Ever since I started working full-time last year, gaming has never been the same. I used to play video games on my PC every week for a few hours every time, I occasionally played VR on my Valve Index and some PlayStation whenever there was a new exclusive game release. But now, during my spare-time I either work on side-projects (like this website) or 3D-printing. And I’ve played video-games for the last 22-23 years.

And now when I get tired of working on side-projects or 3D-printing I try to fire up my PC to play some game, but I just sit there browsing through my Steam library of more than 200 games and can’t fathom what to play. And I can’t find the motivation to setup all the stuff that goes along with the VR-stuff, it’s fun for a weekend, but not any longer.

I even got a Steam Deck before the summer in preparation for a trip to Thailand, which actually worked. I played a fantastic game called Return of the Obra Dinn. But I haven’t had any luck since.

Just the other day I wanted to checkout Overwatch 2, but after two rounds I was super bored. I also tried to play Cyberpunk 2077 after that, but it was tedious to get back on a saved-game I haven’t really touched since I finished the game in 2020.

A theory as to why this is happening is that I no longer have a need to procrastinate my “personal time”. When I was younger I used to play video-games every day after school, and when I was at the University I most definitely played games to procrastinate. But now, when I have full-time job which I really love, I like to spend my time doing more valuable things, although I think of playing video-games as a good way to spend time if there’s a good story etc.

Another theory is that games today are much more tedious, you have to do so much shit to progress, which seems like a chore, often referred to as grinding. And as an adult, I do chores all the time, I don’t want to do them virtually as well haha. And for the times I’ve managed to play through a game, there hasn’t been any real grinding, so there might be something to this.

All-in-all I find this fascinating, a routine/habit I’ve for the last 22-23 years has become boring and I find myself breaking out of it. And maybe I’m better for it, who knows?

Maybe by the end of the year I’ve sold my gaming PC and VR-headset, who knows? We’ll have to see. I’ve pre-ordered the new God of War: Ragnarok on the PS5, and hopefully finish it instead of playing for one day and forgetting about it.

And yes, I know this is a great example of a first-world problem. I needed to air out my “frustrations”. Maybe someone has experienced the same or something similar, please let me know!