Don't make me think: When gaming and unwinding don't mix

July 14th, 2010

After a long week, I didn't feel like doing anything last Friday — much less play a thought-provoking video game.

It wasn't always that way. While in school, I would fire up any cartridge, disc, or executable you put in front of me. At least to try it. Didn’t matter my mood, the day, the season, or the genre. To me, video games were the superior input source for all glowing objects.

In many ways, I still hold that opinion. But nowadays, I have distinct gaming moods. Dog tired self is incompatible with "Let's play some Bad Company 2!" Annoyed self doesn’t particularly care for the endless dialog trees of Mass Effect-like RPGs. Anti-social self isn’t in the mood to mix it up with friends in Left 4 Dead. And "who am I?" would rather defer his next assassination until a more confident time.

Which is partially why I gravitate towards games like World of Goo and Osmos in "off moods" when I just want to unwind. Since they don’t require thinking several moves ahead, said games and the like allow me still enjoy the medium, while still vegging out.

I’m not saying "excited" or "everything’s dandy" self is needed to play the aforementioned epic, big-scale, or otherwise high-octane games. And I certainly don’t feel like playing chill games all the time (25% seems to the norm for me).

But as I've grown older, I recognize the subtle and diverse moods video games are capable of enhancing. And so I play accordingly.

Any others out their play to their moods? And if so, what genres and specific games do you like to unwind to?

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