I’ve been a nomadic gamer for a number of years now, bouncing around from game to game depending on my mood at the time. Sometimes it’s something new, but in most cases it has been the same few games I bounce from over the past 10 years. EverQuest. EverQuest 2. Eve Online. World of Warcraft. Wurm Online. Guild Wars 2.
The problem with this method of gaming is that you don’t form an attachment to it. You don’t feel invested in the game, and playing for little spots of time here and there every few months leaves you feeling pretty empty and unsatisfied – at least in my case. In order to feel satisfied when I am gaming (in an MMO at least) I need to feel some sort of commitment to the game. I need to create some sort of attachment. If I play for an hour and then leave, that doesn’t exist.
I’m trying to be better about it. Trying to stick with games for longer then my average of just a few days – but it’s difficult. Not just because my attention span wanders but also because the free time I have to game fluctuates on such a huge scale that it’s not exactly something I can plan.
What am I playing right now?
- WoW
- EVE Online
- Wurm Online
- 1x random game once a week for First Time Fridays
It’s working out, but then there are still games like The Sims and Dwarf Fortress and Guild Wars 2 that I try to interject. There are so many games that I really have a lot of fun in that I just can’t make the time for, and it frustrates me. Anyone else get this way?
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Not really. In fact I often through myself so deep into a game I burn out of it too quickly and get fed up. Flight simulators are the exception. I had to forcibly stop playing MS flightsim for 5 years as it took over. I’m now back into X Plane and buying cheap Chinese electronics to build my own panel
It has definitely been me over the last few years as well. Playing various MMOs for varying periods of time but never really settling into any. Part of that is social pressure, I prioritise gaming with friends and family over anything I do for myself and hence feel uncomfortable ‘committing’ to properly integrate into a guild or whatever in any game I’m not playing alongside said friends/family. That’s hurt my ability to explore the depths possible in MMO gaming, though equally it probably makes me a better friend/relative because I’m not ignoring others to play “the one game”.
Quite the condrary as I’d love to go all in on, say, Everquest 2 and get loads more grouping experience, but I never feel the time is right to commit in that way.
That’s 100% me since I returned to PC gaming. When I was on consoles I was pretty good at picking a game, playing it to the end, and moving on (tho just the fact that most of the games I played there HAD an end, helped). Now I’m on the PC I feel like I’m trying to juggle about 10 games and not really connecting with any of them.