Do you do what I do and essentially play games while watching movies/TV shows?
care to elaborate "something unimportant like video games"?
triggered
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Gamers truly are oppressed! Gamers rise up!
Jokes aside, that off-hand comment will probably get me killed. I'll let ya'll know if I get firebombed or something.
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Chrome thought that the word "gamers" is a misspelling. The struggle is real. They don't even recognize our existence! FIGHT BACK AGAINST THIS BLATANT DISCRIMINATION!
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Firebombed? What are we in the 50s now?
No true gamer if you're leaving the house to firebomb, swatting is where it's at!
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Yep I always play and read while having music or tv on in the background. Unless I think I'd benefit more from listening to them, you wont see me just paying attention to 1 thing. That whole unimportant bit is gonna trigger so many people. I cant really recommend anything but a clicker/match 3 game should work fine for you
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- Cultist Simulator
- Desktop Dungeons
- Crosscode
- Return of the Obra Dinn
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Return of the Obra Dinn looks really awesome and perfect for this. It's so new that I just can't afford it yet. Thanks for the multiple suggestions though. :)
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You are welcome.
Book of Demons could be a good choice too.
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Isn't Obra Dinn completely story focused and requires a lot of attention and thinking?
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From everything I've read about it, absolutely. It's an intricate murder mystery that you're trying to unravel piece by piece, so I don't see how you could do that while watching TV at the same time.
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Every time a story beat comes in, you pause the show. From what I've understood, you'll have solid stretches of nothing happening due to looking for clues. 1-2 sentences per beat and a beat coming every 3-5 minutes. That's what I've heard at least.
If it's truly story heavy (so constant dialogue, new plot developments and so on) then of course you're right.
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I think you can play it without music (the music is great and I'd rather not play the game than play it without music, but you do you), but you absolutely need the sound as it's an important game mechanic you have to use in your investigation if you want to complete everything.
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Yeah, you're probably right then. Luckily I tend to focus solely on the game when I start to get the feel for it and see whether it's playable while multitasking or not.
From what I can see, Obra Dinn will be way worse when multitasking.
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How about a turn-based strategy game? Eg. the Heroes of Might and Magic series. (The 3rd one is the best.)
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If you get a second monitor, half of Steam games won't require full attention...
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I do have a second monitor. But still, I can't really play everything. For example, Assassin's Creed 3 has good gameplay for mindlessness. But every once in a while, I need to pause the show to listen to a cutscene and I can't really listen to two stories going on at once :D
(Maybe I should just download a video player that can take advantage of my keyboard's media buttons)
EDIT: Figured out how to bind media keys to the video player. This'll make some games way more viable to play <3
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Serious question, how do you play Dirt 3 without paying attention?
As for suggestions, 'artsy indie games'? Like Sparkle games, Eufloria, Aquarius etc?
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Dirt 3's pretty mechanical overall to me. My brain goes to autopilot with it since the instance loop is pretty simple. Speed up, brake and turn at proper places. I guess it's the predictability of it all? Dirt 3's quite casual as well luckily. I've heard Dirt Rally is quite hardcore compared to 3 though, so I don't know how well those skills would carry over to something like that.
Didn't think about artsier indie games. I wonder if Eidolon would work since I currently have it installed and waiting for a playthrough. Thanks! :D
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Ah with automatic transmission enabled I guess? If you turn off all 'helpers' Dirt 3 is not THAT casual in my opinion. At least not to the extent you can only look at it from the corner of your eye, or the occasional glance, and still manage to set acceptable times. :D
If I enable everything it's quite casual, but if I turn everything off, It's not so casual I think.
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I mean, of course, you're right. But the only real assistance I have is the automatic transmission, I think. The main reason for that is just that I don't have a steering wheel/gearbox/pedal combo, so switching gears is pretty unintuitive for me. I've given it a shot before with other games, but it's just not meant for keyboards.
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Ah you play it with keyboard?
carresses xbox 360 controller like a villain's cat
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Tried using my Xbox One controller. It feels so inaccurate. The analog stick takes too long to move to get good turns for me. Say I have a very sharp turn left, so I move the stick completely to the left to get the full turn. Well, I will in a second or so need to give it a hard right to compensate and to keep the momentum. But this doesn't mean I have a second to go for the right turn. Instead I need to go from a hard left to a hard right in around 0.2 seconds at worst and 0.1 at best. My fingers just aren't nimble enough to do that :D
On a keyboard I'll work magic though compared to that.
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I have no idea how you're able to play Dirt 3 while watching TV, and even less idea how you're able to play it better with a keyboard than with a controller. A thumbstick is ideal for me for doing exactly that, going from one extreme angle to another extreme angle and being able to nail both angles just right.
Though my preference for Dirt 3 and other racing games is using a wheel and pedals with cockpit cam, and that's a full body activity.
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It's about getting used to it.
I actually just beat Dirt 3 yesterday (2 hours after those comments) and most of it was while playing the game quite casually. At first, like with any Codemasters game for me, I had to get used to the handling. After that it's pretty simple imo. You know you have to break to get into a corner. You know the handbrake will lead to a drift more often than not. You know when to hit the gas after the break. You know how to break of a drift.
But yeah, my point with the controller stays the same. One finger and physically longer movements will never ever be as accurate as two independent fingers with two separate physical controls that require less motion to activate. I guarantee you I can get at least twice as many "ADADADAD" combinations written down than you can move the analog stick "left-right-left-right-left-right". Controllers only have a single better thing over the keyboard for me and that's the deadzones for the analog sticks. But since I don't really need subtlety in Dirt 3, I don't have use for it.
I'm pretty sure the wheel and pedals will be a different thing of course, but then you're playing an immersive sim due to your peripherals and then obviously things will change.
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Games that don't require your full attention.
PUBG definitely requires zero of my attention. I don't play PUBG.
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Can't be distracted if there's nothing to distract you.
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Well, Banished can be good for that once you get used to balancing your town growth with resource growth. I used to play it and watch movies or read. And theres no story, sound is mutable, and you can pause any time. I think it even auto-pauses when you click to a different screen
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Actually, right now might actually be the best time to give Borderlands another shot unless I can find a partner to play with (pretty unlikely currently). Only thing keeping me back is the fact that I've already given the game 2 shots, so I'm worried that I want to give up again and it's just more time wasted completely. While I am going for relatively low-key multitasking, I'd still prefer to make some possible progress in games. Thanks for the suggestions! :D
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Racing games? I feel like racing games demand 100% concentration from me at all times. Remembering and spotting the brakepoints, applying brakes right up to the lock up point and easing up as I decelerate, accelerating smoothly coming out of each turn, while also being aware of other cars around me.
I wonder if we're playing completely different racing games?
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hmm, I finished Mad Max story and then drove around completing objectives while watching episodes.
I think I played some Civilization matches while watching. Eurotruck simulator 2 is also something you can play with half concentration..
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Haha, I 100% agree with the Mad Max recommendation. I've actually already done it though. Although one achievement eluded me because it won't really work with a cleared out world. I did it recently enough that I'm just not ready for the playthrough needed for the 100% either.
ETS2 is also a great suggestion, but I also played that very recently. Same with Civ actually, though I still have Civ 6 waiting to be properly played. But I've never gotten into it very well. Something about it just doesn't appeal to me like it did with Civ 5.
Overall extremely great suggestions. But since they are such great suggestions, I've already gone for them as well :D
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Yeah, buddy of mine finished the game also with that one achievement missing, and warned me to go for challenges before completing everything.. But they seem so specific that Im not sure whether I wont just get sick of the game before I achieve every one of them :D
I dont know why, but contrary to others I enjoy Civ6 quit a lot. I love the graphics as I really look for aesthetics in games and the neighborhood system really clicked for me. I also really like Civ5, which I have installed on my laptop when Im in mood away from home :D
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I tried playing Euro Truck Sim 2 while doing something else - it lead to me constantly drifting out of my lane and several traffic accidents. I don't know how you guys are able to play it while paying attention to something else.
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I think it often comes down to choosing what to focus on. When looking at how you're driving, your ears are still open to stimulation, so that means you can listen and process what's on the show. Then, say an action scene starts, you move your focus to the show, but before that you'll have a quick mental image and kind of navigate off of that. Since shows and movies aren't interactive, you'll always have 100% focus with your controls.
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I play ETS2 when episodes contain more or less dialogues without much action or quiet intense scenes,
When I start to concentrate more on something else I start to hit everything as well :D
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Yup. 90% of the time when I'm playing something I am also watching a movie/show at the same time, they go pretty much hand in hand.
Don't have any suggestion so just have a bump.
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I generally go for Binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon, both become fairly automotive once you've played a bit
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Ooh, Enter the Gungeon would be awesome for this. Sadly I don't own it and I've already played a lot of Isaac, so it just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Thanks for the suggestions!
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Games are unimportant but TV series that can't hold your full attention are? Audience like this is why anything mainstream has to be paced as if everyone has ADD/ADHD
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I don't know how games are all of a sudden more important than writing essays, doing coursework, doing actual paid work and stuff like that...
I personally think games are pretty unimportant in a relatively productive life. They're amazing entertainment, but work and other stuff like that comes before entertainment, so games will fall under that. I don't want to be half-focused while writing a thesis for example.
In games it's fine to fail because it doesn't have real life consequences. Not sure how any of this has to do with ADD though.
I'm kind of baffled that you don't think that way, but I'm down to hear a more detailed response if you're down for it.
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I didn't. Should I have done so? This is a question about real life, so I assumed that people would realize that I have other things going on in real life other than video games and movies. I mean, I'll edit it for you for clarity, but I don't get how having real life responsibilities is some alien thing that needs to be mentioned every time.
Didn't want to create a completely useless run-on sentence, I guess.
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Seems kinda weird to have some time waster besides important stuff as it still does take your time while doing important things and might actually impede it in the end.
Yup, that's why I won't watch shows or play games while writing and studying. Sure, I might be able to get through writing, but I know that the quality of my work will suffer from it. But for entertainment, I can rewind if I really need to. I can also restart a game if I fail. If I'm going to watch 400-1000 minutes of a TV show which runs at the same speed regardless of what's played in the background, I might as well put some hours into another game to get another game completed from my backlog :D
Did actually use Clicker Heroes as "stress reliever" back when did make thesis.
Did you write while the game ran or was it more like you took a break and during those breaks you'd play it. I personally couldn't imagine putting something so important to go alongside Clicker Heroes. But also I'm just not good enough at multitasking to handle it, so that's probably the main reason for my stance on it :D
Haha, awesome recommendations as well! I actually have the first Reigns installed right now, so I should probably play that as well. Thank you! SUPERHOT's already worn out on me sadly though. I played as much of it as I felt like and I've never had the urge to go back to it. A great game though, so thanks :)
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Well, work & studies didn't have anything to do with deciding which of TV vs Games is more important to you
I never compared the importance of TV vs games. I said that games were unimportant compared to other things.
I tend to like to multitask while watching shows and since I'm not good at actual multitasking, I'd like to go for something unimportant like video games.
I tend to like to multitask while watching shows
Self-explanatory. I like multitasking while watching shows.
since I'm not good at actual multitasking
I'm not good at it.
I'd like to go for something unimportant like video games.
Video games are unimportant.
Nowhere did I make a comparison. I didn't say "I'd like to go for something that's not as important as the show, like video games" or "Video games are unimportant compared to my shows, so I'd like to use them to multitask." or whatever other variation.
Not to mention, I've already mentioned multiple times how entertainment is unimportant compared to everything else, so you already know that entertainment (which includes movies, shows, video games) has its place in the hierarchy of importance and that also eludes to all entertainment being completely equally important to me.
Because that's all it is. It's entertainment. Taking a moral stance on whether video games are more or less important than TV shows really feels like a "Gamers rise up!" type of deal :D
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I'm with you. If the TV show can't hold my attention to where I need to be playing a game at the same time, then it's not worth watching. And a game that needs a TV show to entertain me isn't worth playing.
If I'm going to do something, I want to be able to commit to it fully.
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There's not a single TV show that can hold my attention 100% of the time. Even the greatest shows have that issue on me. I'm proud of you for being better than me.
I want to be fully engaged 100% of the time. No TV show or movie has done that. Even the most engaging ones I've seen (best example being D. Fincher's movies) hold my attention 90% of the time at best. To me, useless fillers that TV brings isn't enough to keep me completely hooked all the time.
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I like to play games, while watching YT. I think the most time I spent in Heartthstone, Minecraft and Shellshock Live. Maybe The Binding of Isaac, too.. Also played Warframe and Path of Exile XD And what's important, I have only one 1080p 22" screen.
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Turn based games are good for that, like XCOM or Civilization.
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XCOM 2 for some reason just doesn't like my computer. I've already finished XCOM: Enemy Unknown though.
Over time, the framerate just drops to a crawl, even though I should have a PC that could easily run it.
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Are the shows so boring that you have to do something else while watching them?
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I guess to an extent. I like when I can do multiple things together. It's a good way to save time. Whether it actually saves any time or not is a completely different thing, but even if it's 100% placebo, I still can't deny how it makes me feel.
I get really fidgety. I find it hard to pay attention to things if they're not extremely engaging. Most TV shows aren't extremely engaging for me. There's almost always something missing. If there's good dialogue, it might be missing interesting visual storytelling. If there's great action, it might lack good character development. Most shows can easily be cut down for time. But they're in a formula and so they have to hit these markers. Half the time even shows like Game of Thrones aren't enough to hold my attention. Sure, the story's top notch and the dialogue's amazing, but there's usually nothing to see. Sure, the characters might have specific physical behavioral patterns that emerge thanks to the great acting, but it doesn't add much to me because nothing would really change if I didn't see that. The story would remain the same, the events would be exactly the same and the dialogue wouldn't change.
Doesn't mean I'm never engaged though. All David Fincher movies have engaged me fully. Zodiac and Gone Girl being the best examples. You could see that people were more than what they said and since it was a movie, you wouldn't be aware of characters and who they really were. Looking at characters, you almost always had a second layer just behind their physicality. Eye movements to signify future events through making you figure out if they're lying or not. Fidgeting being just a quirk or nervousness. Even having a simple gulp or an inhale could've meant something. So it becomes an exercise of reading people.
You don't really have that with TV. It's meant to run for a long period of time. Now, that doesn't mean I think a TV show is some slow and boring thing. It's just that there's a lot of fat to cut. It's not always very compelling to watch 2 characters having a back and forth about the current issue the camera angles being the classic back and forth with maybe a wide shot. That's what comes with low budgets and time constraints. It stifles creativity a lot. But the stories tend to be very fun and the characters overall awesome enough that you want to see what they're doing and they hook you. After all, there's a reason I don't just abandon television all together. But just because I watch it, doesn't also mean that they're not flawed.
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I think I would find myself rewinding too much, but do what works for you :)
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Yeah, I've got a few people here that walk away to get a cup of tea and not pressing pause...it annoys the crap out of me.
I love noticing small details in series and movies, while they don't even care about the big picture. All so they can say they watched something, ugh.
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Yeah, not pausing and ignoring the show while it runs takes it way too far for me too :D
Just that I don't know of many shows that have very intricate visual storytelling. They just don't have time for that when filming.
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Well that was in a bunch of detail and I totally get it. I get very stressed and uncomfortable if I have to pay attention to 1 thing. I've tried watching certain things without doing anything else and I could love it but gradually I'm going to get to a point where I just drop it. If I drop it and go back then I'll end up having to repeat it from the start since the idea of not watching it all in 1 big go near to enough to each just doesn't sit right, however that means I will drop it again since paying attention for a 2nd time round or even more is not great
Whenever I'd watch a movie with family I'd need my phone at minimum if it wasn't my mother. Then I'd be questioned if I'm actually watching which I am just not with my 100% attention. When I think to them just spending hours watching a tv show or countless movies its so weird. I just dont get how they can spend so many hours doing nothing
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Lol, I want to play a game while watching a show, not a full-time commitment that makes me sacrifice my soul for an extra grandma to bake cookies! :D
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Adventure Capitalist - it requires a bit of tending now and then, and you can even invest a lot of time into it. Plus it has weekly events.
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I started running into a wall for Kingdom: New Lands. I'm just not good enough for it. :P
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As someone who likes keeping my hands busy while watching things, I enjoy playing jigsaw puzzle games (mainly Pixel Puzzles Ultimate) and casual games like Coloring Pixels and Dot-to-Dot Puzzles. I dunno how you feel about achievements, but when I get to a game with tedious achievements (such as grinding in RPGs), then that's another one I tend to take care of while having my attention elsewhere.
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I can not watch something without playing games at the same time. It depends a lot on personal taste but here is way I like to play while I watch:
Euro/American Truck Simulator, jigsaw games (Pixel Puzzles series, Animated Jigsaws series), solitaire games (Faerie Solitaire, Anime Babes: Solitaire <- don't judge it by the name), match 3 games (7 Wonders series, Luxor series), time managmentish games (12 Labours of Hercules series, Roads of Rome series ), mosaic games (Alice's Patchwork series, Glass Masquerade series), Pacman, other easier puzzleish games (Picross games, Draw Puzzle), Viscera Cleanup games, HOGs without story, Doodle god games and many many many more so if you have anything more specific in mind that you would like some suggestions ask and I will try to give some if I can.
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don't judge it by the name
Pfft, what's the fun in that? I'm totally judging it by its name :D
Thanks for the suggestions. Very solid ideas. Thanks for lining up so many as well.
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It is a very good Solitaire game, I swear!
No problem, hope at least one of them will be of some use :)
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I would love to see an age breakdown for this poll. I have to think the average age for "yes" would be a LOT younger than the average age for "no."
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Any turn-based game is perfect for this, whether RPGs, Board/Card based games or RTS. So long as you're playing against the AI, you can be distracted doing other things and take your turns at your own leisure.
Armello is my current game of this type. lol. (It's awesome. A friend gifted me a copy). I don't play games while watching TV though. I'm not that much of a multitasker. I like to just watch a show or movie without distractions, but that's just me. It's more like I go off doing something else regularly while I'm running a game. XD.
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Thanks for the recommendations. Will have a look at Armello!
I don't play games while watching TV though. I'm not that much of a multitasker. I like to just watch a show or movie without distractions, but that's just me. It's more like I go off doing something else regularly while I'm running a game. XD.
Haha, totally get it. It's just different strokes for different folks. As long as you're happy with what you're doing, I'll just say "Keep on keeping on" :D
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The 2018/2019 TV season has been going on for a while now and since I like watching shows a whole season at a time, I have around 7 seasons of on-going shows to binge. I tend to like to multitask while watching shows and since I'm not good at actual multitasking, I'd like to go for something unimportant like video games.
So, do you have any recommendations for relatively casual games that I can play with little or no sound, with preferably no story mode and relatively easy gameplay that doesn't require all of my attention. Bonus points if I can just pause or completely stop playing at a moment's notice.
So for example, games like: Cities Skylines, Car Mechanic Simulator 2015, Dirt 3, Rome 2: Total War.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
EDIT: Video games are very important. But my real life responsibilities hold a bigger importance to me. I apologize to everyone I offended by saying "I'd like to go for something unimportant like video games.".
Thanks for all of your help everyone! Closing the thread since I think we've basically reached most of the best suggestions for now :)
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