Maybe this doesn’t need to be said but this is a different question to which video game genres do you enjoy. For example, I enjoy playing Dota 2. Every few months or so, I’ll play it for a couple of weeks and put it back down. I’ll never play more than two or three matches and I feel ‘present’ for the duration.
Paradox grand strategy games (especially EUIV), however, I can start playing at 7am and in a blink of an eye it can be 11pm and I won’t have eaten or used the toilet or anything. I can do this for multiple days in a row. Furthermore, I don’t often feel like I’m ‘enjoying’ it. I’m just consumed by it.
I’m intrigued to hear whether or not anyone recognises this difference in themselves. If you have any insight as to why you’re consumed by some games and not others, I’d be very interested.
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Satisfactory minecraft and monster hunter
I got absolutely consumed by Dead cells. I put more hours into it in a few months than I did a game I’ve been playing with a friend for 5 years at the time. There’s another game in the same Genre that I can’t rember the name of, but the high skill, PVE games like those if they catch my eye, oof, I go HARD.
No one for rougelikes?
I dont even like them that much is just the only things I can play sometimes.
Minecraft, if I’ve got a project to do.
I run a local server so that I can play with my kid, but I’m the one who has to actually get things done. Simple things like looking for diamonds is enough to keep me playing for hours. I’ll find a vein, and I think that’s not enough, I need to find more, so I’ll find half a dozen more veins, but then my brain switches to the ‘I may as well carry on’ mindset.
I mined a mountain down to ground level recently because the top was spoiling the view from our village, and once I started, it was quite soothing.
Management games where I can play really slowly and focus on small details, normally on very hard mode too so a lot of the easy ones don’t make the cut.
Football Manager and Software Inc are probably the ones I go back to most often.
Also 99% of the games I play I never complete…
Factorio. At one point I binged so much that I started seeing conveyor belts in my sleep.
Ah, the Tetris effect
I can barely put down Ace Attorney style games. I love experiences where I get to unravel a mystery.
It’s also really easy to spend a long time grinding in old school Maple. Just monotonous enough to be soothing, just active enough to keep my attention on it.
Euro Truck Simulator
Kerbal Space ProgramKSP pulls me in for awhile until some bullshit bug ruins a mission I spent hours on
factorio has stolen months from me
You’re not alone. Factorio induces hyperfocus in the neurotypical. You and I never stood a chance.
I only have 1000 hours in Factorio, what are you up to?
This also my be a bad ideal telling you, but there is a DLC coming out for Factorio and boy does it look good.
Only 244.6 hours but 99% of those were within a two week period last winter.
Soon the factory will grow to other planets.
Sounds like there’ll be shit growing on me by the time Factorio + Expansion lets go of me.
Yeah, anything competitive is too stressful for me to be able to just play for hours on end. I’m playing Deadlock at the moment and I’m typically taking a break after every one or two games just to control my mood.
Football Manager was the worst for me I’d say. Consumed months at a time. Civilization can eat a day easily if you’re not careful. Really, anything I can control the pace of that I get interested in and that doesn’t have a story. I enjoy narrative games, but they require a different type of focus and concentration that takes a lot more energy. I can’t play those for days on end, even hours on end. I can get obsessed by then, and I can play tons of hours over the course of a week, but I don’t hyperfocus on them the same way.
Anything management or strategy however, where you’re working for incremental progress and “just one more turn”? That’s dangerous. Last little obsession I had was Esports Godfather, a MOBA themed deckbuilder/autobattler/management game that has probably been my surprise hit of the year and which was gloriously addicting.
Furthermore, I don’t often feel like I’m ‘enjoying’ it. I’m just consumed by it.
Recognise this feeling very well, from a lot of things when I hyperfocus on it. It’s almost a sensation like nausea, that palpable feeling of not being in control, for me at least. Especially bad when I briefly snap into self-awareness - but not enough to break out of the hyperfocus.
Basebuilders, 4Xs, Incrementals, and Survival Crafters
Once I burn out I try to stay away as long as possible for the sake of getting other things done and having a sane sleep schedule.
Compare with RPGs, farm sims, platformers, action adventure games, and roguelikes, which I can pick up and put down much more easily without disrupting other aspects of my life.
Thanks for providing examples that you enjoy but don’t induce hyper-focus. I relate to the ‘consciously’ avoiding aspect. Sadly PDS games are only ever like 2GB downloads, so uninstalling them only buys me like an hour of freedom.
What are Incrementals, out of curiosity?
Incremental games are a bit of an “I know it when I see it” grouping, but two typical characteristics are progression systems nested within each other and game loops that start simple but “flower” into a number of more detailed and mutually interacting ones over the course of play.
Universal Paperclips is a nice example, casting you as a newly built AI with the goal of making as many paperclips as you can. You start out able to make paperclips and sell them to humans for funds you can then use to invest in more capabilities. You work on building trust with the humans so they’ll let you do more things, and on making more clips faster, and there is a lot of escalation from these humble beginnings. Some other good ones are Cookie Clicker and, if you’re into programming puzzles, Bitburner.
Games where the purpose is to optimize productivity, efficiency, and achieving accomplishments improve effectiveness. Or complex/realistic simulation games. So games like SimCity, Tropico, Kerbal Space Program, and MS Flight Simulator 2020.
It’s just too rewardingggg 🫨
For me, it’s Fallout, Elder Scrolls, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Hearthstone and Stardew Valley.
But pretty much anything like those will do it if I’m enjoying myself.
With TES, Fallout and Stardew, I’ve definitely had something approaching hyperfocus. Not as severe as my PDS hyperfocus. Never with MMOs though. I’ve played a decent amount of a few but could never play more than one or two hours per day.
In WoW, I was a solo player that wanted to do everything. So, I’d go to a town, grab all the quests, and start crossing them off until it was time to go to the next one. And in between, I just spend hours wandering around looking for flowers to pick or ore to mine.
Quick and twitchy FPS games. Reason I was so upset when roblox ditched wine support is because it deprived me of my daily dose of randomizer and bad business.
4X games, specifically any of the Civilization games I’ve played (everything but SMAC & Civ: Beyond Earth).
MMORPG, specifically Elder Scrolls Online.
Have you ever tried a Paradox Grand Strategy game?
