I have never been able to explain it so I put it down to me being flighty. I just suddenly don't want to log in at all or touch the game if it is a single player for some unfathomable reason but as someone else pointed out it must a subconscious feeling of unhappiness with some aspect of the game that finally overcomes you.
This is what is called a butterfly gamer, there is a world of mobile/cell games out there for you. Hopefully sometimes a game will capture your interest and you will love it and play it for ages.
I can relate to this. Usually its because im very picky, i pick up on things that i dont like about the game very very fast. And then i just kind of start having second thoughts about spending my time on that game. Even though i enjoyed playing just a day earlier, it just kind of hits me hey what if there is a better game out there that doesnt have the annoyances that this has. And all of the sudden i havent touched the game for weeks and then months and at that point its a lost cause really. Im not sure if you guys are like this but for me personally its because i just start dismantling the game when im lying in bed or daydreaming. I go "well its a good game and i have fun playing it BUT...". And thats how my brain just tells me, dont waste your time on this, waste your time on some other game lol.
I’ve had this happen a few times as well. I even have days during the week where I think I’m done with a game and lost all interest, only to be really feeling it again the next day. It’s like some kind of gaming bi-polar tendancy. I also get instances where I’m so all in on a game one night and then this feeling of being totally overwhelmed hits me the next day. I start to look at other players and how much they’ve achieved compared to me or how intense the endgame is going to get to keep moving forward and I just burn out realizing how meaningless what I’m achieving is.
I had this few times and I've never understood how the human brain to just shut down like that about a game.
It is not that of a mystery. There is even a saying .. familiarity breeds contempt.
It is a common phenomena that the neural activation decreases for successive excitation by the same stimulus.
And it is also well known in marketing that humans are variety seeking. Basically people like to play different games, want different movies, read different books.
I get that feeling a lot, and it is because i have so many games to play that i am very indecisive. One day i have a blast playing X game, then the next day i am debating whether to continue playing X or try Y game, then there is also Z game whistling trying to get my attention, and so on and so forth.
Indecision with games makes me have those feelings the OP described. I usually let my mood determine what game i want to play on a particular day.
EDIT: but many times i end up not playing anything for a day or two, and that usually helps make up my mind and tackle a single game all the way to the end. But the whole cycle of indecision repeats quite frequently.
I feel you, a lot. The amount of games owned can truly paralyze. I countered this by only having a maximum of 4 games installed in my pc. I also try to just buy 1 game a month but that isn't working out as intended yet.
Don't get me started on my digital labraries across my 7 consoles though, 300+ titles silently mocking me...
/Cheers, Lahnmir
'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
As an old caterpillar that is still enjoying games with depth that need a learning curve that is very good to hear.
I challenge you to solve Candy Crush Soda Level 1399 with no pay-to-win. When you accomplish that, you can tell me mobile games are not challenging and there is no learning curve.
I’ve had this happen a few times as well. I even have days during the week where I think I’m done with a game and lost all interest, only to be really feeling it again the next day. It’s like some kind of gaming bi-polar tendancy. I also get instances where I’m so all in on a game one night and then this feeling of being totally overwhelmed hits me the next day. I start to look at other players and how much they’ve achieved compared to me or how intense the endgame is going to get to keep moving forward and I just burn out realizing how meaningless what I’m achieving is.
I feel you but lets face it, nothing you do in any game ever matters its pretty much literally meaningless xD Honestly i think i sometimes on a subconscious level avoid getting to end game just because i think i will get this depressing feeling of uselessness washed over me when i realise how much time i put into doing something so meaningless.
I guess plenty of gamers had this feeling, you play a game you really enjoy and have a lot of fun, stay up late then have to log off due to work or school. You turn in to get up to work next day, you think about the game you played last night and you are planing what you are gonna do next. You come home, make dinner, eat, then something happens, It just struck you, you don't have that urge to play that game you had so much fun the nigh before, you see the icon on the desktop, but you don't klick it, you klick on another game and don't play that game you had so much fun the night before for months or ever.
It was like a wall that sead NO, I don't want to play you.
I had this few times and I've never understood how the human brain to just shut down like that about a game.
I've never had it about an MMO, but I have it about almost every other game I've ever bought.
I believe it's just changing moods.
Most computer games tend to have a very narrow focus and so are only able to fulfil a limited number of personal needs. When your mood matches a game, you're onto a winner.
So, for example, the company I work for is all over the place. It's a web agency and I run the development team, so you'd think what I had to say would be important, but I get ignored. All my suggestions get put on the back burner and we do whatever the boss feels like on the day, resulting in a struggling company and irritated staff. This has meant that my love for strategy games has increased - what I'm failing at in life, I succeed at in game.
But, my moods change all the time. On saturday, I had a rare day of feeling good about life, I was full of energy and optimism and looking for a laugh. I couldn't bring myself to play a strategy game, despite 4 hours gaming the night before. It didn't suit my mood, so instead I booted up my 360 and played Skate 3 for a couple of hours.
It is also very common that I run into this problem with new games. I'll buy a game because the research suggested it was a good fit, I'll play it for a day or two and really love it, but deep down my mood isn't suited to it. Generally 10-15 hours of gameplay will see me hit a barrier that I can't get past - the newness of the game has worn off and my mood says I'm not enjoying it, so I have to stop.
Last big release that happened to me was Zelda: BotW. Bought it on release day for my Wii U and played it every day for a week......and haven't touched it since. I really enjoyed the game, the lore, the world, but for some reason I just haven't been in the mood to play it since. Couldn't tell you what the right mood is either, only that I've not felt the need.
I don't really view this as a bad thing. It does mean I game hop a lot, but as I only play single player games it doesn't matter. I make sure I always have a good range of games installed so that I can pick something regardless of my mood, but some days (especially weekdays) I just don't have the energy / motivation to game at all, so I just mong out and watch TV instead.
I've never had this problem with MMOs though. Part of that is because of the breadth of activities offered - there is usually something I would enjoy doing regardless of mood. Part of it is the social aspect - chatting with friends is good no matter how you feel.
Currently Playing: WAR RoR - Spitt rr7X Black Orc | Scrotling rr6X Squig Herder | Scabrous rr4X Shaman
I feel you but lets face it, nothing you do in any game ever matters its pretty much literally meaningless xD Honestly i think i sometimes on a subconscious level avoid getting to end game just because i think i will get this depressing feeling of uselessness washed over me when i realise how much time i put into doing something so meaningless.
+1
It is amusing to see how some here will believe "achievements" (aside from e-sports which is a totally different discussion) in video games are real and not illusions devs set up to entertain.
I guess plenty of gamers had this feeling, you play a game you really enjoy and have a lot of fun, stay up late then have to log off due to work or school. You turn in to get up to work next day, you think about the game you played last night and you are planing what you are gonna do next. You come home, make dinner, eat, then something happens, It just struck you, you don't have that urge to play that game you had so much fun the nigh before, you see the icon on the desktop, but you don't klick it, you klick on another game and don't play that game you had so much fun the night before for months or ever.
It was like a wall that sead NO, I don't want to play you.
I had this few times and I've never understood how the human brain to just shut down like that about a game.
This usually happens to me after a month or two of playing. But I'll add I recently had this happen with an MMO. I'd only played it for close to a month, so I was a bit surprised I started being bored. For several days I had no desire to play. Then I decided to play anyway, regardless whether I wanted to or not. What I discovered is possibly another piece of human nature. We don't always know or anticipate what we enjoy. Sometimes the only way to know is try something for a while. I find this is the case with other things. For example, a baseball or basektball game. I may not want to go, might put up a fight, but after I go I can usually find things to enjoy. When I come home, I feel like I had some fun and it made me a better person. Regrettably, I get caught in this cycle repeatedly where I don't want to go after being away from it for a while.
It's true however I usually quit after a month or two. Without fail, I start not to play here and there. It grows until i don't play at all. This extends to other thigns in life too, not just games. It's not something I like about myself.
I did play a browser game called AstroGalaxy for a couple years off/on. But it doesn't require a lot of time each day. I got bored and quit going there lately. I find some of the few things draws me back to a game are progression or people I know. In Everquest, one of the only reasons I kept going back was to meet my guild. I did enjoy also to look at how I compared to others on eqplayers.com. But longterm, it was the people I met made me go back. I always wnated to know how they were doing. I'd go to eqplayers.com and see if they were playing. I'd get those familiar feelings.
Honestly, I don't think it's gameplay or technicalities causes me to leave periodically. Other things, like money or just being burnt out. Some people burn out quicker than others do. But you evnetually go back. I do that with Wurm Online. I love that MMO, but I burn out after a month or two and want to take breaks. I have a large collection of SP games I adore like a mother and there're no better games in the world, but I get bored of those too after some weeks. It's my nature. Some of the gamers I've known can play the same game for many months (and years!) and don't seem to get bored. That's such a foreign thing to me. I rarely finish games as a result.
When I did those MMO personality tests I always scored high on exploration. I do tend to wander. Maybe that's relevant. (Just recently I discovered a "secret" path in a waterfall and it excited me so much. Interestingly, I didn't venture deeper in because I wanted the mystery to stay alive. It was so surprising. A mystery is like a living thing, you have to nurture it sometimes. It might be in short supply.) Maybe when I feel like a game is starting to pigeonhole me or like a predictable path? Teh very best games inspire infinity. There's no set predictable path. It's "The sky is the limit!" That feeling is awesome. But maybe after I play for a while the sky starts to plummet to the ground?
I don't think that explains all of it either. I fell in love with Dwarf Fortress and I'm still smitten by its beauty, but I got bored of that too. When I left, I STILL was dumbfounded by its loveliness, but for whatever reason I was tired. I'll confess I was trying to mod it. I wanted it to be more dangerous. I'd figured out how to survive the first several years and just manicuring a fortress isn't fun enough for me. Still though, I can't think of any other game eclipses Dwarf Fortress in scope.
It seems when I stop learning. I tend to study deeply as I'm playing. Infact many games I'll spend as many hours watching Youtubes as playing. When I have done MOST all the cool stuff, that's when it hits.
The proof: I can't play any mindless shooters, where you run and gun simply picking up weapons along the way....The learning in the only intriguing part. The story behind the game is of no real interest.
One example: Fallout 4 base building, I was obsessed with it. I built this amazing base. Impenetrable building then with all its catwalks and gun turret's. When it was done and realized the attack horde is never really going to come, this is when it hit. I realized the story and quest never really interested me. Joining any faction was all the same, they sent you on mindless fetch quest.
MMOs: Playing with others, this keeps me playing. But since their are no mmos where you play with others...their of no interest anymore. Their not even mmos !!
This might be part of it. The part of Fallout 4 you enjoyed became exhausted, or that's how you felt. And regardless, you lost interest.
I'm a lot like you. I also like base building. I'm rarely deeply invested in story. I like to build stuff, kill stuff, explore stuff and so forth. The other component is an obstacle or danger. It has to be significant, like hard or expert.
Minus those things, like you say, friends and community. P1999 still has that for me. It's amazing the difference between a group and solo. Grouping and meeting others is a tremendous source of excitement for me. But grouping consumes a lot of time, so it's not easy for every1 to enjoy.
I finished Nioh main game on tuesday. Yesterday I fired it up again, started playing the first dlc and just couldn't be arsed. Its not because the dlc was bad, it was because I felt like I was done with the game after finishing the main game and just couldn't invest myself in the new stuff.
Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
I almost never went back to old mmorpg. I'm quite an addictive mmorpg player so play a bit too much of it. Usually I have a whim to quit and never go back.
Comments
This is what is called a butterfly gamer, there is a world of mobile/cell games out there for you. Hopefully sometimes a game will capture your interest and you will love it and play it for ages.
The second time its the person not paying attention.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Im not sure if you guys are like this but for me personally its because i just start dismantling the game when im lying in bed or daydreaming. I go "well its a good game and i have fun playing it BUT...". And thats how my brain just tells me, dont waste your time on this, waste your time on some other game lol.
It is not that of a mystery. There is even a saying .. familiarity breeds contempt.
It is a common phenomena that the neural activation decreases for successive excitation by the same stimulus.
And it is also well known in marketing that humans are variety seeking. Basically people like to play different games, want different movies, read different books.
Don't get me started on my digital labraries across my 7 consoles though, 300+ titles silently mocking me...
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
I challenge you to solve Candy Crush Soda Level 1399 with no pay-to-win. When you accomplish that, you can tell me mobile games are not challenging and there is no learning curve.
I believe it's just changing moods.
Most computer games tend to have a very narrow focus and so are only able to fulfil a limited number of personal needs. When your mood matches a game, you're onto a winner.
So, for example, the company I work for is all over the place. It's a web agency and I run the development team, so you'd think what I had to say would be important, but I get ignored. All my suggestions get put on the back burner and we do whatever the boss feels like on the day, resulting in a struggling company and irritated staff. This has meant that my love for strategy games has increased - what I'm failing at in life, I succeed at in game.
But, my moods change all the time. On saturday, I had a rare day of feeling good about life, I was full of energy and optimism and looking for a laugh. I couldn't bring myself to play a strategy game, despite 4 hours gaming the night before. It didn't suit my mood, so instead I booted up my 360 and played Skate 3 for a couple of hours.
It is also very common that I run into this problem with new games. I'll buy a game because the research suggested it was a good fit, I'll play it for a day or two and really love it, but deep down my mood isn't suited to it. Generally 10-15 hours of gameplay will see me hit a barrier that I can't get past - the newness of the game has worn off and my mood says I'm not enjoying it, so I have to stop.
Last big release that happened to me was Zelda: BotW. Bought it on release day for my Wii U and played it every day for a week......and haven't touched it since. I really enjoyed the game, the lore, the world, but for some reason I just haven't been in the mood to play it since. Couldn't tell you what the right mood is either, only that I've not felt the need.
I don't really view this as a bad thing. It does mean I game hop a lot, but as I only play single player games it doesn't matter. I make sure I always have a good range of games installed so that I can pick something regardless of my mood, but some days (especially weekdays) I just don't have the energy / motivation to game at all, so I just mong out and watch TV instead.
I've never had this problem with MMOs though. Part of that is because of the breadth of activities offered - there is usually something I would enjoy doing regardless of mood. Part of it is the social aspect - chatting with friends is good no matter how you feel.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
+1
It is amusing to see how some here will believe "achievements" (aside from e-sports which is a totally different discussion) in video games are real and not illusions devs set up to entertain.
It's true however I usually quit after a month or two. Without fail, I start not to play here and there. It grows until i don't play at all. This extends to other thigns in life too, not just games. It's not something I like about myself.
I did play a browser game called AstroGalaxy for a couple years off/on. But it doesn't require a lot of time each day. I got bored and quit going there lately. I find some of the few things draws me back to a game are progression or people I know. In Everquest, one of the only reasons I kept going back was to meet my guild. I did enjoy also to look at how I compared to others on eqplayers.com. But longterm, it was the people I met made me go back. I always wnated to know how they were doing. I'd go to eqplayers.com and see if they were playing. I'd get those familiar feelings.
Honestly, I don't think it's gameplay or technicalities causes me to leave periodically. Other things, like money or just being burnt out. Some people burn out quicker than others do. But you evnetually go back. I do that with Wurm Online. I love that MMO, but I burn out after a month or two and want to take breaks. I have a large collection of SP games I adore like a mother and there're no better games in the world, but I get bored of those too after some weeks. It's my nature. Some of the gamers I've known can play the same game for many months (and years!) and don't seem to get bored. That's such a foreign thing to me. I rarely finish games as a result.
When I did those MMO personality tests I always scored high on exploration. I do tend to wander. Maybe that's relevant. (Just recently I discovered a "secret" path in a waterfall and it excited me so much. Interestingly, I didn't venture deeper in because I wanted the mystery to stay alive. It was so surprising. A mystery is like a living thing, you have to nurture it sometimes. It might be in short supply.) Maybe when I feel like a game is starting to pigeonhole me or like a predictable path? Teh very best games inspire infinity. There's no set predictable path. It's "The sky is the limit!" That feeling is awesome. But maybe after I play for a while the sky starts to plummet to the ground?
I don't think that explains all of it either. I fell in love with Dwarf Fortress and I'm still smitten by its beauty, but I got bored of that too. When I left, I STILL was dumbfounded by its loveliness, but for whatever reason I was tired. I'll confess I was trying to mod it. I wanted it to be more dangerous. I'd figured out how to survive the first several years and just manicuring a fortress isn't fun enough for me. Still though, I can't think of any other game eclipses Dwarf Fortress in scope.
I'm a lot like you. I also like base building. I'm rarely deeply invested in story. I like to build stuff, kill stuff, explore stuff and so forth. The other component is an obstacle or danger. It has to be significant, like hard or expert.
Minus those things, like you say, friends and community. P1999 still has that for me. It's amazing the difference between a group and solo. Grouping and meeting others is a tremendous source of excitement for me. But grouping consumes a lot of time, so it's not easy for every1 to enjoy.
I finished Nioh main game on tuesday. Yesterday I fired it up again, started playing the first dlc and just couldn't be arsed. Its not because the dlc was bad, it was because I felt like I was done with the game after finishing the main game and just couldn't invest myself in the new stuff.