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Just in case the occasional anti-games mentality rears its ugly head around here: whilst there are lots of good suggestions coming up, games are certainly a pre

Just in case the occasional anti-games mentality rears its ugly head around here: whilst there are lots of good suggestions coming up, games are certainly a pretty solid way to relax too. In the last couple of months I've been recovering from mild-to-moderate burnout symptoms myself, and a lot of how I've been doing that is playing The Witcher 3. It works. (It probably helps if the game you're playing is one of the most astonishing artistic creations of the last couple of years, to be fair.) The big thing is this: you can't force it. One plausible explanation for burnout is that it's a defense mechanism from your subconscious against excessive delayed gratification: if you're very self-disciplined and work very hard on something that you think will give you rewards in the end, but doesn't whilst you're doing it, then don't get those rewards, after a while you start building up subconscious resistance to doing that again. It sounds like you're not too long away from the death-march project. If so, just give it some more time of not trying to do things (counter-intuitive and often scary for highly motivated people, I know), and see how you're doing in a month or two.

stuxnet79 11y ago
Yes, there's a lot of bias against gaming, which to me isn't right. However, I find that playing video games feels either too dry or too much like work these days. I spent a significant amount of money building a gaming PC just to get back into the gaming life but I never play the damn thing because the games I have are either too boring or too hard to play in short bursts. I've pretty much burned out on gaming ... lool. What was initially a recreational hobby became too serious and time consuming and it sucked all the joy out of it. So moral of the story is, try to balance your life a bit more.
- thenomad 11y ago
  Yeah, that can totally happen. I know people who burned out pretty hard doing things like running MMO guilds or trying to compete in PvP games like Hearthstone. Definitely, do what works for you at that time.
- ionised 11y ago
  I find that multiplayer games can become like this, which is why I mostly play immersive or lengthy single player games.
violentvinyl 11y ago
I'd like to add my 2 pence to the notion of gaming to relax. For someone who isn't a regular gamer, it isn't a relaxing thing to do. It's frustrating to have to master new controls, and every new game mechanic requires some kind of mental gymnastics, not to mention the hand-eye co-ordination to master. For people who have, or do play games with some regularity, it is a great way to relax. New control schemes have a very shallow learning curve, and it's rare that a regular gamer encounters an entirely new game mechanic. For example, my father in law was playing a COD game after not having played video games for many, many years, and was stuck at a certain point. After watching him sit through a brief cut scene, and then furiously mash the buttons on the controller, I intuitively realized what he was doing wrong. He was trying to "play the game" as he normally did, but didn't notice the little button icon at the bottom of the screen to signify a quick time event, and had never seen one before either. As a result, he was hitting the wrong button, only to watch the cut scene finish with his character dieing (he admitted to having sat through this 20+ times). I myself, will often play games for a few hours after my wife has gone to bed, and on more than one occassion, I've complained about not having the energy to do anything prodcutive after the evening meal, and she likes to say something to the tune of "but you play video games for hours?". For her, playing video games is a tense, mind racing activity that requires lots of thought and manual dexterity. For me, it's little more than an interactive story with the occassional challenge (and they're usually bested after a second attempt, even at harder skill levels) and allows me to tune out for a bit before bed.
ionised 11y ago
PC gaming is absolutely one of the main ways I relax in my spare time. It always will be because it's so effective (and fun).
brianwawok 11y ago
Gaming is a great way to blow off some steam! For me personally the trick is to console game. I must prefer PC games, I prefer mice, I prefer RTS.. but I spend WAY too long on my computer. I physically cannot do it to "relax". So its off to the living room and play the PS4.
- thenomad 11y ago
  I strongly recommend acquiring a Steam Link and Steam Controller, in that case. I have them, and they're incredibly useful to play PC games - yes, even RTSes and other mouse-heavy games - in a console way.
  - brianwawok 11y ago
    That is a good idea. I have a lot of games to play through on the PS4, but may consider that down the road. Anything to get me out of my desk!
askafriend 11y ago
Just don't play League of Legends. It's a game to play only if you want to get extremely stressed out and angry at everything in life :)
- thenomad 11y ago
  Heh, yeah, I keep considering getting into LoL or DOTA then remembering why I don't. It's a pity. They look like fantastic, deep games. But there's the whole "other people" problem...

stuxnet79 11y ago

Yes, there's a lot of bias against gaming, which to me isn't right. However, I find that playing video games feels either too dry or too much like work these days. I spent a significant amount of money building a gaming PC just to get back into the gaming life but I never play the damn thing because the games I have are either too boring or too hard to play in short bursts. I've pretty much burned out on gaming ... lool. What was initially a recreational hobby became too serious and time consuming and it sucked all the joy out of it. So moral of the story is, try to balance your life a bit more.

thenomad 11y ago
Yeah, that can totally happen. I know people who burned out pretty hard doing things like running MMO guilds or trying to compete in PvP games like Hearthstone. Definitely, do what works for you at that time.
ionised 11y ago
I find that multiplayer games can become like this, which is why I mostly play immersive or lengthy single player games.

violentvinyl 11y ago

I'd like to add my 2 pence to the notion of gaming to relax. For someone who isn't a regular gamer, it isn't a relaxing thing to do. It's frustrating to have to master new controls, and every new game mechanic requires some kind of mental gymnastics, not to mention the hand-eye co-ordination to master. For people who have, or do play games with some regularity, it is a great way to relax. New control schemes have a very shallow learning curve, and it's rare that a regular gamer encounters an entirely new game mechanic. For example, my father in law was playing a COD game after not having played video games for many, many years, and was stuck at a certain point. After watching him sit through a brief cut scene, and then furiously mash the buttons on the controller, I intuitively realized what he was doing wrong. He was trying to "play the game" as he normally did, but didn't notice the little button icon at the bottom of the screen to signify a quick time event, and had never seen one before either. As a result, he was hitting the wrong button, only to watch the cut scene finish with his character dieing (he admitted to having sat through this 20+ times). I myself, will often play games for a few hours after my wife has gone to bed, and on more than one occassion, I've complained about not having the energy to do anything prodcutive after the evening meal, and she likes to say something to the tune of "but you play video games for hours?". For her, playing video games is a tense, mind racing activity that requires lots of thought and manual dexterity. For me, it's little more than an interactive story with the occassional challenge (and they're usually bested after a second attempt, even at harder skill levels) and allows me to tune out for a bit before bed.

ionised 11y ago

PC gaming is absolutely one of the main ways I relax in my spare time. It always will be because it's so effective (and fun).

brianwawok 11y ago

Gaming is a great way to blow off some steam! For me personally the trick is to console game. I must prefer PC games, I prefer mice, I prefer RTS.. but I spend WAY too long on my computer. I physically cannot do it to "relax". So its off to the living room and play the PS4.

thenomad 11y ago
I strongly recommend acquiring a Steam Link and Steam Controller, in that case. I have them, and they're incredibly useful to play PC games - yes, even RTSes and other mouse-heavy games - in a console way.
- brianwawok 11y ago
  That is a good idea. I have a lot of games to play through on the PS4, but may consider that down the road. Anything to get me out of my desk!

askafriend 11y ago

Just don't play League of Legends. It's a game to play only if you want to get extremely stressed out and angry at everything in life :)

thenomad 11y ago
Heh, yeah, I keep considering getting into LoL or DOTA then remembering why I don't. It's a pity. They look like fantastic, deep games. But there's the whole "other people" problem...