"replaying a video game"

[Skipjack]

Hi guys and girls ;-)



I want to share with you some sentiment that I have pretty much for all of my life. I would like you to comment if maybe you have experienced something similar.

Namely, the sentiment is best described as “re-playing a video game for the umpteen time”.

Since I was a small child I have been pretty much indifferent to “this world”, or in other words, I have always been indifferent to the strife, agitation, engagement of the people around me. Exactly as if you re-play your favourite video game. Like “what is the big problem, this is all irrelevant anyways...?” You have played it for so many times now that you know every possible permutation, every dialogue option, you have explored the whole map, gathered all collectibles, made every possible choice provided for in the “screenplay”, etc., etc., in other words, you have done all of this before. 

Now imagine that you decide to replay the game for “good ol’ times’ sake”, to “relive the thrill”, so to speak, to reminisce your childhood. And now you play the game, you enjoy it in the moment for what it is... but it offers no special novelty or excitement.

And this has been the leitmotif of my life, actually... the feeling of "having done this before so many times, what is the big deal?"

Any of you had a similar experience?

S

[APeacefulWarrior]

While I get the analogy, I could counter by saying you're playing the wrong kind of game.

Think of open-world games like Skyrim. Sure, the landscape of Skyrim never changes, but there are many many different ways you can react to it. A run as an evil necromancer might touch on the same questlines, but would be a VERY different experience from that of a paladin archer. Or if we're talking about games with no real goals at all, a freeform space sim like Elite or a grand strategy game like Europa Universalis, ways a player might experience the game would be as varied as each player and the approaches they choose. One might even (akin to how incarnations are picked) deliberately put restrictions on their behavior, like saying ahead of time, "Ok, this time in Crusader Kings 2 there will be NO incest and NO child murders" just to see if it can be done.

Which is more or less to say, if you feel like your life(s) are stuck in a rut, go do something different. It's a big world out there. There's surely something left that you haven't done!

[Aion]

Yeah, New Game+, it's great.

[ada]

Well not entirely as you specify but I had felt since most of the time when I grew up that everything is running like a video tape beside my reaction. And that my eyes were closed as if I was sleeping/playing/waiting in autopilot for something particular before waking up. So one could say that it seemed like a "game". But again not everyone relate. We experience what we desire and truly believe.
Love to you friend.