Anyone else have issues with recognizing whether your level enjoyment of a game is mostly influenced by your actual feelings for the game or more just a product of your particular mood at the time? I’m sure a lot of my uncertainty is probably part and parcel with having a mood disorder, but unless a game elicits a very strong response, positive or negative, I don’t know whether to trust my own takeaways.
Even then there’s still doubt. So many times in my life I’ve played a game and just was not feeling it whatsoever, only to revisit it later and enjoy it. Dark Souls is one of my favorite gaming experiences I’ve had, but the first time I played it I just came away thinking it was just some janky, sorta mediocre action game. The opposite also holds true. The first time I played Tokyo Jungle I had an absolute blast. Then when I came back to it years later I’m just like, “This is an okay little game.”
There are several games in franchises that I love that I just cannot get into, despite it feeling like they check most all the boxes for me. Each time I play them I wonder if I truly am not enjoying them or if I just happen to be in the wrong mood to unlock the entertainment in them, making them “click.” I can’t understand why in my numerous attempts I always have a bad time with Dragon Quest VII and can’t make my way through it. I love every game in that franchise(I still need to play III) even number two.
What’s got me on this line of thinking lately is that the other day I fired up Tokyo Mirage Sessions, which I enjoyed in my brief time with it in the past and I love all the different titles related to it. I had a miserable time with it this time. A bit later, I threw in Tales of Arise, a somewhat similar game, I had previously disliked in my short time with and it’s been a good, dumb blast. It just struck me as very odd, two similar games that I had opposing opinions on elicited opposite reactions on the same day and I felt like I was in a similar headspace while playing both of them.
I guess I’m just curious what other people’s relationship between their mood and enjoyment of games is. Is my experience somewhat typical or am I just really fickle? How much does your mood going into a game color the experience? How much do you lean on games to change your mood? Do you have specific games or genres you play in certain moods? Like how some people listen to heavy music when they’re angry or watch tearjerker movies when they’re sad.
Yes.
Some games I will only play when I’m in the country, like chulip. I feel like my own DJ. I’m not good at choosing music as much as I know exactly what game I want to be playing.
That’s pretty neat, I’ve never really had a connection with games through place. I definitely have that connection with music, certain places just have certain music that fit the mood like at the beach, at a dive bar or a backyard grill out.
The only thing I have that would be remotely close to that is an atmospheric thing. When I play Metroid II it has to be on a handheld, while I’m alone in the dark. It stirs up those same creepy vibes I got playing the game late at night as a kid – when I’d be hunkered over the living room sofa’s armrest in the dark, playing a Gameboy underneath a table lamp. I was half scared to death of the game and half terrified my parents would wake up and yell at me for being out of bed.
yes, i am this way not just with games but with everything. i’ve always assumed that everyone else felt this way, but lately i’ve realized that i might be more susceptible to moods than most. maybe i was born under the sign of saturn.
Gave me the opportunity to once again post my favorite review of all time.
Yeah, I guess also my Game Boy / Wonderswan mood hits in a major way during summer / when I’m outside a lot. As a kid living in a car / out of a backpack I always had a portable on me. So no matter where I am, these portables made to be played outdoors are always there for me.
More recently the past couple of years I’ve made it a tradition to backlog bust horror-themed games every october. I played all the Akumajou Dracula games JP version in release order in one october (up to sotn, skipping GB), the following year I played Resident Evil 1 on Saturn (or was it the same year?) and the year after that I played Resident Evil 2 on Dreamcast.
This is more of a setting thing at this point. But my dad, when he was living in his car around 2007 and working at activision in santa monica, would park in a dark public parking garage at 2am and had a CRT plugged into the cigarette lighter and played Silent Hill 4 on a ps2 during that time. He told me how the atmosphere made him frightened… Ironically I do not feel like my dad understands the silent hill series at all in the way I do, he just saw it as a “”“horror game”“”, I wish he had played SH2 or SH3 or even SH1 hahaha… Though I still haven’t played 4 myself.
@MoH it’s more rare amongst the hyper-rational, hyper-critical “gamer” culture, but yes, there are hyper-feeling hyper-perceiving-ass N.F.P. types like us out there. I think that’s why this forum is our place. It’s a rarer condition to have. Normally NFP’s would be out frolicking. I just do it with a game boy.
I am certainly more often than not an indecisive gamer, but my mood does play a big factor towards what I settle in on.
Competitive online games tend to take up a lot of my time when I don’t have art projects etc I’m working on, and they take over big time.
However, when I have something I’m working on, typically it’s bedtime RPGs, with a little bit of randomness inbetween.
I do think that particularly with movies, if I come into something knowing I’m going to like it, I often am a lot more forgiving than going into something with middling reviews. A great game example would be something like Eastward where I really wanted to play something like Mother and could overlook a lot of bad with it because it was the vibe. I think if I came into it thinking people didn’t like it, I would’ve been annoyed with the game’s many shortcomings.
Thanks for posting that link froggy. That’s also one of my favorite video game related things I’ve ever read, but I could never remember where I came across it in order to go back to it. That’s the only person I’ve came across that’s been able to thoroughly paint what makes Metroid II so good. I remember searching for this article when Samus Returns came out on the 3DS, because I wanted some grounding. I was baffled at the time why the remake was so well received when it appeared to completely abandon most everything about the source material that made it such a unique experience.
I definitely feel like my gaming has moods and they tend to be cyclical and in tune with the seasons.
During spring and summer time I tend to want to play more action oriented games, or games that are easily digestible. I’m also drawn to games with bright colors or jungle/island settings.
During the fall and autumn I tend to drop into big, full “meat and potatoes” games like RPGs or open world adventures with forested or snowy landscapes. Something that feels really good wrapped in a blanket on the couch with some tea for a few long hours of gaming.
Also, as @treefroggy mentioned, when October rolls aorund I like to get into spooky games. I never got around to playing the Dead Space remake, so I’ve earmarked a playthrough of that one when the season gets a little closer.
But also during December I enjoy playing anything with a Christmas or “December theme”, as I’ve previously talked about on here before. Games with snow and/or Santa walking around town.
For me, mood mainly affects whether I stick with a game over time. I find it easier to stick with games when I am feeling relatively safe and stable. I tend to jump between games more when I am feeling unsettled or flustered or stressed. In the latter time, technically speaking, I may be scrambling for a maximal stimulant from my games, the short term dopamine hit.
So, 2019 through 2022 were banner years for me completing games, including ones that were very long. I played Persona 5 twice in this time. I beat several Final Fantasy games I hadn’t before. I beat Triangle Strategy but not Tactics Ogre Reborn. I beat Dragon Quest XI S and played through half of it again in 2D mode.
In 2023, as I became more anxious about my job and was getting ready to have another child, my completion rate went down. I didn’t do everything I wanted to in Final Fantasy XVI, Baldur’s Gate 3, or Etrian Odyssey 3, for instance. I know I really like those games, so it’s not so much affecting how I feel about the games. I’m just affected to the extent that each of them has side quests undone and some hours before the ending. It may in part be the game (I do this with every Final Fantasy, where I take a break near the end), but it’s also partly me.
In the same period, I played the heck out of games like Vampire Survivors. I’d do multiple shorter strategy games like Stellaris. I did complete playthroughs of games like Spyro the Dragon and Sonic Adventure 2. Short or medium length engagement was still OK. But my attention wanders if a game demands a multi-month commitment when all the other multi-month commitments in my life are feeling really pressing.
