Maybe this doesn’t need to be said but this is a different question to which video game genres do you enjoy. For example, I enjoy playing Dota 2. Every few months or so, I’ll play it for a couple of weeks and put it back down. I’ll never play more than two or three matches and I feel ‘present’ for the duration.
Paradox grand strategy games (especially EUIV), however, I can start playing at 7am and in a blink of an eye it can be 11pm and I won’t have eaten or used the toilet or anything. I can do this for multiple days in a row. Furthermore, I don’t often feel like I’m ‘enjoying’ it. I’m just consumed by it.
I’m intrigued to hear whether or not anyone recognises this difference in themselves. If you have any insight as to why you’re consumed by some games and not others, I’d be very interested.
Minecraft, if I’ve got a project to do.
I run a local server so that I can play with my kid, but I’m the one who has to actually get things done. Simple things like looking for diamonds is enough to keep me playing for hours. I’ll find a vein, and I think that’s not enough, I need to find more, so I’ll find half a dozen more veins, but then my brain switches to the ‘I may as well carry on’ mindset.
I mined a mountain down to ground level recently because the top was spoiling the view from our village, and once I started, it was quite soothing.