new game anxiety

[ziggy starbucks]

I have a lot of anxiety in my life which often results in inaction and falling back on repeated safe behaviours [nb]hello photoshop![/nb]. This extends to computer games as well. I was happy sinking 500 hours into skyrim because I was so familiar with the game long before I ever played it and after a while the mechanics become 2nd nature. I'm now trying to start some of the many fucking games I've bought but I just can't stick with any. I've started Bioshock, Witcher 1 etc but the unfamiliar environments, game mechanics and controls just frustrate and disturb in equal measure.

You lot are nutters just like I am. Any tips?

[Hangthebuggers]

Don't play something too similar to a genre you already play. If you're playing an RPG, then any other RPG might seem clunky, alien or not as good as Skyrim.

This is why I try and mix games up. A puzzle game, a shooting game, a racing game... That way there's no comparison to the one you've sunken hours into, thus you don't feel as frustrated.

[pillockandtwat]

Hi, I was interested to read about the concept of "repeated safe behaviours" as a symptom of anxiety and if you have any links to stuff I could read about on that I would be grateful. I have begun to suspect that a large part of my waking days are now spent in "repeated safe behaviours" and I need to break that cycle.

TBH I would advise not gaming for a couple of months. I know a guy who was diagnosed with "positive stress" because he'd immersed himself in Championship Manager non-stop for about four months solid and it had reduced his stress tolerance levels to the point where he could barely function in a normal environment.

Have you really sunk 500+ hours into Skyrim?

[Big Jack McBastard]

I found the first Witcher to be a pig to control properly (on the PC anyway) and Bioshock took me two goes to properly get into, not like it wasn't compelling or anything I just didn't feel right with it until I got a fair distance in.

As Htb says a completely different style of game can help. Knock RPGs on the head for a bit or go for one of them old-style isometric D&D style jobs to clean your brain pipes out.

Hell I had trouble getting back into Minecraft after playing PC Skyrim, kept pressing E to activate stuff and my inventory would pop open over and over until I sighed and logged out. A few sessions of Prison Architect and Rimworld saw my stupid fingers loose their bad habits.

Have you really sunk 500+ hours into Skyrim?

Hahaha, that's nowt mate, I'd done 235 hours within 21 days (or 504 hours) of it being released, nigh on half of every day, (holy shit). Loads more after that 1000 hours+ and I've played it through again since on the PC.

[Junglist]

Have you really sunk 500+ hours into Skyrim?

I've played Trials for over 1000 hours through all the iterations. Also Championship Manager/Football Manager time throughout the years is scarily high, on Football Manager 2013 alone, according to Steam, I've logged 812 hours (admittedly about 300 of those would've been with it just being on in the background), so erm yeah.

Fuck that's depressing.

[Fry]

I tend to use small, but interesting, indie games with fun and interesting mechanics as "pallet cleansers" between my big jaunts. Stuff like Mark Of The Ninja, Cave Story, New Star Soccer 5 and  Bastion (or Transistor) are deep enough to get really into, but never really overwhelm. You can spend a few hours on these (or even complete fully) as a way to kind of reset your brain to take on a other massive story.

I even have a section for these on my steam account. It is called "Dip In City". Because they are games I dip in to.

[Buttress]

I find I play games less and less these days. Nothing seems to do profound or interesting things with the medium anymore - even indie games seem to get stuck into their 'being indie' and thus becoming something of a mainstream genre itself.

Bigger games tend to bore me quickly with half-baked storylines or unsatisfying mechanics that shout game. Sometimes I just want something that takes the medium seriously and provides an experience that is both deep but doesn't necessarily require deep investment. I guess that's why I play mostly multiplayer games - there's depth there but you can quickly get in and out of playing it.

There's also the problem with games feeling like, I dunno, a tremendous waste of time. Its a feeling i find difficult to shake, and one that I don't get with other art forms like film or TV (if its good TV). May have something to do with the way games treat themselves (as games).