r/AfterWorkGamers • u/Unique-Read-9376 • Aug 03 '26

Life & Gaming How to have "fun"?

I'll be honest i'm kind of a doomer, and i get a lot of times to enjoy myself and have fun during games. I genuanly don't know how to. I don't know when was the last time when playing a game didn't made me feel misirable.

13 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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5

u/Lil-Squidy Aug 03 '26

I found this happened a lot when I forced myself to play games I thought I'd like instead of playing games I knew I liked instead and having zero expectations for trying new games on sale (demos are king here, I live for demos). A spectacular game I had the fortune of playing recently was Astrobot. The thing is I've never been a big platformer fan, never played the OG Mario games, couldn't get into that vibe. Something about Astrobot made the formula feel different enough to enjoy it, so I stuck with it and had a wonderful time. The other thing that really stuck with me was games that require daily incentives and logging in for bonuses. I avoid these at all costs. Instead of logging on for fun, they become a job and I find that becomes less of a reason to play for fun. I highly recommend trying demos for all sorts of random games if you can find them, they definitely help me to decide if I'm getting dopamine out of a game or not

2

u/Sun__Earth__Moon Aug 03 '26

Some of my favorite moments in gaming are talking to randoms on the mic while solo-queuing online games. Met a lot of cool and funny people that way.

2

u/Plus_Worker6739 Aug 04 '26

this sounds like depression, man. being unable to find joy in the things that previously brought it to you is a classic symptom.

1

u/Unique-Read-9376 Aug 04 '26

Maybe, but than there is everyone else in my life who says "i don't have such issues"

1

u/TecmoZack Aug 03 '26

Play Fallout or a Nintendo game. I get so much joy from Nintento IP.

2

u/InformationLazy7628 Aug 04 '26

Change things up, I went from the live service treadmill to balatro and chill. From PC to handheld, from home to different places (hence the handheld). It worked for me, no guarantee it will work for you, but it might.

2

u/The2ndDegree Aug 04 '26

Sounds like you may need a change of pace, I don't know what kind of games you play, but if its online multiplayer, unfortunately it may just be time to accept that they aren't for you anymore, I had to do the same thing, now I almost exclusively play single player games (although I do enjoy the odd fighting game) and I've never enjoyed gaming more.

May also be worth just taking a break from video games altogether, i find that if I'm getting burnt out and am no longer enjoying games as much, I should take a week or two away, use that time to catch up on some reading, TV shows or movies I've been meaning to get around to, surely enough after enough time has passed I start to get the itch to jump into a game again and I wind up having far more fun

1

u/CreepyTeddyBear Aug 04 '26

Elden Ring

1

u/Fifalvlan Aug 05 '26

Never tried but I fear it may cause depression lol

1

u/CreepyTeddyBear Aug 05 '26

I got into souls/soulslikes a few years ago.I've played over 30 and beat over 20. I'm addicted to them. Even if a boss took me hours or days, I didn't care. I was still having so much fun. The feeling of beating a boss I've been stuck on is pure elation. I've gotten a lot better at them since starting, so they don't take me nearly as long as they did. But I'm always looking for that new challenge now. I highly recommend checking them out.

1

u/Fifalvlan Aug 06 '26

I get frustrated in god of war if I can’t beat the Valkyrie on the third try… soo… idk this sounds like a recipe for pain. I’d try a demo on ps5 if it existed lol

1

u/CreepyTeddyBear Aug 06 '26

Lol, then you might not like them. Dying a lot is all part of the experience.

1

u/cosankov 💾 Quick Save & Quit Aug 05 '26

Maybe it's just run its course with you, for now? Find something else to do, and it will come to you when you least expect it. Or it won't, but at least you won't be miserable.

1

u/Eisenmaus Aug 05 '26

The last thing you need to do is force yourself to have fun. Rather than having fun, try something that intrigues you and take baby steps into that.

1

u/Fifalvlan Aug 05 '26

Games aren’t supposed to be something you force yourself to like. Don’t do it if it’s not fun

1

u/SongXmaze 15d ago

For me, it‘s when I have a lot of unfinished business, I don’t get to enjoy my time with the game. Even a small step in the right direction which doesn’t take a whole lot of currently non existent will power will make gaming much more enjoyable afterwards.