10 Habits That Are Secretly Ruining Games For You 

My bad habit isn't even that I spend too much of my free time playing games, its that I don't spend enough. I go to work and have hectic days and when I come back home, rather than kick back to a game that I've probably been fantasising about playing all day, I just mindlessly watch a random movie or scroll RU-vid

Timestamps and chapter titles (if you copy these into the description Mark, RU-vid should pick these up and add chapter navigation to the video): 0:00 It is possible to develop bad habits from playing games mindlessly 1:08 Bad habits form from prioritizing near-term over longer-term rewards 2:35 1. Trying to play too many games at once 4:16 2. Continuing to play a game when it's no longer fun 5:45 3. Getting upset when a game's difficulty increases 7:06 4. Playing the same way in every game 9:02 5. Not appreciating games holistically 10:41 6. Getting too engrossed in PvP 11:53 7. Allowing others to form opinions of games for you 13:29 8. Defaulting to guides instead of figuring things out on your own 15:30 9. Playing only "the latest and greatest" games 17:00 10. Overindulging in games 19:32 You are not alone. What gaming habits do you struggle with? I do like how this video isn't pessimistic and explores the whys and how you might counteract each of these. It's a good watch!

I sincerely love the feeling of finally getting to a modern classic years, even decades after they've been released. There's just something very intimate about feeling like you're probably one of very few people playing this huge game right now. Games i did this with and adore now are the Mass Effect, Persona and Metal Gear Solid series, Red Dead Redemption, Hollow Knight, Super Metroid, Slay the Spire and so many more.

In response to number one, I actually had the opposite problem. I only ever focused on one game and I refused to move on until I beat it. Then I just stopped gaming for years cause I didn't wanna play that game but I also didn't want to move on and end up never completing it. I solved this by allowing myself to play multiple games at a time and my gaming hobby is alive and well. I know your second point goes over when to drop games, I've gotten better with that as well :) My gaming life has been pretty good for the last year or so

About guides: I remember a friend told me "No guides for the first run. After that do whatever you like", and unless I'm really stuck I do enjoy my first run even if I *later* find out I missed some good optional parts of a game. About the last point: that's some good advice. I'll try it myself so that I'll accomplish more (even just menial tasks) and feel more rewarded both for a clearer conscience *and* for gaming 😊

Thanks for this invitation to self-aware behavior. It has been a struggle for me to keep balance in life in general, but I especially struggle to strike a balance with games. Consistency, courage and striking meaningful and personal social contact is adamant to stay clear of vicious self-destructive habits. Being conscious about ill-managed situations and exploring the feelings that might have elicited them are powerful too, but I know first hand how challenging facing our feelings can be. So like any complex system, there are many things to keep in check but there are also many angles in which things can be positively influenced. Videogames are an amazing artistic medium and the interactive marvel of our time, one that I find is worth upholding for its merits but also befits a fair reflection of its drawbacks.

As a small channel that is uploading lets plays, and many of them are blind I sit in a weird spot where I hate feeling like I was wasting a viewers time. I hate when anger slips into recordings, but in blind runs if I know we have spent hours on something with 0 progress I don't mind looking up stuff. I can do basic editing to edit out large bits of fails, but to me I just want a viewer to not watch hours of fails. I enjoy save scumming and other little things because I like getting a move on. I leave in anger if I feel my rants had a point, but I often mute the audio in editing if I feel like I got a bit to heated. My problem is the slope of trying to make an easy to watch video, that is not hours of losing to one thing or being 100% lost. Blind runs have been my go to way to play games, on my backlog. Same for my brother as I let him play stuff too, as we do commentary together. The thing is I know the point is not knowing what to do, but once that goes on awhile I feel like I wasted time. Because that makes me feel like I wasted a recording and now need a whole part to correct whatever I feel I ruined. So for me it's a weird mess of trying to be blind and unfiltered while also looking up stuff to save time because I hate feeling like our parts are huge time wasters. I mean we are not super watched as it is, so it makes me double down to try and remove very large time wasting loss.

Teenage me: Why do I have to finish my chores just to play games?! Me now: I can't wait to finish my chores so I can play games! Yeah, our parents were on to something there.

I used to enjoy gaming SO MUCH, wouldn’t matter what game. Then, a few years ago, I downloaded Genshin Impact. Immediately fell in love with everything, open world, collecting, story line, characters etc. I played every day for at least 4+ hours for like 2/3 years… but this year, i just couldn’t open the game. I just don’t have the attention span or the motivation to play it anymore. So I tried playing other games but nothing was fulfilling anymore. Playing Genshin ruined gaming for me. I really want to go back to gaming but I just can’t figure out how I could enjoy it again…

I definetely prefer playing multiple games at the same time because of the variety. Some times you want to play that dense intricate RPG, but sometimes you just wanna chill hop between buildings in spiderman, or even play that slow nintendo game that relaxes you before bed. But you touched gold on tip #1. I always limit it to some extent in the genres, otherwise it becomes a bit of a hassle remembering commands, plots, mechanics and everything everytim. Not only that but the fact that when I think of what i wanna play in a session i normally think in generic terms like: "Today i wanna play a colorful easy game" or "today i wanna play some dark heavy story" etc etc. so its hard for me to pick when there's multiple in the same category. Helps me to only have downloaded one game from each of these made up categories that i already know alligns with certain moods of mine xD

The timing of this! I actually am going to be making a video on being a patient gamer. Uninstalling all the games in your library and only picking one. Play it. Experience it. Explore. Discover. Get lost in its world and story. Then move onto the next game. But don’t game hop.

The Street Fighter 6 Battlehub theme in the background gave me confidence you knew what you were talking about.

I can't juggle between games, specially if they are too similar because I will get muscle memory passing from one to another. Normally I don't even play a game in the same genre right after finishing one. But I do get where people who juggle come from because you're expecting them to "hook you" at the first minutes, and some games simply require some comitment to "click" for you. The last one is definately THE BEST advice. I'm sick of these youtube creators making the "Video games aren't fun anymore" videos. They're all over RU-vid, IG and Tiktok. My borhter in christ you made playing video games YOUR ENTIRE JOB AND IDENTITY of course you're gonna get burned out.

Nice video, some actual useful substance. Regarding 'discourse', I think gamers should understand that most of the discourse surrounding a game immediately after release is highly reactionary. Part of that is inherent, as first impressions can have a big impact, but many people also enjoy just piling on and kind of going with the popular narrative, even if they had no first hand experience with a game. And it can get out of hand early on, both in terms of praise and criticism. If you're trying to get a good idea about a game from user impressions(which is worthwhile), it's often a good idea to let things cool down a bit. If you can be a bit patient, give it a week or so and you'll start to see more grounded and comprehensive views about a game.

Ooohhh that Nier Automata music at the begginning! Nice

Great content! I'm in fact one of those who tried playing too many games at once that it became rare for me to finish games nowadays. I've been struggling with that for a long time since I love the games that I play, but I also get distracted by the other games that I want to play. If anything, I'd definitely want a compilation of advices on how to be patient, consistent and to finish your game while managing the burnout or anything that comes in between that may prevent you from finishing it. Another is how do people manage having multiple games while can still catch up back with their old games later on, which I do by keeping a spreadsheet with the list of my to dos and the last things I did in the said game.

I didn't need this video as I've learned all of these and have been trying to get people that I play with to follow these "philosophies". This is how you truly enjoy games and im glad you made the video so that I may share it with my friends.

Self binding is an interesting strategy, I’m gonna try this out.

Almost every point resonated with me a lot. Currently in my 40s, so having the financial space to buy too many games, I spend so little time actually playing them, going on to the next new hype/game. It's something I've been trying to do for a while now, to not buy new games until I played/finished some of my already owned games ... And this video inspired me to go and try this again. I've created a list of games that I started, really enjoyed, but at some point left - often just for the reason of boredom / new game being out - ... so I should go back and continue. And the games aren't the small games either: Horizon Zero Dawn, HollowKnight, Tunic, GOW: Ragnarok ... for instance So thanks for this inspiring video 👍

another habit that’s been a double edged sword for me is multitasking youtube videos/podcasts while playing. with my adhd, it was initially helpful for my grinding and farming. however, i started doing it more and more to the point I was barely following the story and numbing myself out of the narrative overall by not fully engaging.

My biggest gaming bad habit is a bit of a strange one I strongly admire video games as an art form, and want to be able to experience and appreciate every aspect of it. I know how much work is put into every miniscule detail, and I am going to make sure they're seen, dammit. Unfortunately, this has ended up with me having a strange habit of caring too much about the """intended experience""" of games, which in reality, has led to me experiencing zero player expression. I always use the default names of characters. I never customize any armour or named characters. (If its supposed to be me, I do, if theyre already a character, like link from botw or the dog from chicory, I do not). I always play on the default difficulty. I don't put my characters in silly outfits during cutscenes. I need everyone to shut up during the credits so I can hear the music. I don't do any silly gimmick builds. I end up going for 100% completion beyond what's fun In my quest for completely appreciate every aspect of a game, I end up missing out on very intentional bits of expression and, well, fun

I definitely need a drop in dopamine but not while I'm going through a health crisis

Number 9 disintegrated for me as I fell more deeply in love with Video Games. There is so very much to find in Video Games. The new stuff will be there when I get around to it. For now, I'm playing Community Pom and Koudelka.

Bad habit #1 is definitely not me as I'll usually spend most my trying to get the most out of one game with maybe a second or third one at most. Hence my huge backlog. My worst gaming habit is that I'll often buy new games when they just come out paying a premium price for them and not get to them until months or years later. By then I could have waited and purchased them later at a cheaper price but I always fear that they will become rare and/or hard to find at an even higher price.

I find that (intentionally or not) I fell into the habit of only playing my nintendo switch when traveling. Given the amount of time that "travel" actually represents for me, I wasn't playing my switch hardly at all and basically haven't finished a switch game aside for BotW since the system launch. Trying to change that by playing it at home sometimes too... might get a TV to hook it up to

If I get frustrated to the point I want to quit a game I'm definitely looking up a solution 😆 because that ruins the fun for me too yeah it would feel better if I figured it out on my own but I'm very thankful for RU-vid tutorials nowadays because back in the day I completed way less games because of frustration. But, overall I agree with this list. Nice video.

fantastic video!!! personally I’m not much of a “hardcore gamer” but I do enjoy quite a bit. Lately I’ve been stressed about grad school classes so final fantasy has been my escape in the evenings after work and homework. I definitely relate the most to having too many games going on at once, and having too many games in my library. I got the Batman Arkham trilogy for switch on sale when it was $30…haven’t touched it yet. I still want to play it, but I’m still stuck on the final fantasy high I do feel like I have a good grasp on when it’s time to put a game down like when final fantasy X got too difficult and I just kept getting frustrated, so I picked up 7 instead. I know I can’t play video games all day, then it feels like a chore. I usually only play a few hours in the evening

You forget to take the different dominant play-styles or accessibility issues into account. What works for you doesn't necessarily work for others. There have been games where save-scumming kept me into a game and allowed me to enjoy it's world and it's lore, where otherwise I would've quit from frustration; I also don't enjoy focusing on 1 game because then it starts to feel forced, like work; i allow myself to mindlessly hop between games because it's fun; I usually play in a similar way and similar games, I play this way because I enjoy playing this way. I have tried playing "evil" roles in RPG and I hate it every time. I have tried playing multiplayer or competitive games and I hate it every time. But I do agree with several of your points too, like 3 and 8 are my main personal challenges.

Great video, loved the book recco, will definitely be reading that next. WoW and Destiny really have that dopamine loop down to a science. And it’s nice to hear it’s not just me that struggles and needs to put systems in place to limit its potential problems.

Based, needed, thank you.

Thanks for the vid mark, i look forward to the next one!

I feel targeted... Seriously though, incredible video. I appreciate the insight and look forward to what you take on next!

(7) Another issue with The Discourse™ is that it's often weaponized and dishonest. I've seen people spend the last _month_ on obsessively attacking a game and its developers (based on disinformation) while I've spent the same time period on playing and enjoying said game... plus a dozen demos I was curious about.

Great video! Keep up the fantastic work! 🔥

I personally struggle with "upgrading" in a sence i try to get the best everything. Best guns, best world ect. Take stellaris. I cheat all my stuff (single player), just to do a playthrough i wanna try and experiment. But very quickly i reach a void where i am not really able to do much until the final boss. Not just woth cheating. Also just normal survival. Like project zomboid, i love the beginning. But once i get settled or i get enough stuff it get boring for me. I don't survive for 2 or more weeks due to difficulty. I struggle due to boredom. I complete tasks way to quick for a rewarding ending. And this can still happen if i have a goal. I am fixing this tho. Currently playing the sims 4 with all dlcs, which i got for free cause ea is greedy. And i come into a whole different game. With soo much choice. And in project zomboid i try to take things slow and appreciate my character and the world. Stellaris i still struggle but hey. There is no beginning or finish without a journey. I will get there

Do you play games? WELL YOU DOING IT WRONG

why is it easier for kids to play games and not think about all this crap

thanks for this video. helpful

How can I commit to Warhammer 3. I get completely destroyed😅

What's the cat dango game at the end?

what's the song in the background. it's heattt

This video is sponsored by Ed Sheeran

“Travel game”, do you mean a game like star field or no man’s sky where you travel a lot? Or a game that’s good for playing while traveling/commuting?

Some really good points here, interesting topic, thanks. God bless. Jesus loves you!

2042 was not turned around. Disliked and unsubbed

"Open up the MENU and quicksave." SMH, someone isn't a TRUE save scummer.

9:10 which game is this? I want to play that.

on 7:07, the most fun i had in a pokemon game was my first play through on pokemon platinum where i only leveled up infernape destroying every team but also losing a ton