very little money which brought me back into gaming but I honestly dont remember which game I played first.

Mekboy_nutkrakka, (edited )

I play a lot less cause of depression and isolation so games I mainly play on my own are simple enough for me to play when my mind is fried and that I can quickly play little and come back no problem like do a level of Miitopia or like 1 or 2 races in Mario Kart.

I also feel like I need to get away from gaming right now but sadly I am stuck with lack of support from family and the mental health system.

What helps me the most is playing multiplayer locally mainly to deal with isolation and cause my connection is crap and i don't want to pay subscriptions for what used to be free.

To answer your question what games brought back i don't really have that but some games that grabbed onto me recent years are usually odd and silly games like Miitopia(has a demo on switch(Nintendo exclusive)), Bug Fables, Bugsnax, Cat Quest 2(has a demo on switch), What the Golf, Wandersong.

DecentFarts,

I wouldn't recommend this with the sole reason being to get back into gaming. I started taking THC gummies and it is like being a kid again playing video games.

kiddblur,

Haha exact opposite experience here. I started taking edibles and now I'd rather just scroll tiktok than commit to playing a game or watching a show

DecentFarts,

Haha. I get some of that too. Just played Tetris on GB and Snood on GBA.

pieceofcrazy,

If weed didn't give me anxiety I would only play high. I remember having a blast everytime I played before quitting, especially with games like BOTW or Yakuza where, despite being very different games, you get to really immerse in the world – which is something that I don't usually do or look for in games, but I will never forget how emotional I got while playing BOTW and I noticed how different the twin mountains (or whatever they're called in English) were if you traveled from above or below.

TotoroTheGreat,

For me it was Crusader Kings 2. I started playing it after CK3 came out. It was free and seemed interesting, and it took me a while to get used to such a game, but it was fun when I did get used to it all. It's even more fun with all the DLCs and there's plenty of mods to try out. I usually play a single campaign for about an hour or two a day over a week or more which helps me de-stress. It might not be the answer you're looking for, but maybe you can try some games like it where you don't need to be active all the time, or where you can just turn your mind off and kill a few hours.

luciole,
@luciole@beehaw.org avatar

I feel you man. Are you sure you’re nostalgic about gaming itself and not about a time when you were carefree? Maybe you just need to find back your balance. I’m an anxious person and the worst episode I’ve had lasted roughly a year. Sick leave and everything. No interest for gaming for even longer than that. Worked on myself, picked up the pieces and the will to game came back slowly but surely. What I’m saying is maybe you need some healing before the next adventure?

nlm,
@nlm@beehaw.org avatar

Try some chill single player games, ones that focus on a great story with no real difficulty. That helped a lot for me when I had a similar feeling.

Firewatch, the Life us Strange games, Road 96, Unravel, Superliminal to name a few.

saigot, (edited )

What did/do you play games for? Think about the moments you enjoyed the most and why. Just to name a few motivations: are you looking to get a sense of improvement and complete challenges, are you looking to live a fantasy, exploration, get a story via a unique medium, flex creativity or be a part of a community. I find myself having different reasons to want to play depending on my mood.

Once you find your reason, you can start searching for what satisfies that. I strongly suggest you avoid triple a titles and focus mainly on indie.

You mention botw resparking things, from what I hear that game really appeals to those who want to express creativity and those who like exploration. I can't help much with the creativity (not really what I like) but for exploration I can recommend hollowknight (a metroidvania that I lost myself in for days) or outerwilds (a space sim with narrative based mystery and light puzzle elements, I highly recommend you go in as blind as possible)

Jarmo,

I have a very similar relationship with gaming. A similar break for college and a similar resurgence with BotW followed by a similar falling out because of kids haha.

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t feel the same anymore. I don’t think it ever wil again. But I’ll share the things that have come close to getting that feeling back.

  1. Online game night with friends - this puts me mentally back in the 90’s staying up late and gaming with friends. It’s more about the company and conversations than the game itself. I try to do this at least once a week.
  2. Gaming with my son - he’s 6 and we’ve been able to find a ton of games we love playing together, most notably Nintendo games. He loves all things Mario. We also run through games like Hot Wheels Unleashed, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Lego 2K Drive. Anything with a kid friendly co-op campaign has been fun.
  3. Allowing yourself to mentally move on from games once you’re not having fun - I used to have this issue with a mental backlog or feel badly for buying a game and then not beating it. Not sure if you have the same issue. But lately I’ve tried not to put too much pressure on myself to beat a game. If I’m not having fun I move on. Life is too short and game time is too precious to waste it on a game I’m not loving.

Hope this helps. Like I said, I don’t think it’ll ever feel the same, but this has helped it come close for me.

CorrodedCranium,

Have you considered playing a shorter singleplayer game? I find I get fatigued by how long some games can go on for whether it's multiplayer like The Elder Scrolls Online or a sandbox game like Red Dead Redemption.

Maybe you could try something like GRIS? It's a relaxing game with a neat art style that that only takes about 3 hours to beat.

ConstableJelly,

I mentioned Gris in my comment too! I'm in love with that game and second your recommendation.

kiddblur,

Have you considered playing a shorter singleplayer game?

this is my trick as well. I use an app called Depressurizer to sort my steam library by both review score and length simultaneously and grab one of the higher rated <8 hour games I haven't played yet, then when I finish it, I find that my slump typically ends and I can pick up a longer game again.

Worth mentioning these days I play precisely zero multiplayer games (because i've got a toddler so i need to be able to pause whatever I'm playing)

fell,
@fell@ma.fellr.net avatar

@Evolone I went back to a 3.3.5a private server I used to play on when I was young and couldn't afford the monthly fee. The community over there is super laid back because everyone knows there will never be new content. I'm really enjoying my time there, despite only having a few hours per week to spare.

So, go back to your roots. Play a game you used to play a lot.

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