Hello, friends from VGChartz. I hope you're all doing well.

So, I'm not one of those people who are really good at putting thoughts into words, or make some long texts. But since this post I felt like updating my situation from time to time. Specially since I got some really good advices and friends around here.

First of all, about my mental health... I am mostly fine right now, and I feel like I'm not even the same person I was about 10 years ago, and that's a good thing (The worries about the future aren't getting better, and sometimes it drives me crazy, though). I changed a bit my way of living, now I focus more on treating people the way I want to be treated (As seen here).

Opening myself to other people is making a lot of difference. Much better than holding my thoughts to myself.

Now, for the main topic of this forum... Video games.

I think my enthusiasm to play video games has reached a "bottom of the well" state, where on the last couple of months, no game has managed to grab my attention for over one week.

The last game I purchased on Steam was "AI2U: With you till the end" last month. It's a cute/creepy game where you have to escape the room of a vicious girl by talking freely to her and avoiding getting murdered. It's fun, but since it's on Early Access, I don't feel like playing it until it's more like "finished".

I started Resident Evil 6 on Steam again, on a journey to get ready for Requiem, the only new game on my radar right now. But since I finished Leon, Chris and Jake's campaign in the past, it's on a hold. A couple of days ago I began Resident Evil 7, to see if I manage to beat it this time. I'm enjoying it, but I really hope it doesn't turn on another game where I will stop midway because "I'm not having fun anymore".

Believe me, I tried A LOT of games on the past months, but not a single one caught my attention. I even tried some Switch games via Ryujinx, like Super Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Kirby Star Allies... Kirby was the only one that got me hooked, but I didn't went as far as World 2. I don't know, maybe the current Nintendo is not for me anymore.

I think the last game I finished for real was Anonymous; Code, and that was at early January. Since then I started some Visual Novels, but haven't finished any of them. I still want to finish "Witch on the Holy Night", but I don't know when, and I don't want to "force myself" into playing it, or else I won't be able to true enjoy it.

One of my current joys is to watch my Project Helix thread (Here) and update it with news. So I'll keep seeking news about the new Xbox hardware and check the thread from time to time. My current plan is to beat Resident Evil 7, then start Village, and get myself ready for Requiem (Probably when the price is lower). I'll keep talking about video games, since it's my childhood hobby, but I really hope I'll be able to truly enjoy it again soon.

That's it, thanks for reading it!

I want to give some shoutouts to really nice users that helped me through some dark moments in my life. I probably won't be able to remember everyone, so please, if I forget you, forgive me.

curl-6, BraLoD, trunkswd, Shikamo, Jizz_Beard_thePirate, XtremeBG, CGI-Quality, and a lot of others. You guys are really nice to talk to.

Glad you're mostly fine now, though I do hope you feel better soon; thanks for the shoutout, happy if I helped.

Reagrding gaming, when I get burned out on it, I find taking a break can help "reset" my brain. Focus on something else for a while; not sure what other hobbies you have but for me reading, fitness, movies, etc can fill that gap for a little while until my gaming block resolves.

Wishing you all the best.

I’m glad to hear all is well with you, Alex. Thank you for sharing. Not sure if my two cents will be of any use, but just to touch briefly on the topic of “gaming burnout”: I speak as somebody who only enjoyed a very small handful of games for a big chunk of my life: I only played Skylanders from 2012 through 2016, I only played Zelda BotW & Mario Odyssey during 2017, and anything else (and I mean *anything* else) was agonizing to play… 3D Zelda was especially boring, 2D games felt like lesser versions of 3D, 3D Mario felt utterly awful to play in comparison to Odyssey, Splatoon didn’t click, RPGs were simply button mashers filled with text, etc. This was all the more exacerbated by serious mental health issues relating to an unfortunate side effect of contracting COVID during 2020– between the years 2019 and 2022, I only found two games that I genuinely enjoyed. And yet, here I am today with 3D Zelda & 3D Mario filling my all-time favorite games. With games as panned as Welcome Tour and DragXDrive sucking me in to everything they have to offer.

Here’s my pro-tip: If you need motivation to play through an entire game, come up with a goal. For me, that goal was to finish my backlog, to build up my catalogue of gaming experiences, as well as to see if I could ever top my previous record in number of hours spent in a single game (Spoiler Alert: TotK blew my previous record out of the water).

Here’s my second pro-tip: If a game isn’t clicking with you, ask yourself why. Don’t look at the game with a judgmental lens, but look at yourself. What is it about your approach to the game that makes it click far less than with so many others? Once you understand the reason for other people’s appreciation, then you’ll struggle to find a game that doesn’t utterly suck you in.

Ultimately, however, what works for me may not work for others. It’s an unfortunate reality. However, if anything I say here is of any use, then that would make me all the more glad! Also important is to remember: No hobby will last for all eternity. Sometimes obsessions will come and go… I was once obsessed with Skylanders, but now that’s nothing more than a fun thing I glance at every now and again. Same goes for piano and french horn, for mathematics, for Pokémon, for… everything in my life! So, don’t be anxious when that day inevitably comes when you lose a lot of that passion. Accept it and move forward. If you want to keep the hobby, then fight for it. Otherwise, search for a new one. We worship not trinkets and gadgets, and whether the new Mario gives me a violent dopamine boost or not, the sun will still rise.

(And thus concludes prolly my longest, most thoughtful post on this site. Lol! I really hope something helped here— I know I’m only in my early-20s so its bold to speak so much “wisdom,” but never know what may be useful.)

I relate to the lack of games gripping me. For portions of my life, I was able to get gripped by games a lot.
Now, I often lack the focus or motivation. I feel like it's a lose-lose no matter what I do. If I focus on one or two games, I still struggle. And if I juggle 4 or more, well it's usually longer to get through them.

Don't know you bro, but would give a hug if i met you.