Why am I so bored of playing videogames?

[cRsFisA]

Lately my PC is on only for watching movies, even if initially I got it for gaming. Every game I try it's just boring to me. Everything seems to be FPS now,nothing new,nothing another game hasn't already done, it's just seems dull to me.

The last game I truly enjoyed was back in 2017 when I've played The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Not even releases like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and AC Odyssey make me wanna game like I used to. The only games I kinda wish to try out are PS4 exclusives like God of War or Marvel's Spiderman. 

Maybe I just grow up and video games are not what they used to be for me. I'm really thinking about selling my PC and just get a PS4.

If you had this problem and something (or a specific game) changed your mind please let me know, I truly wish to find that joy in playing video games again.

[EPPHO]

Same happened to me but I wouldn't call it a problem. Shifted that time spent on games towards primarily school plus some other things.

[RejZoR]

I play them less, but if something excites me enough I'll spend hours on it easily. What I can't get myself to do is watch movies. I have bunch of "My list" stuff on Netflix and hardly watch anything. Last one I watched was Shanghai Fortress. And then long time of nothing.

 

I'm spending a lot of time on Borderlands now coz I finally started playing it after years of knowing about its existence. When NFS Heat comes and if it won't suck, I'll probably spend huge amount of time in it. And next year, Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher was alright, but I prefer sci-fi/cyberpunk over medieval game theme.

 

In general open world games don't excite me at all and I tend to avoid them. Borderlands is rare exception. I just lose track of main quest, get bored and never finish them. Spending a lot of time on forums isn't helping.

[duncannah]

I have had this problem for a while myself, but it affects much more than just games; movies or shows bore me as well. It's been getting much harder to find out things that keep me entertained

[minibois]

Alle games I see mentioned in the post (including the 'want to play' games) are third-person adventure-esque games.

 

Perhaps try exploring other genres, maybe even something you haven't played before.

If you have a controller, a 2D platformer or racing game might be to your liking?

You could also try to play some games you used to play in the past. Perhaps you're just longing for similar experiences with gaming that you had in the past, but can't seem to replicate now.

 

What usually helps for me when I am not enjoying games is typically by switching up what I play.

For example, I usually play games in 'bursts'. For example I had hours of fun in Dirt 3 some while ago. Had gotten the game for free years ago, purchased an Xbox One controller and now have logged over 100 hours in the game (not a lot by any means, but a sizable amount for a free game).

I'm now playing through some Grid 2, which also happens to be quite fun.

 

Same with Pokemon. Stopped playing it for years, but this past summer I had some fun with it again.

 

What might also help, if you want to spend time on your PC, but not game (or think of gaming) is by picking up another PC hobby.

Maybe video editing, digital design (like drawing or logo design), programming, etc. Is something you like.

 

May sound weird, but I actually kinda like making spreadsheets for just random kind of stuff..

[SpinningCat]

Good day to you. 

I also had this problem. While i was still attending school, i had a lot of free time. I would use that free time by gaming, and boy i gamed a lot. I used to play game like Dota 2,LoL, CS:GO and other competitive games. I also enjoyed single player game with a rich story, like the witcher, dishonored etc.

Then came work. And with work everything changed for me. Since i work for 8 hours a day, and i also have some other hobbies i didn't have enough time to do everything at the same time. So i had to cross some things out, the obvious one was gaming, because for competitive games you need to stay active in order to be good, and while working that is not happening. 

But after some time i started to miss gaming a lot. I tried browsing through steam, but the new games seemed like trash. Then i decided to buy a ps4 since it is more for casual people. Really wanted to play bloodbourne. But before playing bloodbourne i started with Dark souls, and suddenly it caught me. I was soooo into Dark souls. I wanted to try out other games but i really suck with controllers, so the choice was obvious. Build a new pc. 

After doing that, i started to play more and more often, i think i needed a break of gaming, but i kinda always knew that i would game again. I guess i just needed to try a new (well dark souls is not exactly new) game, that could catch me and prove it that there are indeed games that are worth playing. 

By writing this i hope that you will maybe try out different games, buying a ps4 is not a bad idea, because you'll play god of war and after that game you might be thirsty for other games

I really recommend competitive games as well, at least for me, they are the least boring, because you actually need to get better at them, and when you rank up by defeating other players, you have this weird nice feeling haha. 

 

[Froody129]

Well, people play games because they enjoy them (or at least that's how it should work). If you don't enjoy them just don't play them. Take up an instrument or something.

 

I think a lot of people aren't playing games like they used to because games just aren't as good as they used to be.

[Teddy07]

Maybe you grown out of it. It happened to me too. 

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, cRsFisA said:

 Everything seems to be FPS now,nothing new,nothing another game hasn't already done, it's just seems dull to me.

 

Because you're playing nothing but FPS games? These games kinda just suck after a while, and have little replayability.

 

Try playing a few "cult classic" indie titles like Undertale or that new "untitled goose game" and see if the pacing of either of those feels more comfortable.

 

I would however suggest NOT playing games that are gacha/loot-box oriented (which is most mobile phone cruft) and as those games simply suck your time away and then your wallet when you get impatient.

[Jordie of the Void]

I also game way less than I used to. I see a lot of stagnancy in the current AAA market. Everything just seems so... bog standard, tired, stagnant. That's the reason I kind of gave up on the big titles. However, I do wish I could play more games (I'm currently a student). When I actually have the time, I find myself playing indie games. There's just so much originality in that scene with developers putting a lot of effort into the gameplay. Yeeeah so there's less of all that ray tracing scheisse, but I find the expeirnces just that much more fun (especially the whole retro shooter thing going on right now). So try some indies, you might find yourself longing for that WASD thing that much more.

[Sterlingsilv3r]

I’m the same. I used to spend 20-30hrs a week gaming, but that was when I was in my early 20’s, now I’m going to be 40 in a few months, I just built a gaming rig minus a video card (saving up for a decent card) I just don’t game like I did. I’ve done a lot of FPS. I was huge into Team Fortress 2 when it came out, and I logged back in a few weeks ago, and everything changed, the gamers changed to young 13yr old punks, and my desire isn’t there anymore to pwn them lol.

 

i now game about 30min a month since building my current rig and I have an Xbox one x that my wife bought for me a year ago, and since June of this year, I haven’t even turned it on. 
 

it’s the sign of maturing. 

[NineEyeRon]

I found taking a break helped.

 

i don’t get the “maturing” argument, it belittles gaming and singles it out as a child’s hobby when it isn’t.

 

im in my mid 30s now with a young family so I don’t game like I used to, life got in the way.

 

i found taking a break, changing game types and doing other hobbies helped build my all round enjoyment.

 

if something isn’t fun then don’t do it, its simple.

 

just don’t blaming it all on getting older as it irks those who get so much out of it, whatever their age. 

[Mihle]

I do have phases of not playing that much games for a while, usually only last some months tho, and then the enjoyment comes back and I play games again, sometimes it's a new game comes out that light the fire again, other times it's just some game that I played years ago that pop back in to memory.

In a time of not wanting to play that much, you should not force yourself to play games, because that's not fun and it might take longer time before the fire lights inside you again.

 

I don't get the maturing argument, you can be in your 40s old and still enjoy gaming. I am not even close to that age tho ....

[Nine Tailed Fox]

Didn't play games like I used to after I built my PC specifically for gaming lol. But waiting for RDR2 to release on PC

[JoeCoke]

Same thing happened to me, now I pretty much only enjoy Melee and CSGO, and every once in a while I'll play through an old RPG or something.

[TetraSky]

You grew up and your interests shifted somewhere else. That's normal.

 

If you think you might enjoy a console exclusive more than a PC game, go for it. But maybe find a way to rent it or play at a friend's house first.

[tatte]

7 hours ago, cRsFisA said:

If you had this problem and something (or a specific game) changed your mind please let me know, I truly wish to find that joy in playing video games again.

Guild Wars 2 ruined other games for me. You too might find satisfaction from an MMORPG (there are plenty good ones out there). I'll also be useless and say that you should get a console anyway, they're fun. And it's okay to have gaps, games and gaming come and go. No point in forcing a game on yourself if nothing feels right.

[Sauron]

Part of it might be that "AAA" games are straight up getting worse - be it through aggressive monetization or just the endless spam of reskinned titles, it's not as easy to find something that is actually a great and novel experience.

 

I suggest you try some more "unconventional" games e.g. a souls/soulslike game (Dark Souls 3 is a great entry point since it's more polished than other games in the series and you don't really need to have played any of the others to enjoy it).

 

It's also possible you're simply not that interested anymore, that happens too. Sometimes the interest comes back, sometimes it doesn't.

[JZStudios]

Most modern games are really pretty trash that's uninspired and recycles content. How people continue to play yearly releases of rehashed Assassins Creed and Call of Duty I'll never know. My and my buddy put literally thousands of hours in Battlefield 4, because there's so much shit you can do. Battlefield 1 was, eh... BFV went way fucking too far with a lot of things and it just doesn't feel as good to play and there's not as much fun stuff to do. I've been playing Burnout 3 on PCSX2 and that game is still fun as hell and super smooth.

The western market has stalled and gone stagnant by adding in the current "in" thing like Battle Royale and "recurrent user spending." There's some good games coming out of Japan, but only a few I'd recommend to people who aren't anime nerds. Games have shifted focus from delivering new experiences to trying to get as much money from you for as little work as possible.

 

There's also burnout, which happens in every hobby. It's not like someone takes up photography as a hobby, gets burnt out on it, and then goes "Oh, well I guess I outgrew that kiddy baby shit."

[JoeCoke]

4 hours ago, NineEyeRon said:

I found taking a break helped.

 

i don’t get the “maturing” argument, it belittles gaming and singles it out as a child’s hobby when it isn’t.

 

im in my mid 30s now with a young family so I don’t game like I used to, life got in the way.

 

i found taking a break, changing game types and doing other hobbies helped build my all round enjoyment.

 

if something isn’t fun then don’t do it, its simple.

 

just don’t blaming it all on getting older as it irks those who get so much out of it, whatever their age. 

Got a cousin in his mid thirties with five kids, he still finds some time for games.

 

Yeah the maturing argument really annoys me. Could just be temporary burnout, or a taste change. Stopped playing games almost completely a couple of years ago, but then I found a couple of games I really enjoy and I just play them. I guess you can "mature" to the point where you're not jumping up and down over every new release.

[Commodus]

It's hard to say if it's the games or just a change in priorities.

 

I don't play nearly as much as I used to, but it's not because the games are bad or even that my reflexes are getting worse.  I'm still quite good at competitive Destiny 2.  Rather, it's that my life has evolved.  If I have to choose between games and my girlfriend (thankfully she likes watching me play!), my girlfriend wins every time.  Life's too short to focus on anything else -- a memorable date is better than the best video game.

[NineEyeRon]

52 minutes ago, 2Buck said:

I guess you can "mature" to the point where you're not jumping up and down over every new release.

Now that I agree with.

 

i remember I couldn’t wait the journey home to play a new game back in the day. I just had to open it and read the manual to get that fix started! I would even cart my console around and beg to hook it up to any TV available.

 

These days I avoid AAA titles, still waiting for GTA V to be old enough for me to play! 
 

I mostly play older games now, only buying FM every 3rd year and that is always in the Xmas sales!

 

I know what makes me happy and I play that, I avoid hype trains and the “latest” anything. 
 

I build a dedicated gaming PC last year but spec’ed it to the games I play. I have a very capable rig that I can move up to a higher res when I can afford it. 
 

If I had gone all out and built a rig for AAA titles I would have felt like I had wasted so much money. The way I built it, with the components and size I did, I feel likeI got the balance just right.

[Tristerin]

For me - its about responsibilities.  As Ive gotten more and more responsibilities when I am gaming those things nag on my conscience.  Because I know I can REALLY get into a gaming session if I let myself.  Its easy to walk away from a YouTube video, or a movie you've seen before once those nagging thoughts begin.  

 

When I was younger, specifically before children, I could game for...well its not time for work is it?  If you get my drift.  Id take a week of vacation when an expansion would be released so I could veg, get WW firsts if possible, etc.  Call lists, all the things.

 

But, not calling it maturity calling it responsibility, as my requirements grew in life I also had to let PC gaming go.  I still game, but I don't get into the same games like I used to.  Most of the games I have time for now, are actually FPS competitive games, moba's and anything NOT story rich, which is what I used to LOVE.  Because, I can set them down and walk away as I have no real investment but that 20 minute session in "my characters".

[Bramimond]

Modern games mostly suck. It's because experience gets emphasized over gameplay, so even people without the skills can get through a game. 

 

Just go for classic games and the occasional modern games that you really want.

[FunkmastaFlex]

I was like that for a while too. What I found that helped is a few friends and a "new" game.

What I mean by "new" is try something other than a triple A title, like League of Legends or maybe Civ 6.

Also we've been playing "old" games like GTA Online and Minecraft together. Something of the sort.