Good to Take a Break

❦ First Published on

While browsing some video game websites on the internet I found this question over at the PC Gaming Reddit forum:

Almost 6 years ago I had a PC which I used to play games, but I remember at one point I wasn’t enjoying it like I used to, maybe it was circumstances at the time. At that time my PC just stopped working, I presume there was damage done due to electrical issues at home. Anyway I took a hiatus from PC gaming until recently, just casually playing on a Mac with windows 10 installed.

  1. So have you ever felt like you weren’t enjoying games much, so you took a break from them?

  2. How did you fill that void, what other hobbies did you take to replace gaming?

  3. And did you ever return to PC gaming again? And if so, how did you feel about it this second time?

My answer, expanded with links:

Yes. Moving to New York City and living out of a suitcase between 6 different apartments while making rent payments made it difficult to enjoy video games for a long while.

To fill the digital void I walked and photographed, read books, and rediscovered my love of drawing. I tried creating more instead of consuming too much, and slowly changed an old blog, this one, to also make it a place to write about video games.

3 books I can recommend, that I read again during that time:

  • On the Shortness of Life by Seneca.
  • Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
  • Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.

I did return to PC gaming. I settled down in a good place and got a small Zbox mini-PC. GTA 5 had just come out, and I zoned out there and in Arma 3 playing with friends who lived far away.

Then the pandemic hit and I built a new machine specifically to stream and learn to use Open Broadcaster Studio.

It has been fun and I am happy to have video games in my life again, as I’ve loved them since Space Invaders! I’m playing Elden Ring, Starfield, Noita, and Valheim, as well as the occasional flight sim and shooter with friends.

The trouble is there are so many games, and so many giant open world ones, so, like with anything, one must choose carefully, because we only have so much time.

It’s good to pause and take a hiatus, from time to time, and I rarely finish a game these days, but start many.

And that’s OK. As long as we start.


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