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.
Any Paradox game. Oxygen Not Included. Factorio. Civilization. Rimworld. Dwarf Fortress. The list goes on.
For me I think it’s about having non-stop and parallel mini problems/puzzles/goals. By the time one task is finished. There’s two more to take its place.
This is definitely important in making the very most engaging base-builders - a pleasing mixture of longer term goals (manufacture this piece that I can eventually put in a future science pack or whatnot) and under-performing pieces of your older infrastructure that you have to scale up or re-plan is just so helpful for getting you into that flow state.
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Dwarf Fortress is, imo, much less crack-y than something like Factorio. It takes much less constant attention by how slow the game moves and how long your plans take to work out. I find my time in DF to be meditative and relaxing because I’m working towards a clear goal but can relax a lot of my reactions… Factorio is a game where you can do as fast as you can think (outside the early game) - even if you’re waiting on something there is always something else to obsess over.
Especially factorio with mods. I play with bob and angels mod which massively increases the complexity. I use infinite ore as well because anything on a timeline stresses me. I have over 2000 hrs in it.
I absolutely adored seablock… and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who has any social obligations in the next half a year.
Factory games. Resource management… I get all caught up rebalancing inputs and outputs… This building needs an expansion to fit the new gears project… Over here we need more room for screws… Plates??? Why are all the plates gone!!! 🤬
And next thing you know it’s the next morning. Which is why I don’t play factorio too often.
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Satisfactory for me. I also bought Dyson Sphere on sale, but also haven’t tried it yet.
1.0 drops right when I actually have time to take vacation, scratches the same itch as some of the old Minecraft mod packs (so does factorio, I just really like building factories lol) I just really love watching things whip around.
Cheers
Get that picture away from me. I quit that game for my family and my health. I can’t let myself go back… Not even once…
Shapez 2 recently released in early access (still has release sale). While I love Factorio, Shapez has no enemies and infinite resources. Might make it more boring, but sometimes I find it really nice to just build some belts and not to worry about some sub-base being run over.
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Logistics Gang Rise Up!
Factorio. At one point I binged so much that I started seeing conveyor belts in my sleep.
Ah, the Tetris effect
factorio has stolen months from me
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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.
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Soon the factory will grow to other planets.
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No one for rougelikes?
I dont even like them that much is just the only things I can play sometimes.
I’m surprised that no one have mention Tetris.
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.
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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.
For me it’s ARPGs, but specifically its Path of Exile. The visual stimulation combined with the dopamine hit when something good drops, plus a long term goal to make your character better. They release a new league every 3-4 months and I always pray it doesn’t consume my life for more than 2 weeks
Yup. When your starter hits right and you get some decent currency early on, it’s a blackhole of time. I was just about to stop and a map runner gifted me a HH and now I’m sucked back in.
It’s also my favourite place to kill monsters, take their stuff and use it to get better at killing monsters and taking their stuff. I do feel like it has so much build space to explore I find building without some reference to a guide frustrating, but it manages that progression well and the atlas passive trees are a neat way to let you customize what content you want to engage with.
Honestly, it’s depressing, but nothing solo anymore. Games were such a big part of my life, but now I can only focus and enjoy them with a friend. It can be the most basic game, but as long as I have a friend I’m locked in. Anytime I try playing a game just for me, it’s like the dopamine just isn’t generated 😭
Euro Truck Simulator
Kerbal Space ProgramKSP pulls me in for awhile until some bullshit bug ruins a mission I spent hours on
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I couldn’t ever imagine getting hyper-focused on them but I know that a lot of people are, which intrigues me.
“Just one more…”
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Actually, now that we’re analyzing it, Hearthstone has been my go to boredom game for the past ten years, and a good part of that is probably because of the defined start and finish.
I play it every day on my lunch break, because I know I can get 1-3 matches in before it’s time to go back to work. I could pay Stardew Valley on my phone, which I also love, but I probably wouldn’t feel “satisfied” when I inevitably realize that lunch has been over for five minutes and I’m in the middle of a game task.
However, when I pay Hearthstone on a day where I have nowhere to be, just one more match… Just one more…
I used to love playing DOTA 2, and with the new Ringmaster drop I played a few matches, but I’m being driven away by toxic teammates. Despite playing Unranked Turbo matches exclusively, I’ll still get people flaming my hero pick, or play style, or pausing for mean spirited reasons. It’s seemingly every match now. How has your experience been?
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Vampire Survivor.
It’s very much like a Dragon Ball super fusion. For the next 20-30 minutes… I am fused with the game.
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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…
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.
Power wash sim has stolen 100 hours from me in about a month of ownership.
