Maybe this doesn’t need to be said but this is a different question to which video game genres do you enjoy. For example, I enjoy playing Dota 2. Every few months or so, I’ll play it for a couple of weeks and put it back down. I’ll never play more than two or three matches and I feel ‘present’ for the duration.
Paradox grand strategy games (especially EUIV), however, I can start playing at 7am and in a blink of an eye it can be 11pm and I won’t have eaten or used the toilet or anything. I can do this for multiple days in a row. Furthermore, I don’t often feel like I’m ‘enjoying’ it. I’m just consumed by it.
I’m intrigued to hear whether or not anyone recognises this difference in themselves. If you have any insight as to why you’re consumed by some games and not others, I’d be very interested.
Any Paradox game. Oxygen Not Included. Factorio. Civilization. Rimworld. Dwarf Fortress. The list goes on.
For me I think it’s about having non-stop and parallel mini problems/puzzles/goals. By the time one task is finished. There’s two more to take its place.
An observation inspired by your comment. I love video game narratives; I often hate video game storytelling. PDS games tell me stories but there’s no cutscenes or stop in gameplay and the narratives are all dynamic.
I imagine Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress could be very dangerous for me.
Dwarf Fortress is, imo, much less crack-y than something like Factorio. It takes much less constant attention by how slow the game moves and how long your plans take to work out. I find my time in DF to be meditative and relaxing because I’m working towards a clear goal but can relax a lot of my reactions… Factorio is a game where you can do as fast as you can think (outside the early game) - even if you’re waiting on something there is always something else to obsess over.
Especially factorio with mods. I play with bob and angels mod which massively increases the complexity. I use infinite ore as well because anything on a timeline stresses me. I have over 2000 hrs in it.
I absolutely adored seablock… and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who has any social obligations in the next half a year.
This is definitely important in making the very most engaging base-builders - a pleasing mixture of longer term goals (manufacture this piece that I can eventually put in a future science pack or whatnot) and under-performing pieces of your older infrastructure that you have to scale up or re-plan is just so helpful for getting you into that flow state.