Recently for my mental health I decided to stop playing competitive games. You know, your Battlefields, your Call of Duty’s, your War Thunders, etc. I found myself angry more than I was having fun. For the past ten years… I don’t think I ever ended a session of a player vs player match - “happy.” Now I’m playing mostly singleplayer games with some MMORPGs. I am much happier. I actually look forward to gaming when I can. There is enough to get mad at in the world, I don’t want my entertainment medium of choice to be anger inducing as well. I feel like the worst part about the vast majority of player vs player games is that someone basically has to not be having fun for the other person to have fun. Not universal, and probably more a matter of personal mindset but it’s how I feel. I was just wondering how many if any comrades here have done the same and how it has effected you? I can confidentally say my life is better for it.
I’ve been playing House Flipper 2 a lot, which is a good detox from high stress games. Getting back into EU4 as well, beating up Europe at every chance I can get. Trying to learn Kremlingames games, mostly China: Mao’s Legacy. Flying the MiG-19 in DCS, my favorite plane. It’s been fun, and better. I do not miss War Thunder too much.
I’m not knocking people who like high action player vs player enviroments, it’s just something I have grown to not enjoy anymore personally.
Yeah, I have stopped really caring for competitive games for 3 or 4 years, if not more, now. Playing with friends can be a blast tho, and that’s what I do when it’s a competitive game. Usually it’s league of legends for me, but I play very little of it now, which is to be expected when you play the same game for a decade lol.
Gaming in general for the past years have been tough for me because despite genuinely loving it, my mental health have steadily declined to the point I have trouble even starting anything, let alone continuing to play something I have started, but right now I’m playing Breath of the Wild and Baldur’s Gate 3, both for the first time and let me tell you, I’m having a blast and don’t feel like stopping anytime soon. Single-player games are fucking great.
Now, I don’t think the issue with competitive games is the fact that someone will get the short end of the stick and not have fun. If that was the case, fighting games would be dead by now. You can absolutely have fun while losing. The issue I have always seen, in league at least, is that you’re alone, there’s no collective sentiment when playing, no team mentality, most people are hostile and everyone is trying to win in a selfish way and because of that you get frustrated, which eventually turns to anger, and all of that most likely ties to the hyper-individualization of the self under capitalism. Every now and then you find a team that clicks, where everyone communicates and play for each other, instead of in spite of each other, and when it happens it’s fucking great, even when you end up losing.
Yeah I somewhat regret saying that aloud because it just makes me look like a sore loser, but hey, at least I’m avoiding situations where I’m a sore loser. 😅
Nah, it didn’t came accross like you’re a sore loser. What you said is not wrong, it can’t always be fun, and for some people losing is always not fun.