What does that mean?
What is it?
A gamer drought is a random dry spell that gamers can get.
Think of it as a form of writer’s block but for gamers.
This is an overwhelming sense of dread, which typically happens to creative-minded people when they get depressed or hit a low period.
It’s sort of like seasonal depression, but can happen to you at any time during the year.
It’s a feeling of lack of interest in my favorite hobby;
and BOY does it suck ass!
For four years, I’ve been beating multiple video games per year, off of my backlog.
Sure I’ve taken some breaks here and there, but this has been the most consistent that I have ever been. I’ve been motivated and energized to continually work hard at my goals.
Yet for some reason, I’ve been asking myself lately,
“Why bother”?
It’s not that I never thought gamer drought couldn’t happen to me.
It can happen to anyone.
But I’ve never given it much consideration.
Typically I’m the one helping others with their gaming problems and their backlogs.
I’m supposed to be the go-to guy, and yet here I am not able to pull myself out of bed to turn on my games.
It’s abnormal behavior for me.
I always have something in mind I want to play, and am usually eager to play to the credits, but this year I’ve been game-hopping and not devoting myself to much of anything.
I have tons of games on backlog that are installed and have save files mid-way through; games that I’ve since put on the back burner for something else.
These games are unfinished, but I have no zeal to finish them at the moment.
My wife got on a new work schedule a couple of weeks ago.
She works weekends while I work during the weekdays.
This means I get a bit over 24 hours on the weekends to play video games. Despite having a full 12 hours of gaming/anime time to myself on Saturdays, I’ve been unmotivated to do anything.
I find myself sleeping instead.
Aside from joining a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that meets every other week, I’ve opted to sleep all day for the last two weekends.
It’s destroyed my gaming and anime completions, ruined my sleeping habits, and has most-likely done more damage to my mental health than anything.
I honestly feel like I’m a shadow of my former self.
I feel ashamed of myself that I can’t click with anything.
It’s nearly July, and I should be firing through my summer backlog:
Kingdom Hearts, Golden Sun, Earthbound, Super Mario Sunshine… you name it!
Instead I’ve wasted two weeks on my new schedule where I could have easily scratched off some backlogged video game titles.
I’m hoping to shake this shameful feeling of guilt and get back to it soon.
I want to ignite my fire and hit the ground running, inspiring my friends to play more games and talk about them;
because when my friends are fired up, so am I!
The ideal weekend morning would be to start waking up at 5 AM on Saturdays.
I want to kiss my wife as she walks out of the door for work.
I’d grab a bowl of cereal, turn on some anime and begin my morning the right way.
After watching a few episodes of anime, I might do some D&D research, write a blog script, surf some Twitter (since I barely get to during the weekday), and then spend the next 6–8 hours grinding through an immersive video game.
That’s the ideal Saturday to me.
On Sundays, I might treat myself to ramen after following the same morning routine, or visit friends and family. It all just depends if I’m working or not.
Either way, by no means do I want to spend my new schedule sleeping and sulking… wasting my only two days off.
I really dislike the idea of spending all week depleting my social battery, and so when my days off come, I’m too tired and unmotivated to spend time on myself.
I played MOTHER (Earthbound Beginnings for NES) for less than an hour last Saturday, and then slept all day.
A week later, I played Darksiders: Warmastered Edition for half an hour.
The latter being something I wouldnt normally play.
Now I’m back at work for the next 6 days.
Is that any way to live my life?
I suppose I should be grateful that I have a nearly 24-hour period to myself to do whatever I want, but the way I’ve been spending my free time is not how I imagined it when my wife told me that I would have full weekends to myself from now on.
As someone who is used to spending upwards of 22 hours in a day, playing through a full video game on a Saturday off of work, you would think that I’d be putting the time in to reach my ultimate goal of clearing all of my games.
It’s going to take years of dedication and consistency to do it, I just need to stay focused and motivated.
I have a passion for video games and I don’t want it to die out just because I’m only free two days out of the week now.
However, it is a bit of a motivational killer knowing everything that happens usually happens during the weekday while I’m working.
Stuff like video game sales, collector’s editions getting announced and sold out in seconds, my friends being more active in my group chats so I miss conversations, anime figures go on sale, video game merchandise goes on sale, new anime get announced, and even game shows and directs happen all while I’m working.
Not to mention I never really get any time to surf Twitter and interact with people much anymore.
I don’t want to be active only two days out of the week!
( Even now, you could say I’m taking a risk to write this blog because im currently at work )
When will this dry spell end?
I don’t know.
I hope it ends by next weekend.
I installed Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order on PlayStation 5 and I’m greatly looking forward to it right now.
It’s a shame I have to wait a week to try it out.
I dislike like that, if I install a game on Saturday night, I have to wait a full week to play it, but that’s pretty much what I deserve after sleeping my only free day away, right?
My goal is to get back on that horse and keep going. I want to prove to myself that I can get over this slump and continue doing what I love.
There’s no sense in working a full work-week just to sleep my only time off away.
I will be better.
To conclude,
I don’t think that this blog was very good, but I had to write something.
I wanted to get my thoughts out there in hopes to connect with someone who understands what I’m going through.
Have you ever been a victim of video gamer drought?
How do you overcome a slump like this?
Let me know your thoughts, and thank you for reading my blog.
