Playing Games Slowly - YouTube

someone sent me this video recently, about how FOMO pushes people to rush through games and treat them as objective lists instead of gestalt experiences to be savored and to put yourself into

and in a way I feel lucky that big, popular games are almost never aimed at me. so I don’t have to worry about this

but, I do rush through games sometimes. because there are so many that I’ve been meaning to try. sometimes it feels like I’m falling behind on my ever-increasing backlog if I’m not rushing through whatever I’m enjoying right now. but the truth is that I don’t like most games that I play. I play them for an hour and then decide to stop. so I’d much rather keep playing a game that I’m enjoying, instead of going through several games that I probably won’t

when I’m able to set my FOMO aside and deeply immerse myself in a game’s world, it can be a very special and personal experience. although for me to want that level of immersion, it has to be a certain kind of game. I’m not sure what exactly it takes, but I know that Fallout 3, Skyrim, and New Vegas make me want to deeply immerse myself in their worlds. and I’ve had similar experiences with many other games - just in a more limited way

sometimes, like with Alien: Isolation, I’ll love the surface-level vibes so much that I want to fully immerse myself in the world of the game. but when I try, I discover that the world starts to fall apart - because little details don’t make sense. so attention to detail and internal consistency are very important, at least

there are also a few different games that I would love to try immersing myself in, but unfortunately they all have stories that are told very effectively, so I don’t want to risk trying them. Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 are good examples

the way that this video describes walking everywhere, listening to the sounds that your footsteps make on the different materials: I’ve noticed things like this and I’ve even imagined how it must feel to walk through the snow in Skyrim, or how the different kinds of mead must taste. things like that really ground me in the world. and I use the word “ground” very deliberately: I’m using real-world grounding techniques to pull my focus into the game’s world instead of the real world

unfortunately when I play these games for too long, I do end up treating them as a list of objectives again. and I think that’s because the novelty and beauty of that world fades for me over time. and also because no matter how sophisticated a game is, there are only so many things that you can do in it. and sooner or later that repetition and inflexibility will start to chip away at my immersion

but it’s always worth it, to be able to live in another world for a while. to escape from all of my problems and be empowered to do and be whatever I want. I’m always looking for new worlds to put myself into. new places to explore and new experiences to have. I don’t think I could stop if I tried

@kasdeya

I can expand on this philosophy.

Buy games when they're a few years old and on sale.

Do the same thing with video cards.

@kasdeya thanks for sharing this and your thoughts. You have a unique take on "effective storytelling" that is super thought provoking... Will definitely be chewing on that for a while.

I think the essayist lays it on a little thick, but if that's their personal experience I won't say it's wrong or anything. Playing more intentionally is definitely more enjoyable on the whole.

But personally I don't feel FOMO with games. I do feel it with books. I'm a painfully slow reader, so there's so so so much I've missed out on.

@hwll I do think you’re right about parts of the essay. I almost hesitated sharing the video because I felt a little uncomfortable with parts lol. although I do like the overall message, even if it does feel kind of exaggerated in places

and aw I wonder if we all have FOMO for different things. I definitely get that. I feel like I tend to pile up books and never read them lol - although I generally go for nonfiction or storyless, pure worldbuilding books (like TTRPG books)

also I’m glad that my perspective was interesting to you! I definitely have a very very skewed perspective on storytelling and I’m still trying to figure out where I draw the line between storytelling that I want to involve myself in (or write) and storytelling that I don’t. because there are many stories (though they’re very very rare) that I genuinely like, and those stories have also deliberately caused me pain (though it was often so mild that I didn’t consciously notice at the time)