In many ways, it's like falling out of love with someone. When once you were consumed by this thing, you feel nothing from it now. A void has replaced the excitement and fun. And what you're left with is the question of "What do I do now?"
- The good news is most gamers come across this challenge.
- This blog post will break down this problem and sort you out.
Breaking Down The Problem
So what exactly is going on right now?
- Video games are boring now
- I'm lost and feel an emptiness where passion and drive used to be
- I loved gaming so much, maybe more than anything
- Where did that love and passion go?
- Why do I not feel like playing anything anymore?
- Am I not a gamer anymore?
- What do I do now?
That's pretty much the gist of it, innit?
Add whatever is unique to your own story, remove what doesn't apply to you. This is a common problem amongst gamers. At a certain point, we get bored, even lose our passion for gaming.
So what caused this?
Add whatever is unique to your own story, remove what doesn't apply to you. This is a common problem amongst gamers. At a certain point, we get bored, even lose our passion for gaming.
So what caused this?
Chances Are You Burned Yourself Out
When you're a hardcore gamer, meaning you're passionate about the hobby and industry, it's easy to get burned out.
Consider not only the hours we invest each week into gaming, but the amount of effort we put in.
We want to get better at these games. Our mentality is completely different from the casual player, where they mostly log in to have a good time, but can stop like it's nothing. They don't have the powerful urge to climb the competency hierarchies of gaming like we do.
Consider not only the hours we invest each week into gaming, but the amount of effort we put in.
We want to get better at these games. Our mentality is completely different from the casual player, where they mostly log in to have a good time, but can stop like it's nothing. They don't have the powerful urge to climb the competency hierarchies of gaming like we do.
Burn out is one of the most likely culprits of why video games are boring right now.
Life Changes And Other Things Take Priority
The heroic call to adventure is what begets boys to become men (I really hope I used 'begets' the correct way).
- It's possible something inside you is pulling you towards ideas so powerful, playing video games just pale in comparison.
- Are there other things you subconsciously know you should do or pursue?
- Are their weaknesses you need to confront?
- Or have you developed passion for other interests/hobbies that are overshadowing your passion for gaming?
Ask yourself these things and be honest.
Clarifying what's going on in your mind is most important right now.
Clarifying what's going on in your mind is most important right now.
Are You Tired Of The Gaming Industry?
The best years of my gaming career were when Halo 2 and Halo 3 were supreme.
Then Halo Reach was released. I played until the "honeymoon" phase was over and I realized what a letdown the game was. The maps were uninspired and boring and the gameplay did not evolve, but rather copied features from Call of Duty, almost completely changing the Halo formula.
Then Halo Reach was released. I played until the "honeymoon" phase was over and I realized what a letdown the game was. The maps were uninspired and boring and the gameplay did not evolve, but rather copied features from Call of Duty, almost completely changing the Halo formula.
How could Bungie make these decisions?
Oh right... they were finished with the Halo franchise. I was heartbroken when they announced Reach would be their last Halo game, but this was just salt on the wound.
My friends and I played Halo 2 and 3 religiously. And after two weeks of Halo Reach, we were done with the game. Luckily Call of Duty: Black Ops would release in November of that year and mend my broken heart.
My friends and I played Halo 2 and 3 religiously. And after two weeks of Halo Reach, we were done with the game. Luckily Call of Duty: Black Ops would release in November of that year and mend my broken heart.
All hardcore gamers have stories like this, where the industry has disappointed us beyond belief. It just happened with Destiny 2, another Bungie title. These AAA developers and their... bad ideas.
When the industry only cares about the gamer's wallet, bad games are developed. Developers and publishers, for multiple reasons, lose sight of what gaming is: an artform.
When the industry only cares about the gamer's wallet, bad games are developed. Developers and publishers, for multiple reasons, lose sight of what gaming is: an artform.
Maybe you're tired of the gaming industry because none of the current games appeal to you!
Developers and publishers do not want to take risks with "out of box" ideas anymore, but instead will sacrifice originality and progress for what is safe. Because of this, we end up with stale video games that sit on the shelf of dying game shops.
The counter-argument to this point would be something like... but there are so many other games to play.
You have Overwatch, CSGO, Fortnite, PUBG, Rocket League, Dark Souls 3, etc. etc. etc.. But the popularity of these games alone do not make me want to play them. Like a good book, certain games grasp you and never let go, while other games simply don't interest you one bit.
It is when the developers of the games we love let us down, that is the tragedy.
Great games don't come around often, it's a big reason why they're so special to us. To go back to the days of early World of Warcraft... well, back then it was amazing, but times have changed.
So do you feel betrayed by the gaming industry?
Tis a common thing.
Developers and publishers do not want to take risks with "out of box" ideas anymore, but instead will sacrifice originality and progress for what is safe. Because of this, we end up with stale video games that sit on the shelf of dying game shops.
The counter-argument to this point would be something like... but there are so many other games to play.
You have Overwatch, CSGO, Fortnite, PUBG, Rocket League, Dark Souls 3, etc. etc. etc.. But the popularity of these games alone do not make me want to play them. Like a good book, certain games grasp you and never let go, while other games simply don't interest you one bit.
It is when the developers of the games we love let us down, that is the tragedy.
Great games don't come around often, it's a big reason why they're so special to us. To go back to the days of early World of Warcraft... well, back then it was amazing, but times have changed.
So do you feel betrayed by the gaming industry?
Tis a common thing.
Gaming Might Have Led You Into A Rut
The problem could be deeper than video games becoming boring.
We all know what it's like to find a new game and get enraptured by its spell. It's a fantastic feeling, after all, to be consumed by something so much, you can't stop thinking about it. It makes you stay up later than you should, throwing your sleep schedule completely off.
You wake up feeling groggy, but excited for a new day to play. You don't drink as much water as you should, you don't eat the healthiest of foods, and you snack constantly.
These little things add up quickly, sinking you deeper into murky territory. Over time, you lose balance in life and it slowly depletes you. One day you realize you're in the middle of a rut and have to get yourself out of it.
You wake up feeling groggy, but excited for a new day to play. You don't drink as much water as you should, you don't eat the healthiest of foods, and you snack constantly.
These little things add up quickly, sinking you deeper into murky territory. Over time, you lose balance in life and it slowly depletes you. One day you realize you're in the middle of a rut and have to get yourself out of it.
How Do I Solve This Problem?
The solutions I have to offer will be organized in two sections.
The first section will focus on curing your boredom and sparking a new flame in your gaming career. The second section will focus on a deeper solution if you can't or don't want to reignite your gaming passion.
The first section will focus on curing your boredom and sparking a new flame in your gaming career. The second section will focus on a deeper solution if you can't or don't want to reignite your gaming passion.
Join A Clan/Guild
Community is an important part of the gaming culture.
Playing games with others, especially friends, enriches the experience. The best times of my gaming career were times spent with my friends, hanging out in person or in the chat call, making each other laugh, debating over stuff, etc.
And the competition between friends will always make the entire group improve.
Playing games with others, especially friends, enriches the experience. The best times of my gaming career were times spent with my friends, hanging out in person or in the chat call, making each other laugh, debating over stuff, etc.
And the competition between friends will always make the entire group improve.
The thing I truly cherish the most about gaming is hanging out with my friends even though most of us are a thousand miles apart. I have a small group of best friends that have been with me for years because of our love for gaming.
In many ways, it's not about gaming, but spending time with them. Playing the game is just the activity we do while we talk.
In many ways, it's not about gaming, but spending time with them. Playing the game is just the activity we do while we talk.
Community, try to focus on that :)
And if you have trouble talking to new people, do your best to push yourself out of your comfort zone. It's worth it because you're opening yourself up to adding some cool new people into your life, potentially more best friends.
Increase The Challenge
A simple piece of advice, but a solid one.
Video games can get real boring when you're blasting through the enemy and overcoming challenges as if you have god mode enabled. Raise the difficulty, push yourself to overcome greater challenges, perform greater feats, do things the majority of gamers can only wish to do.
My favorite thing to do in competitive games is to pick one style of play or pick a weapon and master it. I love the idea of specializing. You can also go the other way and become the most complete, well-rounded player in the game.
My favorite thing to do in competitive games is to pick one style of play or pick a weapon and master it. I love the idea of specializing. You can also go the other way and become the most complete, well-rounded player in the game.
Revisit Your Favorite Games
It would serve you well to revisit your favorite video games.
Doing so may act as a reminder of why you love gaming and how it wasn't always boring. Reminisce over memorable moments, re-experience features and mechanics that felt so good and sweet -- doing this might not directly make games fun again, but would help frame this problem is a more balanced way.
Me personally, when video games became boring, I would jump to some pretty drastic conclusions and sell my games, only to have to buy them again because my passion for the hobby returned.
Doing so may act as a reminder of why you love gaming and how it wasn't always boring. Reminisce over memorable moments, re-experience features and mechanics that felt so good and sweet -- doing this might not directly make games fun again, but would help frame this problem is a more balanced way.
Me personally, when video games became boring, I would jump to some pretty drastic conclusions and sell my games, only to have to buy them again because my passion for the hobby returned.
Stop Playing Competitive Games
This solution is for the competitive gamers, obviously.
Friendly competition is healthy and critical to our development, but when you play too much... well, it will definitely lead to a rut. Take a break! Competitive games can consume your life.
Not only are you investing a lot of hours per day playing the game, but you're also:
Friendly competition is healthy and critical to our development, but when you play too much... well, it will definitely lead to a rut. Take a break! Competitive games can consume your life.
Not only are you investing a lot of hours per day playing the game, but you're also:
- Investing even more of your time by researching the game and how to improve
- What the meta currently is
- Watching gameplay videos
- News about the game and its developer
- Watching streamers play the game
- Especially when the pros log in and you can watch what they do in order to improve
Be honest with yourself, just how much of your time are you investing in this game? Calculate it like you're counting calories. You'll know if it's too much by using your own standards.
Give Competitive Games A Shot!
I know... this one is for the non-competitive gamers.
Competition in a game you care about can invigorate the killer instinct inside you and help you enter that sweet, sweet flow state. The trick is to find a game you care enough about to put a lot of effort into, not that single-player and co-op experiences don't require effort, just a different type.
Another simple solution, but one that might work out for you.
Revisit The Retro Realm
Harken back to the old days and revisit the precious gems of the golden age of gaming.
I don't know which generation is considered the official "golden age" of gaming, but you get me. Look through the catalogue of the old Nintendo consoles, the sega consoles, the... Dreamcast even!
Dust off the forebearers of the gaming world and you'll taste not only nostalgia, but what gaming is when stripped down to its essentials.
Okay I just looked it up, the golden age refers to when arcades were prevalent and in full force. The era that introduced home consoles (that can rival arcade hardware) is refered to as the "silver age".
Ha Research!
Anyways, simplicity and gaming fundamentals rendered down to its essentials ought to help sort you out. These games are also great to play in short bursts at a time, maybe 10-15 minutes before you turn it off. Or who knows, maybe you'll get entrapped by them and not realize hours have went by.
Dust off the forebearers of the gaming world and you'll taste not only nostalgia, but what gaming is when stripped down to its essentials.
Okay I just looked it up, the golden age refers to when arcades were prevalent and in full force. The era that introduced home consoles (that can rival arcade hardware) is refered to as the "silver age".
Ha Research!
Anyways, simplicity and gaming fundamentals rendered down to its essentials ought to help sort you out. These games are also great to play in short bursts at a time, maybe 10-15 minutes before you turn it off. Or who knows, maybe you'll get entrapped by them and not realize hours have went by.
Get Inspired By Indie Titles
This is a great solution and one I've utilized multiple times in my gaming career.
Like I said earlier in the post, the big AAA developers and publishers can't afford to take risks, which leads to fewer genuinely great games. This is where indie titles come into play.
These quirky, but powerful games are not only charming, but they are satisfying to play and will assuredly put a smile on your face and cure your boredom.
Like I said earlier in the post, the big AAA developers and publishers can't afford to take risks, which leads to fewer genuinely great games. This is where indie titles come into play.
These quirky, but powerful games are not only charming, but they are satisfying to play and will assuredly put a smile on your face and cure your boredom.
Yes I know I sound like a cheesy salesman from time to time, but I have a special place in my heart for indie games.
Not only are they unique and innovative, they're CHEAP too! I mean... look at one of my favorite games, it's called Spelunky. I bought this game on the PS Vita (I was really rooting for you, kid) and put in a solid 50-80 hours into it.
Then I bought it on steam when it went on sale for $2.50 and put in 380 more hours into it. And the game is so simple, but it works so darn well!
Not only are they unique and innovative, they're CHEAP too! I mean... look at one of my favorite games, it's called Spelunky. I bought this game on the PS Vita (I was really rooting for you, kid) and put in a solid 50-80 hours into it.
Then I bought it on steam when it went on sale for $2.50 and put in 380 more hours into it. And the game is so simple, but it works so darn well!
I squeezed that grape so dry, it turned into a raisin in my own hands.
And that raisin was delicious.
You Get The Idea, Just Do Your Best To Shake Things Up!
If you've been overdoing it on the competitive games, take a break from them with single player or co-op experiences!
If you've been doing single player games, mix it up with competitive games! Explore the catalogue of games available to you and shake your boredom off that brain of yours.
If you've been doing single player games, mix it up with competitive games! Explore the catalogue of games available to you and shake your boredom off that brain of yours.
Watch Someone Else Play Games
This is my last solution for this section, but many times, it's nice to just watch someone else play the game instead of doing it yourself.
Even though a lot of people, especially the older generations, wouldn't understand watching someone play instead of playing yourself, think about the billions of traditional sports fans that do the very same thing.
It's another experience altogether to watch skilled gamers play, there are many content creators that are hilarious and entertaining and even thought-provoking. These personalities are the celebrities of the gaming industry.
This solution is a great one because you get involved in a subcommunity within this hobby and you'll get inspired to take on greater challenges, you'll want to improve again, and you might make a new friend or two if you get involved in the stream chat.
I'm going to sneak another solution into this section and suggest you try livestreaming yourself.
Don't get discouraged if hardly anyone watches you for a long time, even the greatest streamers have done that for a year or two before it snowballed for them.
Even though a lot of people, especially the older generations, wouldn't understand watching someone play instead of playing yourself, think about the billions of traditional sports fans that do the very same thing.
It's another experience altogether to watch skilled gamers play, there are many content creators that are hilarious and entertaining and even thought-provoking. These personalities are the celebrities of the gaming industry.
This solution is a great one because you get involved in a subcommunity within this hobby and you'll get inspired to take on greater challenges, you'll want to improve again, and you might make a new friend or two if you get involved in the stream chat.
I'm going to sneak another solution into this section and suggest you try livestreaming yourself.
Don't get discouraged if hardly anyone watches you for a long time, even the greatest streamers have done that for a year or two before it snowballed for them.
Video Games Are Boring Now, What To Do Instead?
The above solutions didn't work for you, eh?
Or maybe you don't want to force it, which is the best path to take, in my opinion. It's not like you're married to video games, so if they become boring, the best course of action is to just stop playing them.
If you really are bored by gaming and you have zero interest in resurrecting your passion for it, don't force it. There's a certain threshold gamers pass where it's just too late to shake things up and make video games interesting and worth playing again. And that's okay, it happens because it's natural.
And that's one of the main points of this section -- let things be natural.
So take an indefinite break, don't put any time limits or constraints on it. Just... stop lol. If you don't, you'll drive yourself crazy and subconsciously inject bad juju into your gaming experience. No no, we don't want that, especially because you most likely will return to video games at a certain point.
- I'm beating a dead horse here
- Don't play video games
- Don't watch gameplay videos
- Don't watch livestreamers
- Don't pay attention to gaming news
- Unsubscribe to any gaming subreddits or websites
This doesn't mean you'll have to quit forever. And this also doesn't mean you should feel any obligation to return to gaming, at any point, until you actually want to.
You see, this is the most common solution to this problem, this problem of video games becoming boring.
One day another game might come along and consume you again. You'll buy it one evening and install it and, before you know it, it's an hour past your bed time and you'll think to yourself, "Holy guacamole, it's back!"
Don't Do Anything You Don't Want To Do, Unless You Have To
One day another game might come along and consume you again. You'll buy it one evening and install it and, before you know it, it's an hour past your bed time and you'll think to yourself, "Holy guacamole, it's back!"
Or maybe taking a break from video games is a necessary step in reevaluating how important gaming is to you and how much you should actually spend on them, money-wise and time-wise.
It's another common thing as gamers mature and grow in age. Our gaming habits change. Many of us, who used to be able to play hours on end, can only muster about 15-30 minute sessions at a time.
When that happens, we typically choose our games more wisely and allow them to be something enjoyable to do from time to time, whether that's to veg out and relax or to game with friends while you guys catch up and shoot the shizzle.
It's another common thing as gamers mature and grow in age. Our gaming habits change. Many of us, who used to be able to play hours on end, can only muster about 15-30 minute sessions at a time.
When that happens, we typically choose our games more wisely and allow them to be something enjoyable to do from time to time, whether that's to veg out and relax or to game with friends while you guys catch up and shoot the shizzle.
And finally, the main solution I have to offer you, you should see this one coming:
- Explore video game alternatives!
- And maybe take a nap
Yes there are, in fact, many things you can and should do besides video games.
The biggest reason video games become boring is because we're playing them too much! Other hobbies and masteries get pushed to the way way in-the-back backburner! And that's not balance. The focus of this website is to improve your relationship with gaming.
The biggest reason video games become boring is because we're playing them too much! Other hobbies and masteries get pushed to the way way in-the-back backburner! And that's not balance. The focus of this website is to improve your relationship with gaming.
One of the best ways to improve your relationship with gaming is to invest yourself into one or two other hobbies, hobbies that satisfy you in different ways and give you benefits you can carry into other realms of your life.
Usually the go-to video game alternative is to watch tv shows and movies.
And while that is in my Top 10 Video Game Alternatives list, I think it serves gamers better when they choose a hobby focused more on creation rather than consumption, since those involve developing skillsets, which can possibly lead you down a career path you love.
And while that is in my Top 10 Video Game Alternatives list, I think it serves gamers better when they choose a hobby focused more on creation rather than consumption, since those involve developing skillsets, which can possibly lead you down a career path you love.
But that's just a possibility and doesn't have to be your main focus when it comes to exploring these alternatives. The most important thing is to find and do other things that capture your interest. Focus on that and you'll be good to go.
Congratulations on taking this next step. I think in some ways, it's the hardest step to take on this path. Luckily you're not alone!
Congratulations on taking this next step. I think in some ways, it's the hardest step to take on this path. Luckily you're not alone!
Thank you for reading my blog! Be sure to bookmark it and return in times of need :)