Guys and gals, how do you deal with the slump?
D’you know what I mean? I’ve been sitting around the last couple of days with some time on my hands and, try as I might, I just couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to sit down and play some games. That’s not like me. Most evenings I can be found at my PC but now, where before I’d be tooling around with Minecraft or replaying Mass Effect, I just flick idly through my list of installed games in a sort of daze. Right now, there’s no game that I own that I feel the need to play.
You know the need I mean. It’s the one that’ll keep you up ’til all hours playing when you should be sleeping, the kind of need that’ll make you queue up on launch day to collect your pre-order before anyone else. I used to feel that all the time for the games I own, whether on PC or console. With Dead Space 2 in the news, I recently went and blitzed my way through the original Dead Space again, unable to put it down. That was a week ago.
Now, I’ve got nothing. Last night, on a whim, I reinstalled Red Alert 2 to see if a dose of nostalgia would kick start my excitement and enthusiasm again. It worked for all of an hour, maybe two. I have a stack of unfinished games (a subject worthy of a blog series in its own right) that I really should try and get through, that I bought with the intention of getting through, that I can’t bring myself to pick up. I have the likes of Dragon Age to be playing, or New Vegas to finally wrap up after fifty hours, but none of it holds any spark for me.
All I can think about is what’s coming down the line. Deus Ex 3, Skyrim, Rage, Dawn of War II Retribution; all of these look and sound so bright, shiny and amazing to me. By comparison, due to whatever warped sense of perception I’m currently experiencing, every game I currently own just doesn’t compare. Everything I want to play exists in the future and I’m stuck here in the present. Future Barry is going to have a blast, the lucky git.
So I’m in something of a slump. I love games but right now I’m bored and turned off by the idea of actually playing them. Have any other Citizens gone through such a phase? And how did you deal with it?
thank u god i thought i was only one going through this, i find if i go and watch some dvds i forget that i was in a slump and one day i’ll come in and find myself sitting down playing them again, so the less u think about it the faster it will past
Barry, I care to think that the slumps that I experience are actually caused by a certain game. Currently I have been replaying ME2 again. Then when it comes to me wanting to play another game annoyingly I have found my attention kept elsewhere. The only thing that I can bring myself to play at the moment is more ME2.
So my advice would be for you to backtrack as to what you been recently playing and pick up from there.
I am also having the new years gamingh lul, it can be cured by a new console or a rockstar game , im looking at you LA noire!
@tamoorh Yeah, problem with watching great TV shows; the way I consume TV I’ll just wind up sitting on my sofa for 7 hours/day 3 days solid watching the entire season of show. Okay yeah, that’s kinda how I play games as well but at least it’s not so brain-meltingly passive.
Yeah I’ve had that slump quite a few times. Usually I’ll force myself to start playing a game and most of the time I’ll quickly want to play and finish it.
I have had the dead zone periods though, I’ll usually play Street Fighter, Counter-Strike, TF2 or WoW during those periods.
I think these periods are a great chance to do something different though. Mark C is watching some great TV shows, that might be something worth looking in to.
I’m reading more books and comics while playing DS and PSP games. Also watching Chuck, Supernatural, The Wire and a few animes.
That said I am working through Dead Space 2 and will have Marvel vs Capcom 3 by the time I’m done, so…sucks to be you
You aren’t alone Barry. I’ve recently purchased both Little big planet 2 and dead space 2 and i don’t think i’ve spend 4 hours playing both games combined.
It would appear that I’ve lost my gaming appetite but my attention has been stolen away by the fantastic boardwalk empire and Mad Men.
But from memory every year seems to start this way.
If I wasn’t reviewing a game at the moment I’d be in the slump too. Most of my post Christmas weeks have been spent playing the weekly “seasonal events” in GT5. Bulletstorm and Killzone 3 can’t come soon enough!
Yeah, I’m getting the same thing with F:NV and Dragon Age: Origins. I’ve had DA:O since launch and I keep looking at the DA2 ads going “Shit, it’s coming out in MARCH?” It’s permanently in my DVD drive but somehow I spend my days checking Twitter and fiddling with my website instead of actually playing. :S
As with so many things, it’s probably a case of JFDI. That or the games I have just aren’t as engaging as I want them to be.