Gaming

Had this happen to me during college. For a long time I didn't play anything but league of legends and when I finally got sick of it, I stopped playing altogether. Then during my internship I decided to pirate two games I saw mentioned on reddit that were similar to Crusader Kings: Kenshi and Rimworld.

Proceeded to sink hours and hours into Kenshi, then tried Rimworld and it didn't click. Tried again, didn't click. Then the third time I had to stop myself from playing because I had played through the end of my workday, back home and hadn't had slept or worked on my thesis at all. After a long time playing those pirated copies I got the dosh together to buy them off of steam and Rimworld is a game I play every day. A little in the morning while I have my coffee, and a little at night if I have nothing else to do. I have over 3.5k hours on it.

The thing that made Rimworld different was that it is a story generator. There are other games that are better at survival, base defense, and basebuilding than Rimworld, but story generation is peerless imo. i mean I still remember how that base that I lost so much sleep with ended, I remember the name of the cowboy drifter who became the leader, the junkie crafter who lost his head, and his pyro girlfriend who put the final nail in the coffin for all the other colonists.

If you want to try something different, maybe take a peek at Rimworld.

This sounds awfully similar to my life.

For me, all the added stress and changes made it impossible to enjoy any of my hobbies. It took me a while to figure out how to decompress, manage the new stressors in my life, and slowly incorporate my old hobbies back in again. They came back full force too!!

So if you're like me, just focus on making sure your house is clean, you're eating well, getting outside some, working out/walking a little if able, and you have a good mental process to attack work and commitments and get them done on a timely manner and hopefully the gaming will spontaneously come back.

Best of luck to you!

Taking breaks and work on hobby’s and stop playing online games for good. I have a pretty bad anger problem so online games where just suffering.

During the pandemic, I tried Super Metroid for the first time ever. I just wanted to play a little bit of it to get a feel for it. It caught me hook, line, and sinker. If you missed out and are at all into retro gaming, can't recommend it highly enough.

I started playing short games only (ideally 20, max 40 hours), mainly indie games. They're tighter and usually go straight to the point. They often have one good idea and reiterate on it until they said all they had to say and don't overstay their welcome. Also, replaying old games is always nice. I've replayed OG Fallout recently and had a blast, currently replaying New Vegas (which goes against my short games rule, but I also know it well enough to not waste time doing things).

For me, I just kind of faded away from gaming, focusing on life and other hobbies.

I finally saw that god of war and horizon zero dawn were ported to steam, played the fuck out of them both, and jumped on spider-man as it got ported as well.

From there I ended up getting a PS5 to play the sequels of those three and I haven’t looked back. It has been SO fun to get back into it

The Star Wars Jedi game was also another game that I had a blast with as I got back into it. Played the first on pc and the second on ps. Excellent games without question

PlayStation has just been fucking killing it in the story driven gameplay the last few years especially

I've been playing Destiny nearly 100% of my gaming time for the last like 9 years. I finally decided to try other games again after a particular slow and uninteresting season. I decided to go with Mass Effect Trilogy. I loved it so much after I beat it I immediately started a new character of the opposite gender. After finishing that run I've moved on to Andromeda.

As a huge fan of space and scifi. I'm looking forward to Starfield. Mass Effect gave me that magic and I'm super excited to see all these worlds I've been missing out on.

Lots of great recommendations here. For me, I've definitely found that shorter and more casual games have really helped me get back into it. Challenging single player games or competitive multiplayer games can just seem like too much for me after a stressful day or when I'm in a mood.

I have fun with idle games, automation games, visual novels, and small indie games. I find after playing one of those for a bit I feel ready to tackle something more challenging.

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.

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.

I was also in a lull for a while, I don't remember exactly why I stopped, but someone recommended hypnospace outlaw to me because it had a heavy focus on exploration and following clues, and I gotta say it was a good recommendation. Something about how earnestly and lovingly it represented the turn of the millennium internet and the transition from web 1.0 to 2.0 really spoke to me, it was like digging through a time capsule, almost.

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)

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

this amuses me because it sounds like something a drug addict would say. you have that initial magic and then over time you're not using to feel the magic but just not to feel sick

my advice, OP? stop playing video games if you're not getting enjoyment out of it. it's your brain trying to tell you something. do something else with your time and go back to gaming in the future and it will be fun again.

Sounds like you have a lot on your plate and smaller gaming sessions might be what you are looking for.
I usually get an hour or so a day to play and I've been having a blast with Deep Rock Galactic. The game is a buy once and play with the only monetization being cosmetic DLC but I believe it is FREE on Game pass (I think); $30 on Steam but on sale for less than $10 for the next week.

It is an horde based first person shooter with 4 classes that feel unique, balanced, and bring their own strengths and tools to help out each mission. Locations are all procedurally generated, which means that you can select the same mission in the same area and it will be a new layout everytime, and it's done well so you won't get screwed over my stuff morphing into the terrain or areas blocked off cause the cave generated all screwy.

Mission difficulty can be customized to suit your wants, ranging from super chill and very few enemies, to "OH GOD THERE ARE SO MANY ENEMIES AND WHY ARE THEY SO FAST?!". I have been known to play the hardest difficulty one mission, then crank it down to the easiest to finish out a quick mission before bed just to relax a bit.

You can play solo or with a group of 3 other people but playing with others is the way to go, as you get to see how all of the classes interact and help each other, plus the community has actually been wonderful; out of the hundreds of lobbies I have been in, I have had maybe 3 annoying people total. I also never use my headset for talking (sleeping kids and whatnot) but in game text chat is lively and most of your communication can be done through the "ping" system where you point your reticle at something (enemy, item, player, etc) and call it out for everyone to see. Also there is a button specifically to shout "Rock and Stone!" Which will be around 90% of what you need and will use when communicating with teammates, lol.

Unlike some other games that pressure you to keep playing to "progress your character/battle pass" I feel no urgency with this game. While there is a battle pass style system, it is all cosmetic, FREE, and usually last a few months at a time (like 6-8). If you happen to miss something from a current or previous season, they are still in game and can be found naturally through gameplay by finding "lost crates/gear" during your mission.

All in all I recommend this game to anyone who is comfortable with a FPS. Developers are friendly, community is great, game is fun and forgiving. I feel that, in a worst case scenario, it's fun for a bit and you pick up something else. Hope you find what you are looking for, Rock and Stone!

Many people are saying to pursue other hobbies, and that the magic will come back on its own.

I think they have great advice, but it doesn't answer your question.

I have 3 suggestions: 1 hardware and 2 games, all of which are outside of your previous experience with games.

1: Get a steam deck. This device on it's own brought much of the childhood magic back into gaming, and i can't describe how it feels in text. Just get one.

2: Buy Wildfrost, which is currently my Best In Class pick for UI design and a tight gameplay loop
Bonus: It pairs really well with the steam deck

3: Get Factorio. I bought this back when it was $20, and it has more playtime than any other game i have. The mods available make the game fresh and new, and the base game is deeper than 99% of other games out there. This is the game that gave me the same feeling like BoTW, and as long as you find the gameplay fun it will be a permanent Favorites contender.

I don't know your personal tastes, but if I had to recommend one recent game to help anyone break a rut, it would be Hi-Fi Rush.

Too many games, especially those in the AAA space, are more focused on being bloated engagement treadmills over simply being fun, concise experiences. I'd recommend seeking out shorter, offline games that don't rely on RPG elements. It's also ok to just take a break from gaming altogether.

If you’re burnt out on games, more games won’t solve that and will just make it worse

Go explore some other hobbies for a bit