Current Events > Do you ever abruptly stop playing a game you really like for a long time?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I haven't played Dark Souls 1 in a while and I can't work out why. Or why even upon realising this, I still don't want to go back.
Another game that was one of my favorites, I randomly put down half a decade ago and I have the same weird thing where I just don't want to play it but I'm not sure why.

Why does that happen?
I don't really have any big complaints about Dark Souls. It's great. I'm running low on ways to keep playthroughs new and interesting sure, but it's still fun to play and I definitely have a few favorite playstyles.

Like 90% of those games once I moved out of my parents.

Turns out walking to work instead of bumming free rides is tiring and having to deal with your own cooking and cleaning and shit 100% the time is also tiring.

So I focused more of my time and energy on the new stuff.

This coincided with Covid fucking my industry for the rest of eternity too.

I do that way too often.

I don't have time for game X one day, or switch to another game for some reason (new release, playing online with friends, not enough time for a long X session, playing more casual Y instead, taking a break because I played it for dozens of hours last week), and suddenly I stop it playing alltogether, because I simply went to other games instead.

And suddenly my halfly finished pile of shame got a nasty +1

Dmc 3 and its successors (but mainly dmc 3) -
My fingers cramp up too much when I play them nowdays. Like after 15 mins of playtime I have to take break. I think being a mechanic for a few years + years of calisthenics when I was younger + some accident when I went down on a halfpipe with a skateboard fucked up my hands somehow. I get cramped real easy whenever I have to make small movements with my fingers.

Oldschool Runescape -
Too addictive. I get in the habit of gambling in the game through duel arena and ill spend real money for upkeep.
Had to stop myself from playing so I dont waste any more money.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

So I focused more of my time and energy on the new stuff.

So what, you'll buy a game, beat it, sell it and put that toward the next game? Or are you accumulating a pile of neglected video games?
Both make me think of dour scenes.

Karovorak posted...

I don't have time for game X one day, or switch to another game for some reason (new release, playing online with friends, not enough time for a long X session, playing more casual Y instead, taking a break because I played it for dozens of hours last week), and suddenly I stop it playing alltogether, because I simply went to other games instead.

I guess I sort of have this. It's not other video games though, it's other hobbies.
I don't know if that causes me to not want to play video games though, because I definitely still spend a while looking at my Steam game list and trying to come up with a way to revitalise one.

The new Zelda game, in fact I did the same with BotW.

I've been getting better about it, but I've been really bad about it generally speaking. I start a game, play it for days on end, then miss a day and play something else.

Then who tf knows when I'll get back to it

Maybe I should have worded this differently.
I'm not really on about enjoying the current game you're playing. I mean more like you play a game for years, it's a solid, reliable favorite. And then one day you just get up with no interest in it and it stays that way.

Mostly with rpgs and open world games. I'll almost always finish a more linear experience.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

Like 90% of those games once I moved out of my parents.

Turns out walking to work instead of bumming free rides is tiring and having to deal with your own cooking and cleaning and shit 100% the time is also tiring.

So I focused more of my time and energy on the new stuff.

This coincided with Covid fucking my industry for the rest of eternity too.

Yeah I didn't play any games at all once I started working more and moved out. But over the years I got back into gaming lol.

Yeah, I've done that before. I really enjoy a game. Then I take a one day break. Then it becomes a two day break. Then a three day break. And so on. Eventually I play something else. It doesn't happen often but it happens.

GTA 5

I'll go without for a few years and come back and wonder why I'd been gone so long. Absolute masterpiece.

Ivynn posted...

Yeah, I've done that before. I really enjoy a game. Then I take a one day break. Then it becomes a two day break. Then a three day break. And so on. Eventually I play something else. It doesn't happen often but it happens.

Maybe it's like the end of a honeymoon period.
Once you miss a day or two either from repetition induced fatigue or anything else taking your attention, you snap out of being totally enraptured and mind controlled by it.

Then instead of automatically going back, you actually have to bargain with yourself and start coming up with things to go back for. And as you run down the list, the game just gets harder and harder to argue in favor of.

As for the reason you'd miss the first day or two, it's probably inevitable unless you're on an MMO with an S tier playerbase or something.

Maybe it's a playerbase thing too.
Sometimes it's less what you're going back to, but the kind of environment you're going back to.

Like Fallout New Vegas fans are a fun bunch who still make a bunch of videos, so you can get back into the mood by checking in. They even find new stuff every now and then. I didn't know Lanius had a unique line if you run up to him dressed in Legion armor until recently.

Meanwhile, Souls' following is split across a bunch of different games and most of them are spouting the same done-to-death recurring phrases. Or arguing about the rules of online pvp. Or they're casuals who heard Elden Ring was the place to be.
That sort of thing shouldn't affect the quality of the game, but it's a dark could over the game that doesn't help you generate the interest to go back to it.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Maybe it's a playerbase thing too.
Sometimes it's less what you're going back to, but the kind of environment you're going back to.

Like Fallout New Vegas fans are a fun bunch who still make a bunch of videos, so you can get back into the mood by checking in. They even find new stuff every now and then. I didn't know Lanius had a unique line if you run up to him dressed in Legion armor until recently.

Meanwhile, Souls' following is split across a bunch of different games and most of them are spouting the same done-to-death recurring phrases. Or arguing about the rules of online pvp. Or they're casuals who heard Elden Ring was the place to be.
That sort of thing shouldn't affect the quality of the game, but it's a dark could over the game that doesn't help you generate the interest to go back to it.

Playerbase is a huge one.

I noticed how braindead the average Overwatch player became once it went F2P.

Yeah, I made a pause after some of FFXVI's major events to play and complete GalGuardians and Atelier Ryza.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire before the big ocean part. Just wasn't feeling it.

I relate to this I did it with pokemon sword for like 5 months but then returned and finished the storyline which underwhelmed me btw

The first Overwatch wasn't my favorite game, but I did enjoy it. All up until Brigetta was released. I waited until the patch after her release to see if they were going to nerf that character. They didn't, and I literally dropped the game ever since.

asdf8562 posted...

The first Overwatch wasn't my favorite game, but I did enjoy it. All up until Brigetta was released. I waited until the patch after her release to see if they were going to nerf that character. They didn't, and I literally dropped the game ever since.

Literally the only support that was fun to play and they nerfed her to shit.

I was a daily Pokemon Go player for years. Niantic made enough boneheaded moves that I just started transferring all my pokemon to Home and never logging in outside of that

Rarely happens with me. I usually play one game after another and don't stop playing one until I finished it. The only reason for me to stop playing a game is when I'm not having fun. The last time that happened was two years ago when I failed to get into The Last Guardian. But whenever I enjoy a game, I don't quit playing it, even if it's 200 hours long like Skyrim. I can be remarkably persistent.

However, I often only play games once. Even the games I like. There are only 5-10 games that I like to replay every 3-6 years.

All the time.

My playstyle has always been getting super into something for a short time, then forgetting it exists for years.

LordFarquad1312 posted...

Literally the only support that was fun to play and they nerfed her to shit.

They must have nerfed her after I dropped the game. For me she killed the game when I did play because of how fucking brain dead the character was. She was the entire meta competitively and casually, with her ridiculous toolkit. I stuck around for a patch to nerf her. Pretty sure I even stuck around for a 2nd patch. But after that I completely dropped the game and never went back.

Video kind of sums up why I left.
https://youtu.be/z6zVEF3ndhs

asdf8562 posted...

The first Overwatch wasn't my favorite game, but I did enjoy it. All up until Brigetta was released. I waited until the patch after her release to see if they were going to nerf that character. They didn't, and I literally dropped the game ever since.

Yeah, according to the data Brig's release is literally when the most amount of people stopped palying the game lol.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

So what, you'll buy a game, beat it, sell it and put that toward the next game? Or are you accumulating a pile of neglected video games?
Both make me think of dour scenes.

I was mostly talking about games I dont replay anymore. I do sell some but many also simply languish for years before I finally play/finish them.

ADHD + Adulthood = Wierd gaming habits.

pikachupwnage posted...

I was mostly talking about games I dont replay anymore. I do sell some but many also simply languish for years before I finally play/finish them.

ADHD + Adulthood = Wierd gaming habits.

Is that fun though?
I find it weird to call a game good but have no interest in replaying it.

Happened to me with Witcher 3. IIRC I got hooked into playing some other game with my friends, so most of my playtime went into whatever game that was. And since I have a really hard time getting back into aa RPG mid-playthrough if I spend too long not playing it, I couldn't really bring myself to go back into that playthrough (and also didn't really have a desire to start back from the very beginning).

Yeah a bunch. FF14 is a good example for me.

I'll really like something and then start putting these unrealistic expectations on myself, like collect every Triple Triad card possible as I went along the MSQs. Or have two classes at max by end of expac 1, 3 classes by end of expac 2, etc.

And I talked myself into thinking I was a bad tank and ruined everyone's experience while running dungeons, despite the fact I've had maybe one person die and it was their fault.

And I couldn't do a dungeon blind, I had to look up the boss strats and watch a video on the dungeon before I even queued for it and took notes in a separate notepad document I could look to really quick about the bosses. Because again, if I didn't know them I felt I would be ruining everyone's fun.

I made it not-fun for myself. It's totally an issue with me, not the game.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Is that fun though?
I find it weird to call a game good but have no interest in replaying it.

I replay games less not never.

Really not strange especially with many games shifting to being massive open world or live service behemoths nowadays.

All the time

furb posted...

All the time

All the time, every time I need it
What's the time I say the time is right

I did with my original playthrough of Chrono Cross back when it came out. I'd gotten as far as the Green Dragon boss and just couldn't beat him, so I started playing Chrono Trigger (PlayStation version) instead, which was also my first time playing that game. I played it through to completion and afterward I switched back to Chrono Cross, managed to beat the Green Dragon, and continued on with the rest of the game.

Playing the games in that manner allowed me to appreciate what both had to offer.