How to Overcome Gaming Burnout – Why You Should Play “Fun” Games

You really should play fun games. On the surface, that seems like the most obvious statement ever. Of course you play fun games. Why would you play games if they weren’t fun? What kind of psychopath monster do you have to be to keep grinding at a game just so that the level number above your head changes or so that you go from the lowly rank of private shooter person to sergeant shooter person? What kind of person keeps queueing match after match of a battle royale just to get that gilded first place prize, or crafting bandages in an MMO just to increase your in-game profession? Many of the games we play have addictive hooks that keep us coming back time after time just so that we complete XYZ task in XYZ game, but the sad fact is that once we complete one task, there’s always another one shoved under our noses to keep us occupied. Then, before you know it, you have gaming burnout and aren’t quite sure how or why but everything just seems a bit meh. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I escaped. So, this is your wake up call to start playing games that are actually fun. Let me explain. 

It’s 3 am and you have to get up for school or work, but you just want to complete one more quest to leave things wrapped up nice and neat for your next session – that is until you realise your adventure just starts a new quest chain that you’re now in the middle of. Maybe you’re more of an FPS player, so just replace this analogy with rushing B no stop, or punching people’s heads off as Liu Kang if you’re one of those deviant mortal kombat play—. Regardless, if any of these situations sound familiar to you, then you’ve experienced what I’m talking about. It happened to me one day, too. I was playing Overwatch, hold the boos, and kawaiigamer5000 (real names redacted) was sulking afk in spawn after having an argument with our tank, who proceeded to use his ult on our own team just for giggles. It was at this moment that I simply took my hands off the keyboard, sat back in my chair, and thought to myself – this isn’t fun. I’m not enjoying anything that’s happening right now, so what on earth am I doing wasting my life playing this hot trash?

It wasn’t that simple though. After having this revelation, I started to pay more and more attention to how I was feeling when I played a game, and I realised that this feeling wasn’t actually just limited to competitive games like I initially thought. In the recent weeks and months, these are just SOME of the games I bought and played. (there are others on my psn account, but I can’t show you those because you might see my copy of Pantsu Hunter Back to the 90s on the home screen). I played Dead Rising, and while I could appreciate what it was trying to do, its time mechanic made me feel like I was reliving my real life. It was a novel gimmick in 2006, but it doesn’t stick out as fun today. I played and completed Dragon Age Veilguard. Why you might ask? Mainly because of some ADHD-ridden sense of needing to complete an entire RPG. I played Life Is Strange True Colors, which just ended up disappointing me. Those are just three examples, but you can probably spot the pattern. There are lots of games that will give you a dopamine hit, or be considered great as art but have depressing narratives (here’s looking at you Last of Us). Some games will even trick you into thinking you’re having fun by adrenaline dumping you, like Fortnite or Apex Legends. Now, this doesn’t mean these aren’t GOOD games, but they often contribute to gaming burnout and entice you into falling into routines that you don’t want to be in but just are. You end up in a state of no longer feeling joy at the games you are playing but instead playing out of sheer habit, until one day you throw your controller across the room and shout profanities, surprising yourself because you thought you were just having a good time, right?

This is how gaming burnout slowly creeps up on you. We’re constantly bombarded with game release after game release, and each time, all of the marketing hype has us convinced that THAT game will be earth shattering and cure all of your boredom and concerns. But it’s only once in a rare while that that’s actually the case, yet we end up pushing on and ploughing through games that are just meh anyway, which only makes the situation worse. And since we play so many games, we don’t take the time to stop and consider WHY we are spending our time playing something mediocre. Often, this is why we also end up revisiting genre classics we’ve already played, like Stardew Valley for example, even though we’ve just bought the latest triple A game that cost a whole chunk of your monthly pay.  

Any normal person’s solution to all of this would, of course, be to just stop playing games for a bit. But we aren’t normal, evidenced by this artwork of the invisible woman from marvel rivals. So, I’m going to tell you how to get over gaming burnout – or just have a more enjoyable time gaming – by playing more games. Remember when I talked about that stack of games I’ve been playing? There was one game that I kept coming back to over and over again; one game that had me smiling and feeling a sense of pure joy as I played. That game is Astrobot. 

See, while there is technically a story to Astrobot, which is introduced in a simple cutscene at the beginning, the game is mostly just a platformer that wants you to jump and punch your way through the levels to find collectibles, which then contribute to larger projects and construction on the hub planet. The Astrobots you rescue make cute noises and there’s a banging soundtrack that will have you dancing in your living room. But why is Astrobot more quote unquote fun than all those other games we talked about? The key lies in its simplicity. You can explore different worlds that have varied environments without having to learn complex controls, follow a confusing story that takes hours to get off the ground, or memorise a set of combos for attacks. In Astrobot, there’s a punch button, a jump button, and a grab button. All of the development work was put into making the characters and situations you come across funny and enjoyable, without trying to have some kind of high brow agenda or point to make. 

Astrobot isn’t the only “fun” game out there, though, it’s just the one that I happened to play to personally snap me out of my gaming fatigue. There are a boat load of other games out there that scratch that fun itch, and unsurprisingly, a lot of them are made by Nintendo, who are the king of fun. Games like Mario Odyssey, Luigi’s Mansion, and Splatoon all come under this umbrella. Notice, too, that we aren’t just talking about platformers. Splatoon, for instance, has a ranked mode, but its core concept is that of pure fun by painting the world to a banging soundtrack. Luigi’s Mansion also, for example, symbolises the creativity in concept that sets the tone for a good time. Where else would you find a decades-old series icon taking on ghostly beings while being terrified? It’s pure genius, wrapped in sheer joy.

Of course, we can’t talk about fun games without discussing games in the cozy gaming niche either, where games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, and Donut County all shine bright. You can literally live the fun and relaxing escapism of farm life in Concerned Ape’s Stardew Valley, which has no time limit or real objectives. You do what you want, when you want. Animal Crossing lets you start over with anthropomorphic friends, letting you collect items and animals over different seasons, and tasks you with constructing new island features over a period of years. Donut County? Well, you can just swallow up more and more of the world with an ever-expanding hole in the ground. The main theme running through these few games, which are just a few examples of fun games, is that in one way or another there are no hard and fast objectives clawing at you every few minutes. You have time to process what you’re doing and soak in the game’s atmosphere. Have you ever looked up at the night’s sky in World of Warcraft, waiting for shooting stars like in Animal Crossing? 

These quote unquote fun titles all force you to slow down and smell the roses (literally in the case of animal crossing, or you might catch Tom Nook peering in your window at night), or somewhere spark a sense of joy inside of you. If you’re anything like me, this change from high intensity games to more relaxing ones might seem boring at first. After all, you’ve been injecting adrenaline directly into your eyeballs for years, but pick up some of these games next time you’re feeling bored or burned out and you won’t regret it, trust me. Over time, gaming for the win or the highest level will soon fall away. You’ll realise that rather than hopping from gaming fix to gaming fix, you’ll look forward to spending your time with a smile on your face instead of an angry scowl or an apathetic stare. Instead of treating games like a second job, where tasks have to be completed or some kind of doom will befall you, this is your sign to start playing games for the – SHOCK HORROR – fun of it. You might just have a good time. 

Read our Gravelord review here.