Hey everyone!
I really passionate about games but I struggle a lot to finish the storyline for a lot of them. There are some games I would love to finish like Eastward or Sea of Stars, but I feel unable to reasume them. I feel like if the game is not a dopamine trap(League or Civ VI) I can’t continue playing it.
Does anyone here has face this issue and have found a way to work on it?
I deal with this too. I’ve accepted that there’s a sweet spot for the types of games I enjoy, and I generally stay in that zone.
First, the short-term gameplay loop has to be rewarding enough, which cuts out a lot of tedious “shopping list of waypoints” type of games and ones that are heavily story-driven with boring/tedious gameplay in between story beats.
Second, the upper limit needs to be right below the Skinner-boxes of dopamine traps. No gachas, no games with daily grinding, and I try to mostly stay away from MMOs these days. I know that I’ll get trapped in the dopamine loop and play them, even if I’m not actually having fun.
It depends on what you’re into, but I love turn-based tactics/strategy games, so the XCOM series (and the numerous games influenced by it) are top notch for me. I like the gameplay loop of completing turn after turn, with the ability to easily get up and do something else if I get distracted at any time.
For more of an action game, my favorites are the Souls series, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, etc. The challenge is unmatched, and there are no waypoints or quest logs to make you feel like you’re mentally juggling a dozen tasks at once (which I find exhausting and off-putting). I like being able to just pick up the controller and simply know that I need to make progress in that direction.
I do also enjoy competitive multiplayer games, but I haven’t liked the direction that those have gone in recent years: with battle passes, dailies, and grindfests, I’d rather avoid getting trapped in that FOMO cycle, so I don’t have one that I play at the moment. (Unless you count online chess, lol)
For turn-based, Battletech is also outstanding, and has tons of mods you can explore that significantly deepen the gameplay. Stock is not that hard once you figure out the mechanics, but you can mod it so that you’re basically playing with an insanely-detailed, extended version of tabletop rules.
Edit: added link
