For me it was Terraria, Satisfactory, Tetris Effect Master Mode, Minecraft with Mekanism mod & CSGO / CS2 (almost 2000 hours in CS alone).
Edit: There are so many answers that I might only reply if I have something interesting to say. I will read all of your answers though. 🙂
I spent over a decade addicted to World of Warcraft. Like, I would come home from work and immediately jump on WoW and do nothing else until bedtime.
Thankfully, Activision buying out Blizzard and then ruining the game made me eventually quit. I’ve tried to go back, but I can’t get into it anymore. It’s just no fun.
The last few expansions, I’ve spent a week burning through the main questline, then I walk away until they announce another expansion. Endgame content is not interesting enough to keep me after the main story is over. I never even finished the last two expansions; I checked out partway into the story. I think I’m officially done buying expansions for WoW and hoping I can get back into it.
Other games that I’ve been addicted to in recent times have been Satisfactory and Enshrouded. Both base building games that have no end, but rely on your creativity to enjoy.
I have ADHD (the hyperfocus type) and Satisfactory really scratches that itch. Focusing on minute details, trying to make a seamless, efficient, organized factory to produce an end product. And the sky’s the limit (literally). You can build hundreds of factories across a massive map and get really creative about style, design, efficiency, etc. it’s a really fun creative game.
Enshrouded is the same, except instead of efficient factories, you’re building homes, villages, castles, etc. in a fantasy medieval setting. With questing and monsters and magic too! It’s been loads of fun and my friends and I have been super addicted to that game for a while now too. I actually just posted a review about it in [email protected] yesterday.
On a side note, I find it interesting to see Minecraft mentioned a lot in this thread. That game first came out when I was in my 20s (I’m in my 40s now) and it was pretty popular when it first dropped. I played it a bit, but besides running around and digging (mining?) a bit, there wasn’t really any direction or goals or anything, so I kind of lost interest. I found out years later there’s a whole endgame to it, but without any in-game directions, there was no way I would’ve ever progressed in that game without online help.
Decades later, Minecraft got a resurgence of popularity with younger generations and now it’s suddenly the game of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. One of my baby nephews is addicted to that game now and speaks of almost nothing but Minecraft. Crazy how it can continue being so popular across multiple generations like that.
Maybe it is a good thing that Activision ruined blizzard, if wow was consuming so much of your life. I lost interest in Satisfactory when there was nothing cool to unlock anymore. And I think Minecraft remains so popular because it is the most modded game in history (I think). I am in my early 30s and only play single player modded. Tech mods can make Minecraft incredibly complex, but even without mods it is crazy what people have built in that game (like a working computer and pokemon red, the whole game, just with Redstone and command blocks).
You’re right, the modding community is probably why Minecraft continues to be so popular. Without mods, Minecraft is kind of boring. At least, in my opinion.
well said! I should check out Enshrouded. I just bought Factorio after finally learning it never goes on sale, lol. and then immediately got lost in two other gangs, now doing a fourth Stardew Valley playthru
also fyi there’s no hyperfocus type of ADHD; that’s just a broad effect of executive dysfunction
I always try to buy games on sale, so I’ve been avoiding Factorio on principle. Their developers refuse to lower the price because they feel there no point in setting a price for a game, then discounting it every once in a while to draw in new players. They believe it’s a $30 game, so they want everyone to pay $30 to play it, period.
Fortunately, I won a Steam key for it in a raffle, so I got it for free. And I’m glad, because I don’t feel it’s worth even $30. It’s not a bad game, but I personally would’ve paid $10-15 max for it.
True, but explaining the nuances of ADHD in a thread that’s not specifically focused on it is complicated. Especially since we’re still trying to define the vague differences between ADHD, autism, ADD, and a few other cognitive disorders. Some things are merging under umbrella terms (e.g. ADD doesn’t really exist anymore; it’s now a form of ADHD) and other distinctions are getting blurry, with too many cross-over symptoms to clearly define. Much easier to just point out that one of my greater symptoms of ADHD is hyperfocus.
Bruh Factorio is a fantastic game
No doubt, it’s a fun game, but not $30 fun.
Then again, my idea of game prices is a bit skewed. I don’t think ANY game is worth $60. I buy all my games on sale, and for most of them, I wait until they’re $20 or less before I buy.
At a full price of $30, I’d expect to eventually find it on sale for $5-10 if I waited long enough. But the developers don’t plan to ever lower the price, which is a big negative for me. If I didn’t get a copy for free, I’d probably still not own it.
As far as gameplay itself, I’m annoyed at the random swarms of bugs attacking my factories. I just want to build and create, but having to also defend from attack and then repair my stuff afterward… that makes Factorio frustrating for me. But that’s my own personal opinion, I know that’s what makes the game fun for so many others.
That’s why I like Satisfactory so much. The wildlife is only aggressive if you bother them, and there aren’t packs of them roaming around. You can relax and enjoy the atmosphere and get lost in your build process without being bothered.