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.
An observation inspired by your comment. I love video game narratives; I often hate video game storytelling. PDS games tell me stories but there’s no cutscenes or stop in gameplay and the narratives are all dynamic.
I imagine Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress could be very dangerous for me.
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!!! 🤬
I’ve only ever caught this with Factorio but it had me pretty bad. Do you have any other recommendations? I bought Dyson Sphere Program on sale but haven’t tried it yet.
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.
The trailer for Shapez fucking slapped. Biters in Factorio pissed me right off but that just added urgency to get defences setup which just sucked me in deeper. I could never play without them. I derive too much satisfaction from wrecking their shit, after they’ve been such a nuisance.
And next thing you know it’s the next morning. Which is why I don’t play factorio too often.
All hail the Omnissiah.
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
You’re not alone. Factorio induces hyperfocus in the neurotypical. You and I never stood a chance.
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.
Only 244.6 hours but 99% of those were within a two week period last winter.
Soon the factory will grow to other planets.
Sounds like there’ll be shit growing on me by the time Factorio + Expansion lets go of me.
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 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
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.
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.
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 😭
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.
With TES, Fallout and Stardew, I’ve definitely had something approaching hyperfocus. Not as severe as my PDS hyperfocus. Never with MMOs though. I’ve played a decent amount of a few but could never play more than one or two hours per day.
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.
Euro Truck Simulator
Kerbal Space ProgramKSP pulls me in for awhile until some bullshit bug ruins a mission I spent hours on
Comment as to why I think PDS grand strategy games have this effect on me. PDS games are ‘real time with pause’ and they have overlapping systems that work on different timelines. It means that there’s rarely a point to ‘offramp’ oneself, when you complete one task, you’re simultaneously 70% through another task, and it’s so easy just to chain ‘well, I’ll wait for this to finish’ endlessly.
Competitive multiplayer matches like Dota however, with discrete matches where everything resets, gives me a (healthy) chance to ‘disengage’. I couldn’t ever imagine getting hyper-focused on them but I know that a lot of people are, which intrigues me.
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…”
So, this is exactly why I started this thread! Rationally, I can see how it’d consume an ADHDer but emotionally, it just doesn’t make sense. Just because I haven’t personally experienced it. It’s why I’m intrigued to hear from people. Though most of the responses so far are other genres I too have hyperfocused on.
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?
Mute early and often.
Sorry, my previous comment wasn’t very helpful. I still only have like 70hrs online play in Dota. I’m very new. I dislike hearing when I play badly but I know that I am playing badly but I’m trying to get better, so it doesn’t bother me.
If I was actually somewhat good and I had people flaming me, it might bother me more. I kinda get that it sucks for people in Unranked queue when I play badly, so I just mute them and try to play better.
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.
Vampire Survivor.
It’s very much like a Dragon Ball super fusion. For the next 20-30 minutes… I am fused with the game.
I love Vampire Survivors. Have you played Halls of Torment?
Yeah, anything competitive is too stressful for me to be able to just play for hours on end. I’m playing Deadlock at the moment and I’m typically taking a break after every one or two games just to control my mood.
Football Manager was the worst for me I’d say. Consumed months at a time. Civilization can eat a day easily if you’re not careful. Really, anything I can control the pace of that I get interested in and that doesn’t have a story. I enjoy narrative games, but they require a different type of focus and concentration that takes a lot more energy. I can’t play those for days on end, even hours on end. I can get obsessed by them, and I can play tons of hours over the course of a week, but I don’t hyperfocus on them the same way.
Anything management or strategy however, where you’re working for incremental progress and “just one more turn”? That’s dangerous. Last little obsession I had was Esports Godfather, a MOBA themed deckbuilder/autobattler/management game that has probably been my surprise hit of the year and which was gloriously addicting.
Furthermore, I don’t often feel like I’m ‘enjoying’ it. I’m just consumed by it.
Recognise this feeling very well, from a lot of things when I hyperfocus on it. It’s almost a sensation like nausea, that palpable feeling of not being in control, for me at least. Especially bad when I briefly snap into self-awareness - but not enough to break out of the hyperfocus.
I tried a few times to get into FM but it never stuck. Which always felt faintly ridiculous. Almost as if I was someone who really wanted to get into heroin and was disappointed they couldn’t get themselves addicted 😂
I did however get that fix from Motorsport Manager. It’s way more ‘game-y’ and less simulation-like than FM but it gave me a faint taste of what an FM addiction must feel like.
