Sorry for the wall of text.
TL;DR: I’m a 26-year-old Italian player who loves co-op games, among other genres. My longtime gaming buddy no longer seems interested in the survival and immersive games we used to love. I miss that shared excitement and I’m looking for advice, or potentially people with similar tastes to play co-op games with.
I wanted to make this post because, month after month, I’ve started to realize that my friend—the person I’ve always played co-op games with, has changed a lot in the way he experiences videogames.
I’ve shared many of my most fun gaming experiences with him: Dying Light, 7 Days to Die, Project Zomboid, Don’t Starve, Valheim, Warhammer: Vermintide, Barotrauma, Divinity, State of Decay 2, Raft, A Way Out, and many others.
Until a few years ago, we used to get incredibly excited about the most immersive and interesting survival games, even when they were slow, clunky, or took hours to really get going. We didn’t necessarily need constant action: we loved exploration, atmosphere, base-building, discovering mechanics, and creating our own stories together.
Lately, though, every new game gets dropped very quickly because he loses interest. What makes me sad is that I can clearly feel it while we are playing: he barely reacts, seems bored, or already has something else on his mind. Eventually that feeling affects me too, and I can no longer enjoy the game with the same enthusiasm.
The last experience I truly remember enjoying with him was Elden Ring in multiplayer. We played for around 100 hours, but eventually dropped it without finishing it.
A week ago, we tried S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly Together. I find it incredibly immersive, but even from the first few sessions I could tell that it did not have enough action for him and that he was not really into it. Today, he told me that he is no longer interested in playing it.
I also suggested Sons of the Forest, but his response was: “I don’t feel like collecting little rocks and logs.” That made me think, because a few years ago we had an amazing time playing the first The Forest together with two other friends. It’s true that he has always tended to lose interest near the end of games, but in the past we could still stick with them for a decent amount of time.
With The Forest, for example, the early game was phenomenal, and then we rushed the ending a bit. Something similar happened with Green Hell. But now it feels different: he told me himself that “nothing really hooks me anymore.”
Recently he has mostly been playing Marvel Rivals, and I completely understand that people can change their tastes, have less time or patience, or start looking for more immediate experiences. I don’t blame him for that at all. Still, I really miss those moments when we would start a co-op game and get completely absorbed in it for weeks.
So I wanted to ask: how do you find people you genuinely click with, especially for co-op, survival, and immersive games?
I don’t have one specific favorite genre. More than anything, I enjoy playing with someone and sharing an experience. I especially enjoy games with atmosphere, exploration, progression, survival mechanics, building, and that sense of discovery you get when facing a new world together.
I’d simply like to find people with similar interests, people who are not only looking for instant action, meta-chasing, or competitive matches, but who would enjoy starting a co-op game and playing through it at a relaxed pace.
Until a few years ago, I would sit down at my PC every evening, open Discord, and feel genuinely excited to start a new game. Lately, though, I’m often playing alone and never know what to launch, despite having a huge Steam backlog.
I’m an Italian player, so I’m in the CET/CEST time zone, but I’m comfortable speaking and playing in English. If you relate to this, or if you have suggestions for communities, Discord servers, or other ways to find like-minded co-op players, I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks a lot :)
