Does anyone actually find video games boring and a waste of time? And by extension gamification of anything is not a motivating drive? Every ADHD advice usually centres around some form of gamified strategy but to me this is flawed. How do you manage dopamine without it being gamified?

It’s very rare that I can find myself engaging with any video games these days and it’s usually down to a few reasons:

  • The gameplay is something that I recognise the mechanics of and feel like I’m playing something I’ve already played and once I recognise it there’s little reason to continue. Completion or challenge of the game is not a motivating factor to stick with it.

  • I have so many things that I need to be doing that I can’t even do and anything not on the list and video gaming is a waste of that time that could be going to literally anything else.

  • Narratives in games are… not that interesting. I usually find the balance between interactivity and story always off and any gameplay is either boring or the narrative is boring so one is always cancelling the other out, so “engaging” with a story is cumbersome and at that point I may as well watch a passive form of media.

  • Online multiplayer is rarely fun as I have little time to invest in being any good at a game to the level I can enjoy it. Usually the enjoyment comes from making other people’s lives miserable by beating them.

Oh and forget about achievements, they are just a bunch of todo items that I can’t process at all as they are either micro indicators of progress in the game and useless eg. You do literally nothing aside from play the game as intended and you get some achievement. Or it’s some ridiculous set of tasks that I get task paralysis by which in the end there’s zero reward for accomplishing so why bother.

  • Auster@thebrainbin.org
    10·
    1 day ago

    Dunno what types of games you check, but maybe pick something totally at random? Indies and old games may be interesting to add to the pool if you do it.

    Also, not on gaming per se, but if you’re too busy too constantly, please find some time to relax, else you could be burning yourself out.

    And on online multiplayer, usually the other players are my source of stress, specially on co-op as they don’t usually seem to know what they’re doing.

    And gaming helps me even when they are a bit bland because it’s a media I can interact with when consuming. Things like movies and music, I need a secondary activity to keep myself active.