“I had one question for ya to see if this issue is just me or if it happens to others. I’m 30 and have been gaming since I was 3 and this has just started happening to me within the last year or so. Do you ever just have to pause a game you are playing, put your controller down and just look around on the internet for a while, like you just lost all interest in your game?? I ask because I’ve been like that a lot lately and was wondering if anyone else does it. For example, I got ME3 from Gamefly several months back, got to the female Krogan rescue mission, and just lost all interest instantly and sent it back. I’ve since bought the game to force me to actually play it so that I’ll get my money out of it, and I can’t figure out what made me put it down cause I like it now. I also recently got DmC free on PS+ and sort of had to quit it for lack of interest. Anyway, sorry for rambling and keep up the good work.”
-David
Y’know, I’ve totally been there! Although video games are, like, my passion and my everything and my life and what I look forward to every morning, I’ve found that it takes quite a special game to keep me hooked for hours and hours on end. Y’know, a game that you cannot put down even if you need eat and/or drink in order to sustain life. The games that do manage to keep me from living a healthy lifestyle are generally VERY story-driven games. Makes sense, right? The better the story the more time you want to spend with it! So, my first thought was maybe you aren’t digging the stories of the games you’re playing. But then again not everyone plays games for the story — some play for the actual gameplay itself, for example. So ask yourself, dear David, what is it that you want and crave from a video game? A story? Gameplay? Action? Exploration?
Since this just started happening, maybe ask yourself if a big change recently occurred in your life. Perhaps you’re feeling a bit stressed, overwhelmed and/or distracted with something and therefore your ability to focus on anything else is hindered. I’ve found if something serious is happening (like an injury/death in the family or whatnot) video games aren’t my go-to medicine. In fact, I find it hard to enjoy a video game if some shit is really going down — I feel like whatever unfortunate happenstance (whatever it may be) that’s going on affects my ability to enjoy the game. That may sound like a no brainer, but I personally know several people who can escape ANYTHING by gaming.
Anywho, if you can relate to David let me know! I’m a curious cat myself.
I’m a very distracted gamer. My Grandbaby is spending the week with her parents and I have a TON of gaming time while she’s not here. I played Sims 3 yesterday and while playing, mopped my kitchen, cleaned mirrors, my shower walls, did a load of laundry and surfed social media via my phone. I think I’m so used to having to run after a toddler everything, in my mind, runs on ‘a few minutes here and then go do something real quick’. If that makes sense. I watch tv like that a lot, too.
It’s embarrassing but … It’s also one of the reasons I play so many solo games now or solo play when in an MMO.
Ah, makes sense! It sounds like that stuff between your ears isn’t currently programmed to focus on one thing at a time! ;D Thanks for sharing!
Getting a gf has cut into my marathon sessions but even before that I was finding I couldn’t stay as focused on MMOs like I used to. After college I was able to just put myself into a zone and be totally focused. Now it happens occasionally but not at will. Too many ‘real life’ things split my attention. Hoping my new headset setup helps.
I am ridiculous as far as attention span is concerned, and I find it really easy to get distracted. Games are no exception; despite how much I adore games and how much time I dedicate to playing them, I often alt-tab out to browse the net, update my blog or check Twitter, maybe even walk away from the PC briefly and get distracted by something shiny on the other side of my apartment.
I also find it happens within gaming – I might play one game for an hour or two, then stop and play something else rather than continuing to work on the first one. Or, when I play an MMO (currently loving FFXIV) I have “altitis” and always want to try new classes or builds. But hey, as long as we’re having fun, right?
I tend to stop playing a game if I don’t connect with it, for whatever reason. I’m having this problem with South Park: The Stick of Truth. It’s a fun game, and completely hilarious, but for whatever reason it’s just not connecting with me. I exited in the middle of a battle and haven’t been back.
David doesn’t say if he played ME1 or ME2. I think it would be hard to connect with ME3 if you hadn’t.
So much of what happens in the first two games is building that relationship between you and Shepard, and all the other characters. It would be a completely different game for someone who came into ME3 fresh, without that history with the characters.
Like Britt said – the storyline of the game makes a big difference to me as to how much I get into it and how long it holds my attention, but if I enjoy the game enough, it’s going to keep my attention, period (Titanfall – no story worth mentioning, tons of fun).
That said, I WANT to like some games and I get part way through and just go, “meh.” Dead Rising 3 was a great example of that (although I wasn’t close to 1/2 way). Anyway, what it boils down to for me is: is what I’m playing doing it for me? Do I have something more fun or that I’m more excited about (A new book by Kevin Hearne? Game of Thrones is back on?) than the game/s I have queued up? I mean, in the case of Aliens: Colonial Marines, noticing that the TV stand was a little dusty would have been enough to get me to shut down the system and start cleaning BECAUSE IT WAS MORE ENJOYABLE. HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, GEARBOX?
Ahem. Sorry. Still a little bitter about that. Anyway. It happens. And sometimes it’s the opposite – all you want to do is play one game.
The only times it has really happened to me is when the story progression seems to have undergone a pretty unusual shift or that there’s TOO much to do. I ended up giving up on Skyrim because there was just too much to do and the main story didn’t really grasp my attention. The unusual thing was, I love the Fallout games, but I think the setting and the cheekiness of the world was something that definitely kept my focus and attention and increases my craving to return to the game.
Other games like Diablo 3 or other dungeon crawlers can have this effect, where the idea of just killing things to loot and level wasn’t as fun if the story wasn’t as engaging, but…they’re more fun mindless entertainment to me than say a shooter (nowadays, anyway).
Games for me, just recently, have lost their flare. I used to love playing games and it didn’t matter what it was. Now I feel I wait for the next new thing to come out, only to be disappointed by shoddy testing and development policies that ultimately ruin a lot of the AAA titles out there. Plus the reiteration of classics like Call of Duty and Battlefield, only further reinforces the boredom factor and loss of interest.
Could it be possible that at a certain stage in life you just tire of everything you once thought was a staple in your life such as gaming?
This happen to me with MMO’s. My first thought was “those
evil, faceless, soulless gaming companies. They did this to me. It because of
THEM that I cant enjoy my game as much as I did before.” So I tried playing a
number of different MMO’s but I got the same effect. So I switched genres. I
tried playing games like Diablo 3, Starcraft 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare,
Halo, Fuse, Injustice, Mortal Kombat, and Streetfighter X Tekken. But I got the
same effect. GREAT GAMES! I can see why people like to play them so much. Yet,
I lost interest in them rather quickly. Then I started playing card games,
board games, and role playing games (pen and pencil) with friends and THOSE
games I can play for hours and hours. (Much love for Cards Against Humanity) So
I am not sure but I kind of agree with that one guy that said maybe after a
certain age your tastes in games change. It could also be true that certain
events in your life tend to take over and you cant escape the “feelings” that
you have for these events. But it still bugs me that I cant get into video
games like I did before.
One factor I’m finding lately that is making me lack on the game playing is work. I’ve played video games for as long as I can remember but now I started a new job being a tech guy for a big company. I stare at a computer screen going through code and whatnot all day then when I get home I really don’t feel like looking at a screen anymore. The game needs to have a good story, something needs to force me to look at a screen after 8hrs at my job, haha. I find myself playing a lot of classics nowadays, new games just don’t have the good story that grabs my attention.