Recently for my mental health I decided to stop playing competitive games. You know, your Battlefields, your Call of Duty's, your War Thunders, etc. I found myself angry more than I was having fun. For the past ten years... I don't think I ever ended a session of a player vs player match - "happy." Now I'm playing mostly singleplayer games with some MMORPGs. I am much happier. I actually look forward to gaming when I can. There is enough to get mad at in the world, I don't want my entertainment medium of choice to be anger inducing as well. I feel like the worst part about the vast majority of player vs player games is that someone basically has to not be having fun for the other person to have fun. Not universal, and probably more a matter of personal mindset but it's how I feel. I was just wondering how many if any comrades here have done the same and how it has effected you? I can confidentally say my life is better for it.
I've been playing House Flipper 2 a lot, which is a good detox from high stress games. Getting back into EU4 as well, beating up Europe at every chance I can get. Trying to learn Kremlingames games, mostly China: Mao's Legacy. Flying the MiG-19 in DCS, my favorite plane. It's been fun, and better. I do not miss War Thunder too much.
I'm not knocking people who like high action player vs player enviroments, it's just something I have grown to not enjoy anymore personally.
For me they often provoke self-anger. I kept experiencing intrusive thoughts like "That's the third time I died that way and I KNEW it was coming so what the hell's wrong with me?" and "I can't believe I choked AGAIN. I dragged my whole team down and now I'm 100 MMR deeper in the hole to show for it..."
I wasn't having fun anymore and decided to hang up my hat for good -- these days I stick to TF2 when I want to scratch that multiplayer FPS itch. It's so much nicer to play on my own terms in a setting where whether you win or lose everyone has fun and wants to stick around for another round or three.