Games nowadays have swaths of tutorial texts you can look up anytime. As for story, if the game you're playing doesn't have a journal painstaikingly noting every little detail (which I kinda hate in RPGs, they're more fun when they give you hints and let you discover more by yourself), you can always have your own recap. Read up on the games' plot on Wikipedia. Or IndieDB or any other site with such stuff. If you're too lazy to read, you can always watch videos of that game and pause right before you get to the story moment you've saved at.

You can also shorten your breaks from certain games. If you're the kind of person to forget what was going on after not playing for half a year, don't take a half-year brake from that game.

Then there's the matter with how to select the game to play to begin with. If you, like me (quote often, actually) drop a game for a half a year or a year and don't (again, like me) feel the wish to come back to that game for a year, then maybe, just maybe, the game simply isn't interesting enough so forgetting about it doesn't hurt. On the other hand, if the game was good and I really forgot enough about it that I can't get into it again, I'll just restart. I mean, if I had ~20h fun getting to some point where I dropped the game for a year, that's just ~20h more of fun I'll have again when restarting the game.

What I think you really should do because that's what I did and that's what raised my enjoyment of games tremendously, is not to treat them like a job. Grinding to get achievements? Nope. Simply nope. Spending hundreds of hours to get the last collectible on the map? Nope. Simply nope. I mean, don't get me wrong, if that's the kind of stuff you enjoy, go ahead. But it was you who just said

引用自 sable54：

and tends to feel like a second full time job

implying that you don't really enjoy doing that stuff. So if doing certain tasks in games feels like a second full-time job, then NOT doing those tasks is perfectly feasible. You can do what I do: call a game "done" after finishing the main story and the enjoyable side-content (the part that doesn't feel like a full-time job). Some of my games, I call "done*" instead of "done", the * meaning "someday, should I really ever actually be into grinding actually worse than my full-time job, this one got a 2do list for me".

Switching from regarding games as something I have to complete to something I draw as much enjoyment from as I want (and not an iota more) really felt liberating, speaking as someone with ~2 kilogames in their library and own experience with feeling overwhelmed by what felt like a 2do-list before I found my senses and started treaing it as a pile of options, not a backlog.

PS: I actually genuinely do enjoy my full-time job. It lets me does stuff that I enjoy and to an extent, the methodic aproach my job is perfectly suited for (unless a sociopath with very little skill and very much ego comes along but I don't have many of those on my new job) is something I enjoy in games as well. However, I do pour more discipline into job things than I do in hobby things so I still need to draw a line between what feels like a job (which games can do if I don't opt out so I opt out) and what feels like leisure time.

This is definitely a you problem, OP. This is not a common problem for actual gamers.

引用自 Eagle_of_Fire：

This is definitely a you problem, OP. This is not a common problem for actual gamers.

Wow its almost like you didn't read the first sentence of the post. What a aQcTuAl gAmEr MoVe. Guess 'real gamers' don't have reading comprehension. Look at the top and bottom of the post, or is it too many words for you?

引用自 ReBoot：

Games nowadays have swaths of tutorial texts you can look up anytime. As for story, if the game you're playing doesn't have a journal painstaikingly noting every little detail (which I kinda hate in RPGs, they're more fun when they give you hints and let you discover more by yourself), you can always have your own recap. Read up on the games' plot on Wikipedia. Or IndieDB or any other site with such stuff. If you're too lazy to read, you can always watch videos of that game and pause right before you get to the story moment you've saved at.

You can also shorten your breaks from certain games. If you're the kind of person to forget what was going on after not playing for half a year, don't take a half-year brake from that game.

Then there's the matter with how to select the game to play to begin with. If you, like me (quote often, actually) drop a game for a half a year or a year and don't (again, like me) feel the wish to come back to that game for a year, then maybe, just maybe, the game simply isn't interesting enough so forgetting about it doesn't hurt. On the other hand, if the game was good and I really forgot enough about it that I can't get into it again, I'll just restart. I mean, if I had ~20h fun getting to some point where I dropped the game for a year, that's just ~20h more of fun I'll have again when restarting the game.

What I think you really should do because that's what I did and that's what raised my enjoyment of games tremendously, is not to treat them like a job. Grinding to get achievements? Nope. Simply nope. Spending hundreds of hours to get the last collectible on the map? Nope. Simply nope. I mean, don't get me wrong, if that's the kind of stuff you enjoy, go ahead. But it was you who just said

引用自 sable54：

and tends to feel like a second full time job

implying that you don't really enjoy doing that stuff. So if doing certain tasks in games feels like a second full-time job, then NOT doing those tasks is perfectly feasible. You can do what I do: call a game "done" after finishing the main story and the enjoyable side-content (the part that doesn't feel like a full-time job). Some of my games, I call "done*" instead of "done", the * meaning "someday, should I really ever actually be into grinding actually worse than my full-time job, this one got a 2do list for me".

Switching from regarding games as something I have to complete to something I draw as much enjoyment from as I want (and not an iota more) really felt liberating, speaking as someone with ~2 kilogames in their library and own experience with feeling overwhelmed by what felt like a 2do-list before I found my senses and started treaing it as a pile of options, not a backlog.

PS: I actually genuinely do enjoy my full-time job. It lets me does stuff that I enjoy and to an extent, the methodic aproach my job is perfectly suited for (unless a sociopath with very little skill and very much ego comes along but I don't have many of those on my new job) is something I enjoy in games as well. However, I do pour more discipline into job things than I do in hobby things so I still need to draw a line between what feels like a job (which games can do if I don't opt out so I opt out) and what feels like leisure time.

Some great ideas right here, there is plenty of times I want to get some achievements or collectibles but in the end they all just feel tedious so I usually don't 100% games.

引用自 sable54：

I don't think I'm in the majority of gamers when I say this, but gaming has gotten boring with how toxic communities have become, but also with how many choices we have to choose from. Most of my library is on steam, but with all the apps that offer games anymore the choices feel as deep as the ocean. Between Steam, Amazon games, GOG, Epic games, endless emulators, and game passes we have so many options to choose from its overwhelming. This has taken my enjoyment away from gaming as sometimes I want to take a break from one game over another, but end up having to restart cause I forgot some story or gameplay mechanics, or I just take way longer of a break then I wanted.

The secret is to first stop acquiring new games.
The second is... just pick one and start.
If you want to be strategic, you can start with the games that require less of a time commitment.
At the end of the day,. Your backlog is your problem. Not Valve's. Valve really doesn't care whether or not you play the games you buy. They already got their money.

引用自 sable54：

Luckily more games are starting to have recaps to help some players who have taken breaks, but at the end of the day its not super common among all games. Depending on what games you play some can take only a couple hrs to finish, while some take tens or hundreds of hrs to finish, and tends to feel like a second full time job depending on how hard you want to grind or get achievements.

If playting a game feels like a chore or job, then you really shouldn't be playing it. Just remove it from your librar or slap it in the hidden category. Out of sight out of mind.

引用自 sable54：

I want to talk about possible tips and tricks that have helped you or others keep their interest in playing games they enjoy. One thing I try to do is keep my library categorized so I know what I've finished and whats in my backlog, but even then it tends to get overwhelming since I'm also in a steam family with an extra 300+ games on top of mine.

Have a wid selection of games spanning multiple genres and themes. That way there's always going to be something to play.

- Before you buy a game, check your library if there's another game that falls into the same genre, type, and theme as the one you were considering to purchase and then just play that.

- DOn't be afraid to say. "I'm not having fun. . Into the bin with this game."
DO not compound wyour purchase error by allowing it to waste your time.

I think I stay more committed to games that are insanely hard. When I start a new game I usually go for the highest difficulty right off the bat. For some reason I seem to enjoy losing more than winning.

引用自 sable54：

I want to talk about possible tips and tricks that have helped you or others keep their interest in playing games they enjoy.

For one thing, I *don't* use all those apps/subscriptions/game passes/etc to get access to "more games" that I have no time for.

And I don't buy nearly as many games in a year as I did a decade or two ago, because I look at my backlog and think "eh, there'll be another Steam sale in a month. There's no pressure to buy another game *now*" (which is the other thing - back when Steam sales were half-yearly or quarterly, rather than every couple weeks, there was a reason to buy 'extra' games for the next few months. Not so much now.)

You can also Hide games that you've finished and know you're never going to play again.

One thing I try to do is keep my library categorized so I know what I've finished and whats in my backlog, but even then it tends to get overwhelming since I'm also in a steam family with an extra 300+ games on top of mine.

Yeah, my entire Steam library is under 200 games, so being overwhelmed isn't really an danger.

引用自 Start_Running：

引用自 sable54：

I don't think I'm in the majority of gamers when I say this, but gaming has gotten boring with how toxic communities have become, but also with how many choices we have to choose from. Most of my library is on steam, but with all the apps that offer games anymore the choices feel as deep as the ocean. Between Steam, Amazon games, GOG, Epic games, endless emulators, and game passes we have so many options to choose from its overwhelming. This has taken my enjoyment away from gaming as sometimes I want to take a break from one game over another, but end up having to restart cause I forgot some story or gameplay mechanics, or I just take way longer of a break then I wanted.

The secret is to first stop acquiring new games.
The second is... just pick one and start.
If you want to be strategic, you can start with the games that require less of a time commitment.
At the end of the day,. Your backlog is your problem. Not Valve's. Valve really doesn't care whether or not you play the games you buy. They already got their money.

引用自 sable54：

Luckily more games are starting to have recaps to help some players who have taken breaks, but at the end of the day its not super common among all games. Depending on what games you play some can take only a couple hrs to finish, while some take tens or hundreds of hrs to finish, and tends to feel like a second full time job depending on how hard you want to grind or get achievements.

If playting a game feels like a chore or job, then you really shouldn't be playing it. Just remove it from your librar or slap it in the hidden category. Out of sight out of mind.

引用自 sable54：

I want to talk about possible tips and tricks that have helped you or others keep their interest in playing games they enjoy. One thing I try to do is keep my library categorized so I know what I've finished and whats in my backlog, but even then it tends to get overwhelming since I'm also in a steam family with an extra 300+ games on top of mine.

Have a wid selection of games spanning multiple genres and themes. That way there's always going to be something to play.

- Before you buy a game, check your library if there's another game that falls into the same genre, type, and theme as the one you were considering to purchase and then just play that.

- DOn't be afraid to say. "I'm not having fun. . Into the bin with this game."
DO not compound wyour purchase error by allowing it to waste your time.

Not getting any new games is something I generally do. The last games I bought were BF6 and OFF and I only didn't enjoy BF6. And why is valve even coming up? This is just a discussion about games and backlogs, nowhere does it blame valve for anything.

And games feeling like a chore is dependant on the game you're playing. There are some games like that I enjoy that feel like a chore cause theyre long as ♥♥♥♥ (The persona series, the danganronpa series, the smt series, the yakuza series, most JRPGS) but its more a love hate relationship like with dark souls. And sometimes its small things that can feel like a chore compared to 60+ hr games.

引用自 wesnef：

引用自 sable54：

I want to talk about possible tips and tricks that have helped you or others keep their interest in playing games they enjoy.

For one thing, I *don't* use all those apps/subscriptions/game passes/etc to get access to "more games" that I have no time for.

And I don't buy nearly as many games in a year as I did a decade or two ago, because I look at my backlog and think "eh, there'll be another Steam sale in a month. There's no pressure to buy another game *now*" (which is the other thing - back when Steam sales were half-yearly or quarterly, rather than every couple weeks, there was a reason to buy 'extra' games for the next few months. Not so much now.)

You can also Hide games that you've finished and know you're never going to play again.

One thing I try to do is keep my library categorized so I know what I've finished and whats in my backlog, but even then it tends to get overwhelming since I'm also in a steam family with an extra 300+ games on top of mine.

Yeah, my entire Steam library is under 200 games, so being overwhelmed isn't really an danger.

I only used them at the time cause we had Amazon Prime, and I check epic from time to time to see if the free games are worth getting but I barely use Epic. I don't even have GOG or Amazon games installed cause of how much I have on steam alone.

And yea I honestly wish I didn't have as many games cause a lot of it feels like wasted money. A good portion I've gotten for free luckily, but its annoying in the end.

If a game feels like a job, that may defeat the point of playing it. If I find a good game I won’t be able to put it down until I finish it.

引用自 Knee：

If a game feels like a job, that may defeat the point of playing it. If I find a good game I won’t be able to put it down until I finish it.

I think im just strange cause sometimes I have moments like this, but more commonly I tend to take breaks from games I enjoy and go to play others or read some Manga. Like I love bomb rush cyberfunk but I cant finish it for the life of me.

引用自 sable54：

And games feeling like a chore is dependant on the game you're playing. There are some games like that I enjoy that feel like a chore cause theyre long as ♥♥♥♥ (The persona series, the danganronpa series, the smt series, the yakuza series, most JRPGS) but its more a love hate relationship like with dark souls. And sometimes its small things that can feel like a chore compared to 60+ hr games.

In which case perhaps it's a matter of *how* you play the game. Maybe just decide you only engage with the parts of a game that are actually enjoyable to you and do worry about chasing down every bit of optional content and side quest.. DOn't try to do everything. Just do what you find fun for you current play through.

Be practical, not Optimal.

引用自 Start_Running：

引用自 sable54：

And games feeling like a chore is dependant on the game you're playing. There are some games like that I enjoy that feel like a chore cause theyre long as ♥♥♥♥ (The persona series, the danganronpa series, the smt series, the yakuza series, most JRPGS) but its more a love hate relationship like with dark souls. And sometimes its small things that can feel like a chore compared to 60+ hr games.

In which case perhaps it's a matter of *how* you play the game. Maybe just decide you only engage with the parts of a game that are actually enjoyable to you and do worry about chasing down every bit of optional content and side quest.. DOn't try to do everything. Just do what you find fun for you current play through.

Be practical, not Optimal.

I appreciate you're help and advice, I've been having to do this cause I try to get achievements or collectibles and get burnt out in the end. I need to start saving that for 2nd plays.

引用自 sable54：

引用自 Start_Running：

In which case perhaps it's a matter of *how* you play the game. Maybe just decide you only engage with the parts of a game that are actually enjoyable to you and do worry about chasing down every bit of optional content and side quest.. DOn't try to do everything. Just do what you find fun for you current play through.

Be practical, not Optimal.

I appreciate you're help and advice, I've been having to do this cause I try to get achievements or collectibles and get burnt out in the end. I need to start saving that for 2nd plays.

Ignore the cheevos the first play through. Just and yeah I get it. That mindset kept me from really enjoying the fallout, and elder scrolls games.