A Non-Gamer's Gaming Story

Gaming is not my thing. Playing games on a computer or a device is not something that I can entertain myself with for extended periods. I may start out trying a game, but I will not always have the patience to finish it. I play games to entertain myself so if things get hard and I cannot get past a certain stage, I will quit. If things get too repetitive, that will also make me give up completely. The only time I have ever played for hours was when I was playing Super Mario Brothers when I was younger.

Image by Joseph Redfield Nino from Pixabay

We talked about the games we play on an episode of the Fandesals Podcast (episode embedded below). We shared the games we played, from the point of view of non-serious/amateur gamers. I guess you can say we are casual gamers: people who play now and then to pass the time.

While I lack the patience to play extensively, there are games that keep me coming back even when I quit. The cycle is like this: these games will entertain me for a while until I get tired of them and uninstall them. Then I come back and reinstall when I want to play something again to pass the time. Mobile games like Mobile Legends, Alto’s Adventure, and BTS In the Seom are currently those games that I have an on and off again relationship with. I have tried more mobile games than that, but these are the ones that I found myself going back to every time. 

If there is one game that I play on mobile that I would love to play with a gaming console would have to be Mario Kart. I used to play it on mobile, and I enjoyed it, but I found myself uninstalling it weeks later. I feel like it would be a better experience seeing it on a big screen. Sadly, since I am not a gamer, we do not own a gaming console, so I have not been able to try that yet. Someday.

One game that can get me stuck on it for hours would have to be The SIMS. I used to play the older versions, and I would install and uninstall them often because I was spending too much time on them (and it was taking up so much disk space). Now that they have let people download SIMS 4 for free, I also have that version on my laptop, but I am also on the verge of uninstalling it now. As soon as I got it, I was on it for hours and that was just not an effective use of my time. 

I mostly play The SIMS by just creating and designing homes for the SIMS. I know I could download customized homes online, but I tend to get obsessed with doing it on my own and that is what takes up all my time in the game. I have also tried recreating all the homes I have ever lived in on the game, but I have not been able to do it right just yet. I keep starting and deleting so I never finish it.

I know it is not a very productive way to spend my free time (and it is not healthy since I am sitting down for hours at a time without sleep). I have disciplined myself lately and I have not played in a while, but I am considering uninstalling the game so that I will not play it again. 

A person must love gaming to be able to commit to an activity where they spend hours doing that one thing even to the point of losing sleep. I cannot imagine doing that myself. But, as I have often said, if you are not causing anyone else harm and it makes you happy, go for it. There are people make a living out of gaming professionally, so it is not necessarily a terrible thing. If I had the patience for it, I would try it. But since I do not, I am sticking to being a casual gamer. It is a better choice for me.