Recently for my mental health I decided to stop playing competitive games. You know, your Battlefields, your Call of Duty’s, your War Thunders, etc. I found myself angry more than I was having fun. For the past ten years… I don’t think I ever ended a session of a player vs player match - “happy.” Now I’m playing mostly singleplayer games with some MMORPGs. I am much happier. I actually look forward to gaming when I can. There is enough to get mad at in the world, I don’t want my entertainment medium of choice to be anger inducing as well. I feel like the worst part about the vast majority of player vs player games is that someone basically has to not be having fun for the other person to have fun. Not universal, and probably more a matter of personal mindset but it’s how I feel. I was just wondering how many if any comrades here have done the same and how it has effected you? I can confidentally say my life is better for it.
I’ve been playing House Flipper 2 a lot, which is a good detox from high stress games. Getting back into EU4 as well, beating up Europe at every chance I can get. Trying to learn Kremlingames games, mostly China: Mao’s Legacy. Flying the MiG-19 in DCS, my favorite plane. It’s been fun, and better. I do not miss War Thunder too much.
I’m not knocking people who like high action player vs player enviroments, it’s just something I have grown to not enjoy anymore personally.
Yes, they made me a bit too angry. While i still play some online now and then, never the competitive games.
I used to RAGE at Destiny when it first dropped like a decade ago almost. I was really good at the game for a short period but then everyone else got way better too and I eventually quit. Now I only play online games if I’m with a friend and that’s rare
For me they often provoke self-anger. I kept experiencing intrusive thoughts like “That’s the third time I died that way and I KNEW it was coming so what the hell’s wrong with me?” and “I can’t believe I choked AGAIN. I dragged my whole team down and now I’m 100 MMR deeper in the hole to show for it…”
I wasn’t having fun anymore and decided to hang up my hat for good – these days I stick to TF2 when I want to scratch that multiplayer FPS itch. It’s so much nicer to play on my own terms in a setting where whether you win or lose everyone has fun and wants to stick around for another round or three.
lmao i never managed to get into these kinds of games. too anxiety-inducing and stressful.
i tried in the past because i was so fucking lonely and thought it would’ve been a good way to make friends. oh well.
i’ve always been a singleplayer/co-op girl and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
This is like me. I would like to play them but they are way too stressful, especially if there’s voice/text. I sometimes do coop stuff - Remant 2, World War Z, Destiny 2 but if I pick up that someone’s getting annoyed with me I get stressed and start playing badly. I wish games were better at putting you with similarly ranked people but I think they just want short queues so they chuck everyone in together - newbs and the not-so-good get slaughtered and either get good quickly or leave (mostly leave I think). For me, at least, the best thing is to try to find a small, friendly Discord community and just play the games when you know you are going to be with friendly, supportive people. I’d love to play games like Rust, CoD, but toxic players keep me away. Then there’s the homophobia and ageism… but that’s a whole other post or two. 😅
Yeah, I have stopped really caring for competitive games for 3 or 4 years, if not more, now. Playing with friends can be a blast tho, and that’s what I do when it’s a competitive game. Usually it’s league of legends for me, but I play very little of it now, which is to be expected when you play the same game for a decade lol.
Gaming in general for the past years have been tough for me because despite genuinely loving it, my mental health have steadily declined to the point I have trouble even starting anything, let alone continuing to play something I have started, but right now I’m playing Breath of the Wild and Baldur’s Gate 3, both for the first time and let me tell you, I’m having a blast and don’t feel like stopping anytime soon. Single-player games are fucking great.
Now, I don’t think the issue with competitive games is the fact that someone will get the short end of the stick and not have fun. If that was the case, fighting games would be dead by now. You can absolutely have fun while losing. The issue I have always seen, in league at least, is that you’re alone, there’s no collective sentiment when playing, no team mentality, most people are hostile and everyone is trying to win in a selfish way and because of that you get frustrated, which eventually turns to anger, and all of that most likely ties to the hyper-individualization of the self under capitalism. Every now and then you find a team that clicks, where everyone communicates and play for each other, instead of in spite of each other, and when it happens it’s fucking great, even when you end up losing.
Now, I don’t think the issue with competitive games is the fact that someone will get the short end of the stick and not have fun.
Yeah I somewhat regret saying that aloud because it just makes me look like a sore loser, but hey, at least I’m avoiding situations where I’m a sore loser. 😅
Nah, it didn’t came accross like you’re a sore loser. What you said is not wrong, it can’t always be fun, and for some people losing is always not fun.
Yes.A long time ago, actually and it was very good for my mental health.
By the time video games got to where being destroyed over the internet was possible, I couldn’t afford the time investment required to git gud.
This was my experience. Don’t have time to play for more than a few hours a week so if it’s between getting my ass kicked online the whole time or a few single player games the single players way more enjoyable.
Especially now that im a console behind and really can’t justify spending hundreds of dollars to play marginally different versions of games I already own for 4 hours a week.
The only multiplayer games I’ve played in the past 10-ish years are Dark Souls and like Payday 2. This year I’m trying to get into fighting games, though, lol.
I like co-op games too. With friends at least. I haven’t braved many random lobbies in Payday, but that is more just a matter of shyness.
Also, based username. Without the glorious LaGG-3 we would’ve never got my favorite WW2 fighter, the La-7.
Yeah, I only play with strangers when I don’t have to talk to them lol.
Also, based username. Without the glorious LaGG-3 we would’ve never got my favorite WW2 fighter, the La-7.
Thanks! I like the La-7 and La-5 a lot, too, but there’s something great about how the LaGG-3 was just “good enough” for it’s time
Yes, I avoid them. The only time I make exceptions are during LAN parties, when we all squad up together, to get demolished by sweat lords. But at that point, it’s all about the hang session, really.
In my free time I prefer leisurely games, like thoughtful indy platformers and puzzle games, with the occasional RPG or survival game sprinkled in.
I’m travelling currently and taking a bit of a gaming sabbatical, but I look forward to replaying Sunless Sea when I get back. I also am looking forward to the STALKER 2 release sometime this Q1.
I went back to some old school games and found that I can play them 20 times longer than anything new rn.
I’ve been enjoying OG Star Wars battlefront 2, and I can’t stop. I never stopped loving that game apparently
Old Battlefront 2 is an amazing game. I tried getting my friends to play it recently at a LAN, and no one could appreciate it as much as I do.
Please join me comrade
I’m travelling until the end of the month. I’ll DM you when I’m back home, so we can connect on Steam and Discord, or wherever. 👍
Absolutely I play with another close comrade of mine as well, please join us it’s so much fun
For the past ten years… I don’t think I ever ended a session of a player vs player match - “happy.”
Yeah I had this same realization a while ago when I used to almost exclusively play competitive games. When I lost a match, at best I just felt bad, and at worst I was pissed because I got my ass kicked by some little shit taunting me over voice chat or something. When I won I just felt okay or maybe relieved, but not really good or happy. Either way when I stopped playing I was usually in a worse mood than when I started.
Now I mostly play single player games and have a lot more fun. After I close out of the game I feel satisfied and like I genuinely enjoyed the time I spent playing it. No more getting needlessly stressed out or having my day ruined because of a game. Also it helps that when I need to answer my phone, get a package at the door, etc. I can (usually) just pause the game and come back no problem.
One of my breaking points was having an incredible loss streak in War Thunder and when I finally won a match I noticed the only thing I felt was relief. Nothing else. Like goddamn that is not something I should have to work towards in a hobby.
I just stopped finding pvp fun at some point years ago and stopped playing competitive games.
I left ranked league of legends for single player pirated offline nintendo switch stuff, and old steam games in my library.
No regrets!
I quit League of Legends (checks notes) ten years ago and it was a great decision. Since then I’ve tried other competitive online games - Titanfall was my jam for a while, then Overwatch of course, tried to get back into Starcraft/SC2, really like Dragon Ball Fighter Z but I haven’t been able to play for a while - but I always quit as soon as I cross the threshold of getting pissed more than I’m having fun.
My favorite online experiences now are all cooperative with relatively small player bases. I dug the hell out of Final Fantasy XI playing it through last year (though I still have a lot of content left if I ever go back to it again), on DCS I play on a “casual milsim” server that’s mostly frequented by Australian dads where we play against a pretty hardcore computer opponent, and now that I think of it Dungeons and Dragons (and most other TTRPGs) totally has the same vibe of “coop gameplay with a small playerbase”.
I’ve always preferred co op for that very reason. Like I get it back in the day when you needed another person to have a good challenge, but bots are pretty good these days and I’d rather frag em alongside you.
I’ve been enjoying my time in Darktide because despite it being a fucking Warhammer game, the co-op only concept means that the most insufferable, toxic That Guys go elsewhere. I’ve had maybe one bad interaction, and it was so relatively minor I can’t remember what it was about.
Once I enjoyed playing MMORPGs. But also this is kind of stressful to me. So I rather enjoy playing single-player games or Genshin Impact on my mobile phone, at least the interactions with other players are mostly friendly there and you can help someone
I have only played coop styled PVE multiplayer video games for years. Monster Hunter games are my favorite. Just dudes and dudettes slaying dragons. Most of the time vocal communication isn’t necessary. Emojis and some signals at most. Most of the time when you are with people that know what they are doing you don’t need anything. It makes playing with random online so much better. And there’s not much animosity against other people. Like ok, sure, you can get a bad player here or there, and sometimes you might have to boot someone for being a little shit but generally speaking it’s pretty smooth sailing.
When I play against people there’s just so much extra stress. I just don’t like that kind of fight. I like to work with people not fight against them. Even if it’s team based pvp I don’t like it. You are still fighting against other people and in the end that leave some people feeling shitty or angry at other people. I don’t like that. Maybe it’s part of why I took to communism so quickly and readily. It’s not about competing against each other like shitty capitalism but working with each other to make things better. That just resonates with me in all things.
