I don't know where this feeling crept up from, but I'm completely unmotivated from playing any of the games I own on any platform. I still love watching other people play games (like on YouTube or Twitch, or my wife or daughters playing next to me), as well as talking about new releases, the different mechanics present in different games, the history of different franchises and all the random things that come with being someone who enjoys video games, BUT for the last couple of months I have no desire to play any of my games*, even ones I've purchased relatively recently. I'm sure there are other people who've felt this way, but what can I do to get out of this funk? I still have all my other hobbies, and I still enjoy putting time into all of them (Things like hiking, mountain biking, climbing, yoga, and dancing) but I'd like to be able to play games again with all of my online friends. Any idea?

*If you check my profile you'd see that I still have a lot of weekly hours in PoE, but that's more like a tool rather than actually gaming. I pretty much use it to blast through my frustrations by blasting through a bunch of maps really fast.

4 years ago

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Sounds like you need a break.

Take some time to invest further into one of your different hobbies. Try some new social activities. Games will always be there.

4 years ago
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I'd say and suggest the same, taking a break is always a great solution in these cases.. and the games will stay pretty much all there forever so there's really no need to rush and play them right now

4 years ago
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Play a game right this minute, or you're GROUNDED!

In all seriousness, if you're not enjoying games right now, then the answer is simple (for me) - don't play games right now. Your friends will understand and you can play with them when you're ready. Enjoy your other hobbies in the meantime.

4 years ago
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It's not that rare to take breaks from gaming, stressing over a hobby would be counter productive. Also, I'm pretty sure that playing a game out of habit or to "blast through frustrations" as you said still counts as gaming.

4 years ago
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You're probably right, but I guess I've played the game so much it doesn't really feel like a real thing anymore lmao.

4 years ago
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Like others have said, just take a break. Spend more time climbing and mountain biking and such, give yourself a break, and then let your interest in playing games come back naturally.

And, honestly, if I had the choice of playing games or climbing or mountain biking, unless I was feeling lazy I'd always pick to go climbing or mountain biking. ;)

What I want to know is, how do you have a wife and daughters and also online friends and also time to play games and go climbing and mountain biking and hiking and yoga and dancing? Do you have an identical twin that takes care of all the boring stuff so that you have free time to pursue hobbies? I want to know your secret!

4 years ago
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The secret is to peak early in life and then run home to your momma and dad haha. I was a professional ballerina but injured my knee and eventually developed chronic pain radiating from the area of the injury, so I pretty much had to retire. My wife has a fairly mobile job, so she'd been able to travel around with my ballet company, so when I decided to retire, we were able to settle down near my parents and start a family relatively quickly. Also because we were always moving around, my wife and I weren't able to physically meet-up to hang out with the friends we made in college/had from high school, so we made an effort to stay in contact with as many people as possible. whichever way possible, and incidentally one such communication method was through playing online games.
So nowadays, because I'm a stay-at-home mom and my wife can work from home, whenever we want to play games or go out, we take turns watching the kids, and if we want to do something together, we send em off to my mom and dad down the block.

4 years ago
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Oh, that's pretty awesome! Not the knee injury and chronic pain part, that's awful and a real shame - and as a chronic pain sufferer I kind of know your pain, though I didn't have to give up a career for it or anything. I'm glad you're still able to climb and mountain bike and such, at least.

But it's awesome that your wife was able to travel with you while you were working, and that you've been able to stay in contact with your remote friends, and that your wife can work from home (do the kids not interfere with that?), and that you have dependable parents nearby that can watch the kids and give you a break. I moved away from all of my friends and I'm terrible at staying in touch, and if my mom lived a block away I'd go crazy. :)

Anyway, glad you've been able to roll with life's twists and surprises and seem to be making the most of it with a pretty nice family situation now! I'm totally jealous. ;)

4 years ago
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That's a really interesting sentiment that I feel and some close friends that play games do too, from time to time.
I always wonder why do people who play games feel this "emptyness" when this happens. Maybe it emerges from we relating ourselves and our personality to videogames so closely, that we become unfamiliar with ourselves in our own inability to relate to it.
I usually get this funk when there are other aspects in my life that I need to prioritize (usually good things) or when I play too much in short periods of time.
I don't know, I'm just rambling right now. I think the best advice that I got is enjoy this period of time and use it to discover more things that can give you pleasure. When you least expect, the motivation to play games will come greater than ever! :)

4 years ago
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Thats some pretty good advice! I have found that because I'm not spending my empty time playing games, I've been able to read a bunch of new books, as well as some I've been putting off for a while. But while I do feel productive, I can't get rid of the weird empty feeling I get sometimes whenever I think about not ever playing games again.

4 years ago
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Yeah, I feel that too! "Maybe I will never be able to have fun with a new game like I used to".
But I can reassure you, like any other thing that we have fond memories with, we will always come back to it! I'm just coming back after spending a few months not playing more than an hour a week.

4 years ago
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While I do agree with everyone that if you truly don't feel like playing a videogame, then simply don't and consider other things to do. One suggestion I have though if you feel that you are more suffering from selection paralysis rather than not wanting to play at all would be to join the Play or Pay group if you qualify which is starting a new season next week. 2 short, 2 medium, 2 long, and 1 very long game will be selected by two other members for the 3 month period and it only takes one or two games to have considered to play the selections for that period.

4 years ago
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I notice that whenever I feel like this, I can still play games that rely on just enjoyable (for me) gameplay without problem (examples are CS: GO, and Deathgarden Bloodharvest). So while I do agree with others that what you need is a break, this might also be a situation, where you play games that you don't really enjoy playing anymore (temporarily or permanently). My advice is to ponder a bit while playing a game you think you like, whether you're still enjoying it even now, and if not, why?

4 years ago*
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Motivation to play? Seriously? Games is not job, Bro. Games is made for enjoying not for finding motivation. If you don't want to play, just take a break and try something else. I recently started playing Terraria again. But before that I don't play games about 5-6 months(well, I play actually but short 30-40 min sessions)

4 years ago
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Don't stress it out.

You have family and other hobbies so enjoy them :) That is much more than many of us have and it is more important :)

4 years ago
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Sounds like you need a break from PoE.

4 years ago
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Lots of good advice already
I'd add - try not to buy games while you're not really playing them :)
Another group that might help is the Backlog Assassins BLAEO it's helped me a lot with motivation to go back to games I stopped playing. I haven't really got involved in the monthly challenges but it's something else that might help.

4 years ago
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My advice would be to either take a break (like others have advised) or just choose a few pick up and play games from your library and focus on those. So basically any game that doesn't require a huge time commitment and is just fun to have a quick go on. You might be able to get back into gaming that way :)

4 years ago
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weekly hours in PoE, but that's more like a tool rather than actually gaming. I pretty much use it to blast through my frustrations by blasting through a bunch of maps really fast.

Sorry but I had to xD It seems like you actually play game :) You just do it from different reasons and you need it for something else than before. Been there, done that. Don't force yourself to do things. Focus on other hobbies or even watching other people play games if that is what brings you joy right now.

4 years ago
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I would just take a break. If you try and force yourself to play, gaming will feel like a chore and not be fun which will make you not enjoy games anymore. There have been similar threads started here on SG in the past by other users with the same issue and there is usually responses from other users saying they have felt the same way.

I feel the same way fairly often and the best thing I have found is to just stop playing for a while. It may just be a couple weeks or it may last months, but eventually I get the urge to play again.

If you specifically don't feel like playing long in depth games that you have to sink a lot of time into because it seems like a daunting task, you may want to search through your games and just play something that is really short. I sometimes don't want to start a game that will take 10-60 hours to complete because I may not have the time or desire to dedicate that much time to it, so playing something that is only 2-4 hours is much easier. I also find a lot of short indie games more enjoyable. You can find out how long games are on howlongtobeat.com. They will give you info on individual games, but I don't remember if you can have them sort all the games on your account to show you the shorter ones. I think I found a site that did this, but I can't remember.

Here are some previous threads I was able to find. I think there might be more about the exact thing your are talking about, but these are the ones I could find right now with a google search.

How do I get the joy of playing games back?
Gaming ADD? Burnt out? What?
I've lost the will to game
Losing interest in gaming

off topic, but kind of similar
What to play when gaming isn't fun anymore? Is it over? Tell me about a game thats worth a damn.
Suffering from post-gaming depression
Need help with focusing on a specific game

4 years ago*
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Thanks for the links!

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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Get laid, travel, meet people. When you get tired from that you will want to play again.

4 years ago
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I've been there more than one time. Just focus on things that give you joy atm. ''Lust'' for gaming will eventually grow once more, but even if it doesn't don't fret.
I mean we play games for entertainment (or i least most people i know including me do), so there is no point pushing yourself to play if it doesn't entertain you. If it is to happen, it will happen naturally.

4 years ago
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4 years ago
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I have felt something similar. Nowadays I start a lot of games but rarely finish them. That and the fact I'm starting to hate new games full of dlcs made me to do this: never buy any new games and finish the ones I start. In my case it's because I have waaay too many games and lose myself in an endless pit of games I'll never finish or give up because I'm not having the best fun in the world.

4 years ago
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Had that last year.
I just sat in front of the computer browsing games in my library and then pondering wether or not I would play them.
I always found some reason not to play them.

When I look back on it now, it was compulsive behaviour (sitting in front of the computer).
Took a month or two before I quit the habit, and then I went to do some work with tools (wood, cleaning up my workbench, maintenance on my tools) untill maybe three months ago when I just fired up a game again and now I'm back to gaming.
Just noticed I play a lot less now (read: 20h/w -> maybe 5-7/w) (on average, last weeks were an exception due to holidays)

tl;dr - break the compulsive "I sit in front of the computer" and do something else for a while

4 years ago
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Another vote for not pressuring yourself :)

I have a couple of ideas you could try though. With the new collections you can make in your steam library you can sort by percentage of achievements completed. If you make a dynamic collection with the tag "single player" it should grab most of your games then you can easily see which games you've almost finished. You might spot some games you meant to finish and forgotten about or some harder achievements that will give you something to work towards. You could even make a static collection with just your SG wins and do the same with those.

Branching out into a genre you don't normally play could be a breath of fresh air, or maybe look into some couch co-op games to play with your wife and daughters.

My last idea is a bit controversial since it goes against the idea of not pressuring yourself, but maybe join the Playing Appreciated group and if you win something you then have a month to get as many achievements as possible - I find the added pressure is a great motivator and makes it more fun somehow.

But just do what you feel like at any given time! They're your games and they're there for your entertainment so don't stress about them :) It sounds like you have some very nice other hobbies already so as long as you're not feeling stuck in a rut with those then just go with those until you get the gaming bug again. :)

4 years ago
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Yay, Path of Exile, great game, spent many hours on it (both Steam and stand-alone client). Challenge leagues were fun, I'm sure they still are. Never been that good, but I managed to get 36-37 challenges for many seasons in a row, then stopped at 24 for a couple more when I started working, then I quit the game since I had no time for other games or activities after work and PoE. It was fun while it lasted, playing with real life friends, having fun together clearing maps and getting excited for those rare currency drops (none of us ever found a mirror though). I think we'll come back in PoE 2 for a while.
Now I have a quite some time to play other games I didn't even consider starting when I was playing PoE, because I had to play PoE and get those challenges.

I'm NOT saying you should quit PoE! I did it for the lack of time, not for the lack of motivation!

I started playing other games, trying different genres at a time. One hour of this, one hour of that, I don't like this, I like that more. Some rally, some pew pew, some platformer, some adventure, try some and eventually a game will catch you.
You can also try co-op games with your wife and daughters, I don't know how old they are, but I definitely recommend Trine games.

4 years ago
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You are right about the amount of time needed to actually accomplish anything in PoE, which is actually why I took a step back from grinding super hard and putting efficiency before everything. Now that I'm no longer rushing for Level 100 and stockpiling currency to buy another headhunter for another league, I've honestly been able to enjoy the game a lot more (Even though more recently I've just been playing PoE as a way to settle down my nerves).

Before this whole motivation-to-game thing came about, I was actually preparing to spend more time playing some of the other games in my library. I even spent like a whole day picking out Skyrim mods so I could actually get around to playing the game.

4 years ago
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It's may seem crazy, but there are a few occasions I go through this as well. For the longest time, I didn't have the money to upgrade my gaming PC to play the latest games, relying on review units to come my way to get in a week or two of gaming every so often. Four months ago I bought a new gaming rig, played games on it for the next two weeks, and then nothing. Even took it with me on vacation but didn't play a single game. I'm not sure if I'm waiting for something to grab my attention again, or I'm just enjoying other hobbies lately, which suppresses my need to game.

4 years ago
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Play something with your wife (and maybe your friends included) - like Overcooked! (up to 4 people).

I have the issue. I would buy games I really like, start a little (or not start at all), and just leave them there, sitting installed in the Library. What I am doing right now is almost forcing myself to play a game start to finish (Last weekend I finished Portal 2, this weekend I finished Tomb Raider) and this weekend I am going to play Spec Ops - The Line. In the evening I play with the GF and friends (CSGO, TF2).

You also got to give yourself extra time around playing. I for instance, can't just play for 30m - 1h and leave it as is, because I do that, I will literally leave it forever like that.

4 years ago
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Sounds like a fairly sound strategy, but I don't know whether "forcing" myself to play will help me want to keep playing, because what if I just end up disliking purely because my hearts not really in it?

Your suggestion to maybe play some more casual type games does sound like something I should do though, because my wife and I often play games together, its almost always something I actually requires effort or skill + I think my girls are just old enough to actually understand what to do in something like Overcooked (We're trying to keep their screen time limited while they are still young so they dont end up glued to a screen like some of my nieces and nephews).

4 years ago
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It happened to me few times, I got out of it randomly by playing something that I got really hooked on. If you feel like you don't want to wait or take break from games and solve it now or the world will end, try playing something you didnt with really high rating in style you know you enjoy, replay something you love or use tools that will randomly choose game from your library.

4 years ago
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