I recently got a job after finishing university, all is good. However, after 5 full days of being behind desk job, I feel a bit exhausted of being behind desk.
Thus my desire to game on PC has soured immensely. Despite having a huge backlog and actually want to finish games.
I’m debating to purchase a Steam Deck OLED in the hope, I can actually play some decent games on there without getting fatigue of desk/ screens but that’s a big investment (€670-700).
So I was wondering; how do the adults of Lemmy with 5 full days of work still get the time and desire to play their games?
My suggestion is to either change the context you play games in, or pick games that are very cognitively different from what you normally do at work.
You can change your context with a new console, but I think it may be cheaper to do something like buying a controller and playing games while standing up, or on your couch/armchair, or playing games while sitting on a yoga ball. The point is to trick your brain, because it’s associated sitting at a desk in front of a computer with boring tedium. Change the presentation and your subconscious will interpret it differently.
You can also achieve this by identifying the things that you have to do in your job that mirror videogame genres you enjoy and picking a game that shares few of those qualities.
I worked at the post office for years, doing mail processing, and my enjoyment of management and resource distribution style games went down sharply during that time because of the cognitive overlap- I played more roguelikes and RPGs as a consequence.
I will try this! Will try the standing. Though, eventually I’ll sit due just tired of standing up. The gaming PC is in my bedroom so there’s not really much room for couch and such.
I have a controller that, I often use but same issue happens of being exhausted of the feeling ‘being behind a desk and screen’.
The thing is, I don’t think anything mirrors my work. I currently have a very basic accounting job and it’s not even that demanding. My work week exists of a mix with doing accounting, listen to podcasts, watching videos on phone and such.
It’s one of the most relax work I have ever had to be honest. Yet it’s the first job where this feeling of exhaustion started.
Sounds like I have a pretty similar office job and I used to have similar problems with the exhaustion. There’s a few things that really helped I think. The first was to be more active at work. Obviously there’s a limit to what you can do, but don’t pass up any opportunity to get up, walk around, and stretch your legs. If you can take a break/lunch outside then do that. If you have some days where you don’t have too much work to do and it kinda feels like you’re just sitting there with no sense of time, or you’re just watching videos to pass the time, try to find something to do instead. Pick up any trash/misplaced things around the office, reorganize files, have a chat with co workers. This all helps to prevent the exhaustion, I’ve found. Then, when I’m out of work, I try to have non-gaming things to do. Like family dinners on fridays. This helps me feel like I do more than just sit behind a desk all day every day, and it makes it feel like more of a treat when I do sit down to game. I don’t know if these will work for you, but they’re worth a shot if you haven’t tried them I guess
Any portable console is amazing for this, as you can literally change the whole context on a whim. A steam deck is nice, but even a used older console like a PSP / Vita or 3DS is amazing for a reasonable amount of money. As most of these systems no longer have legal ways to buy new games, I see no harm in pirating the games. I am doing this with a 3DS right now and going through the systems hit games is just an amazing ride. Currently enjoying Super Mario 3D Land and Bravely Default.
Yeah! Also, sometimes I use emulators that work well on phones to play older games, I had fun playing Final Fantasy Legends 2 with RetroArch.