When fatigue sets in, instead of forcing myself to play something I draw, read magazines, catch up on the olds around the interwebs, do some cleaning around the house, read books, all such things. To me it happens when the last game took a very long time to finish. Sometimes that last game has also become very special making it difficult to find another to fall in love with. There is also the rare case of indecisiveness where I am unable to pick and play the next game in my library. I overcome it by installing ten games and play them in a random order to see which I keep playing which is the next one likely to be finished.

I never force myself to play or start thinking and feeling guilty for having thousands of games still to play. This would only drive me away from gaming for even longer when I don't particularly feel like it. Gaming has its place in my life and will always have even though I'm not playing anything for weeks or months. Since it isn't the only thing in my life I can very well live with the time it takes to go back to it so it doesn't feel particularly difficult to stay away. :-)

A game or any game?

Three answers:

1) Sometimes picking up a game is a bit like picking up a particular book: it may not appeal until the right time comes. Then, one day you find yourself willing to read that particular book that you had postponed. Same with some games. If that moment does not seem arrrive... Well, either it was a game you had fond memories of, but it does not seem to work anymore for you, or it is a new game that is failing to catch your interest. Maybe one day.

2) If the trouble is with any game at all, then that is a big hint for trying something else apart from games.

Playing PC games is something to do for fun, unless you do it professionally and you actually have to perform with games even if you do not feel like that. For everyone else, either it is fun or it is not. If it is not, then why bother.

3) Sometimes games hook people with mechanisms that manipulate reactions, dopamine etc. Ever found yourself scrolling down in a media app, reading things that were not very interesting, but you kept scrolling down anyway? Surely you know that they hire actual slot machine designers to help designing these apps? Same with some mechanics incorporated to games (ever seen a lootbox?). They target your dopamine liberation, with a little bit of frustration, a little bit of expectation, a little bit of satisfaction, and again and again (like a slot machine). That way, you can find yourself asking: “Why am I playing this?”. If you do, you know that the game is nor really giving you anything worth your time.

To sum it up: if it is not fun, drop it.


Sounds sensible. A healthy approach. Maybe the game deserves another chance in the future, maybe not. Or maybe your body and mind are asking you to give them a rest or trying something else.

When that happens, I usually play something else to avoid entirely dropping the game I'm currently playing. I've been playing Final Fantasy IV lately and got so tired of the huge amounts of grinding that I stopped playing it for a couple of days to play a simple poker game. I agree, it is frustrating to play a game until you finish it and realize that at some parts you are not having too much fun, even when said game is great.

With google having your body data from your Fitbit on your wrist, having microphones in your house (Nest, Home, assistant), knowing the content of your text messages (Whatsapp, gmail) and whatnot, you can bet that games with access to all that, by paying a canon to Google/whatever other company, they will react very appropriately, give them time. It is easy to relate to this post. Barring “shiny new things” (we have all fell to those sometime, probably), often there is a moment when you feel that a game has given you all that it really could, and what comes after is only more of the same, with no wonder nor entertainment. At that time, it may be better to civilly say your goodbyes and farewell to the game and be grateful for the fun it gave you.

About the pain of returning to a game that you left “momentarily” for some reason, that is really easy to relate to as well. See this thread for different approaches that people contributed:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/giving_a_second_chance_to_a_game_take_it_back_were_you_left_it_or_restart

Ever seen the little ballon game in the waiting screen of Google App Store? Playing that for a few minutes, then realizing that it was actually more fun that title XXXX ever gave you in the hours you gave to the game... Makes one reconsider what some developers have in their minds... Or how come they forgot how to make good games. I do not want to give any example of XXXX games but surely you have yours.

Well, you can quit playing games and do something else.

I'm waiting until I find like continue the game I want to finish, watching Netflix and reading, and staying with friends. I had been playing a lot lately, so I think it's normal and healthy to feel sick of something we over-do, like when we eat too much, we reach the point where we couln't take one more bite. I don't fire up a new game so I stop leaving unfinished games behind me. Hexen is not at all a hard game to get back to, so no problem, but if it was something more complex, like a strategy game, a hyatus could be a problem to get back into the game mechanics. On the other hand gaming should be fun, never a chore, unless you are being paid for it at least (I don't know you but I'm not). So my idea is to take a pause rather then moving to something else. Also good because beyond games I have other interests.

Gaming fatigue is real and it kicks in often. I've had it with RPGs, after I while I just don't care anymore about virtual NPCs wanting something from me, it becomes so annoying. It's the main reason I haven't started playing Kingdom Come yet.

What works really well for me is to go beyond your comfort zone.

As a single player story RPG fan I've tried the best games in other genres, these are all available on GoG:
- Puzzle: Talos principle
- Stealth: Deux Ex Human Revolution
- ARPG: Grim Dawn
- General exploration: No Man's Sky
- Empire building: X3 or X4
- Strategy: Into The Breach
- Demolition fun: Saint's Row IV

It's actually really fun (and somewhat difficult) to try new genres but it feels very rewarding.

For me that only happens when I play several games of one genre in a row. So I normally switch the genre after I've completed a game and play something completely different instead.

I get that feeling about Baldurs Gate. I bought it in 2002, finished a game in 2012, then realized I didn't want to bring my ranger into BG2. I think I've tried twice to start games, really ought to get some EE character editor and just try out BG2 finally.

Meanwhile I'd happily put 1500 hours into warband and 700 into fallout 4.

Happens periodically. I just stay away from video games until it eventually comes back. And it always does come back.

Funny thing is, I find that that particular game is one of the first JRPGs to be balanced for playing straight through without stopping to level up.

Maybe if found it boring at some parts because I'm playing the SNES version with the Namingway patch, which restores the difficulty from the original japanese version (monsters deal more damage), and I found myself having to grind to keep up. Right now I'm at the part where you have to find a Black Chocobo and I'm having lots of fun despite previous grinding sessions.

That or maybe I totally suck at JRPG's.

Something to add to my previous post. In case the reason I don't feel like getting back to a game I'd at the same time want to play is that I can't advance "just right" or am uncertain about a choice I need to make and the game allows this, I'll take "time off" to just pretty mindlessly train or grind. Improves the character and shows there is much I can just squash with basically no effort, so I can be more confident moving forward, and I can mull over what I'm afraid to do while remaining "connected" to the game.
Probably the most obvious example was when I got back to Morrowind for a while with days of training armor skills by basically getting surrounded by weak enemies and standing there getting hit, occasionally glancing at the screen and using my healing belt, until I could get myself to actually do a few relevant things... and then dropped it again quickly, but ah well. Or when I again spent days killing those endlessly respawning rats in one spot close to the end of NWN: Hordes of the Underdark until I could get myself to finally push to the end, over 6 years after initially starting the game, with several long pauses and failed attempts to get back to it in between. And now I'm trying to get back to Venetica after dropping it over a year ago by first wandering around at night and grinding on the enemies popping up in town.

The dungeon that you have to go through once you get the Black Chocobo is perhaps my least favorite part of the game. I've actually been known to run from every battle on the way in and only fight battles on the way out.

Also, make sure you talk to Edward in Troia before you go into this dungeon! If you do not do this, it will not be possible to beat the boss and you'll get a game over, preventing the game from continuing until you warp out of the dungeon, go back to Troia, talk to Edward, go back to the dungeon, go back through the annoying dungeon, and then try to fight the boss again. (If you talked to Edward, you should have the TwinHarp (SNES FF2 name; later official translations call it the Whisperweed) in your inventory; if you do not, you need to go back.)

(If I'm playing the DS version and am on a New Game + playthrough, it's much better since I can make regular use of Meteo, but on a first playthrough, or on 2D versions, this part is a slog.)

Happens to me sometimes, and also happens to be right before points of no return, points that trap you temporarily, or points that take away party members or limit your abilities temporarily. Also, it can happen with certain stressful non-repeatable events, like timed sequences.