a lot is made of sticking with a game, or any artistic media, by people who found certain deeply rewarding experiences with it, and yeah, sometimes that’s legit, but it’s also totally legit to just, not. With narcolepsy and ADHD I find it hard to do anything if its not plenty interesting, and if I’m doing a task that is boring I’ll find my own interests around it to make it go by without getting frustrated.
If I’m already meant to be engaged though, in art, and it’s not doing it, well then it’s not for me at that point, and I’m just going to move on because there’s so much more to discover and find and enjoy. Sometimes I go back to something I didn’t enjoy first time around because there was something there, like Dark Souls, there’s something in that game’s odd cruelty and dramatic environments that is gripping, even if it’s really annoying. There’s a bunch of other games however where the hook never got in my mouth, and that’s not saying, “hey this sucks!” since a whole lot of people clearly like it a lot, just that I bounced off of it, maybe 10, maybe 100 minutes in, and was propulsed in the opposite direction of the vacuum, away from the source.
It’s absolutely vital to listen to yourself when you’re not enjoying something.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list.
. undertale
. the swapper
. sonic the hedgehog
. jet set radio
. final fantasy VII (original)
. the vanishing of ethan carter
. papers, please (+ return of the obra dinn – though i finished that to see if it got any less romantic about the east india company (it did not))
. overlord
. star wars – knights of the old republic
. costume quest
. eurotruck simulator 2
. the sea will claim everything
. NIGHTS into dreams
. the talos principle
. subsurface circular
. deus ex (original + mankind divided)
. i have no mouth, and i must scream
. life is strange
. serious sam
. metal gear solid 2: sons of liberty
. all oddworld games so far
. sim city
plus there’s a bunch of stuff I just don’t play because I know they will bore me to death…
. roguelikes
. tactical and strategy games
. survival and crafting
. deckbuilding games
. most multiplayer games
. a load of simulator games
I used to think all of these sucked and that there was something wrong with me that I couldn’t enjoy or even bear to play stuff that other people adore, like Undertale especially, but now I see that, it’s cool, like, people enjoy stuff. I enjoy stuff. It’s not always going to match up. That’s not saying legitimate criticism isn’t important, but that it’s important to know that you can just, not like stuff, never get into it. I’m never going to watch Game of Thrones or read the books, or finish Undertale or care about how to play the original sonic without feeling totally out of control, and that’s fine. Legitimate criticism is vital, but so is saying, “well, plenty of other stuff to play.”
Because there is, there’s always more to play, more to read, more to see and do.
GlitchOut 