Try some chill single player games, ones that focus on a great story with no real difficulty. That helped a lot for me when I had a similar feeling.

Firewatch, the Life us Strange games, Road 96, Unravel, Superliminal to name a few.

I bought a steam deck. Its the best thing if you don’t have lots of time as you can pause and turn it off and pick up where you left off later. Obviously that won’t work for online games great for project zomboid though. YMMV

Have you considered playing a shorter singleplayer game? I find I get fatigued by how long some games can go on for whether it’s multiplayer like The Elder Scrolls Online or a sandbox game like Red Dead Redemption.

Maybe you could try something like GRIS? It’s a relaxing game with a neat art style that that only takes about 3 hours to beat.

Nothing makes me enjoy games like moderation. But moderation isn’t just how often you choose to play - it’s also how much you’re expected to play.

I’m going to discuss both, because I think people underestimate personal moderation. But I suspect gameplay moderation is your struggle.

Personal moderation:

Games mimic psychological fulfilment (problem-solving, self-actualisation, etc). But it’s not in a lasting way, they’re just more attainable.

It’s like buying a chocolate bar vs cooking yourself a roast meal. It’s easier, it’s pleasant, and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying it - but if it’s the only thing I’m doing, and I never put in the work for something more satisfying, I feel unsatisfied - even emotionally ‘sick’ (bored, restless, ennui). When they are a treat at the end of a day, they feel great. But when they are my day, I struggle to enjoy them.

This is the trap that often catches directionless people (eg: depressed, NEET, lonely). They don’t play games for games, they play them to avoid the anxiety or stress of cooking a roast meal. They eat chocolate until they feel sick, and then feel too sick to cook.

Gameplay moderation:

Games are designed for people who have time to burn. Teenagers, kids, some young adults. When you were younger, you could afford to burn that time, and it felt good, because each session meant you felt that hit of dopamine for problem-solving, achievement, and progression.

But now, you can’t. You’re an adult, you don’t have that time. And yet games aren’t being designed for you anymore, but the new kids and teens. They brag about dozens or even hundreds of hours of playtime, and bloat their content with grind. (if anything, the latter has gotten even worse.)

You only have an hour to play a game, and after that hour, there’s no feeling of progression or advancement - the game expects you to give it more time than that. And without the feeling of progression and advancement, games don’t feel as engaging.

That is why they feel like chores, like jobs; it’s why you choose things that give immediate feedback like the internet. Games are asking you to put in too much time and then not giving you enough back.

Portal 2 is considered a masterful game at five hours long, because each hour is rewarding. Is Destiny? Is Halo? Froza?

If this is your concern, my suggestion would be to step back from the bigger scale games that want to monopolise time, and embrace smaller games from indie devs.

You’ll get far more variety, they tend to be much denser. They’re also cheap enough that it’s worth it to try a bunch of things you might not have tried if they were AAA.

If somebody says a game is ‘only 6 hours of gameplay’, see that as a positive, not a negative. It probably means each hour is going to mean something.

Contrary opinion - it’s OK to give up hobbies you don’t enjoy any more.

Gaming was an important part of your life at one point. You remember it fondly because currently you are lacking something in your life, so you’re thinking - I used to enjoy gaming so I should enjoy it again.

Doesn’t work like that - people go through phases. Find what you enjoy now. Yes, maybe it’s gaming again. Maybe its something else - hiking, fixing motorcycles, partying … who knows. Experiment with activities until you find something that will make you burn again!

Have you played Outer Wilds by chance? I agree with many that it’s probably one of the best games ever made, and I can’t think of any game that better encapsulates what games should be capable of. It captures the magical potential of exploration and discovery like nothing else I’ve ever played. So many cool ideas waiting for you to figure out, and the process is just so fun.

Along those lines, I’ve just been growing fonder of smaller, indie-style games, which had never been my preference before now. Games like Gris, Little Nightmares, Hades (if you consider that “smaller”), Deliver Us the Moon have left a really positive impression. Many of them are imperfect, but I feel like there’s a lot of love tangible in those experiences. Maybe I’m just imagining that, but they lack the bloat that has disillusioned me with a lot of the bigger games lately, and they feel more purposeful in general.

If you haven’t, look through some lists of best indie games and see if anything jumps out at ya.

For me after some time away from PC gaming, getting a steam deck was one thing that got me back into it. The other thing though was definitely selecting relatively short games. I played a lot of open-ended games that I could never finish like rimworld or crusader kings, it was nice to get back into games with a beginning middle and end. And in the same vein it means I’ve been playing stuff that I was interested in playing back in the 2010s but didn’t really have the time/money/hardware for

I just homebrewed my Wii and have been having a blast playing GameCube and Wii games I never had but always wanted to try.

Naruto Clash of Ninja 4 for example is a PHENOMENAL game that I had never even heard of before two days ago

I play a lot less cause of depression and isolation so games I mainly play on my own are simple enough for me to play when my mind is fried and that I can quickly play little and come back no problem like do a level of Miitopia or like 1 or 2 races in Mario Kart.

I also feel like I need to get away from gaming right now but sadly I am stuck with lack of support from family and the mental health system.

What helps me the most is playing multiplayer locally mainly to deal with isolation and cause my connection is crap and i don’t want to pay subscriptions for what used to be free.

To answer your question what games brought back i don’t really have that but some games that grabbed onto me recent years are usually odd and silly games like Miitopia(has a demo on switch(Nintendo exclusive)), Bug Fables, Bugsnax, Cat Quest 2(has a demo on switch), What the Golf, Wandersong.

Super Mario Odyssey if you haven’t already played it.

Really reignited that spark.

Also if you enjoyed BotW, Tears of the Kingdom is a fantastic sequel.

If you’re depressed, sometimes you lose interest in your hobbies. You might want to look into seeing someone.

I will say, you seem a bit worried about no longer considering yourself a gamer, like this burnout has led to a crisis of identity. You are MORE than your hobbies. Gamer is a temporary state based on what you are doing. It is okay not to be one. You’re still you.

I have a very similar relationship with gaming. A similar break for college and a similar resurgence with BotW followed by a similar falling out because of kids haha.

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t feel the same anymore. I don’t think it ever wil again. But I’ll share the things that have come close to getting that feeling back.

1. Online game night with friends - this puts me mentally back in the 90’s staying up late and gaming with friends. It’s more about the company and conversations than the game itself. I try to do this at least once a week.

2. Gaming with my son - he’s 6 and we’ve been able to find a ton of games we love playing together, most notably Nintendo games. He loves all things Mario. We also run through games like Hot Wheels Unleashed, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Lego 2K Drive. Anything with a kid friendly co-op campaign has been fun.

3. Allowing yourself to mentally move on from games once you’re not having fun - I used to have this issue with a mental backlog or feel badly for buying a game and then not beating it. Not sure if you have the same issue. But lately I’ve tried not to put too much pressure on myself to beat a game. If I’m not having fun I move on. Life is too short and game time is too precious to waste it on a game I’m not loving.

Hope this helps. Like I said, I don’t think it’ll ever feel the same, but this has helped it come close for me.

The Forgotten City is the one that restored my hope in gaming.

What did/do you play games for? Think about the moments you enjoyed the most and why. Just to name a few motivations: are you looking to get a sense of improvement and complete challenges, are you looking to live a fantasy, exploration, get a story via a unique medium, flex creativity or be a part of a community. I find myself having different reasons to want to play depending on my mood.

Once you find your reason, you can start searching for what satisfies that. I strongly suggest you avoid triple a titles and focus mainly on indie.

You mention botw resparking things, from what I hear that game really appeals to those who want to express creativity and those who like exploration. I can’t help much with the creativity (not really what I like) but for exploration I can recommend hollowknight (a metroidvania that I lost myself in for days) or outerwilds (a space sim with narrative based mystery and light puzzle elements, I highly recommend you go in as blind as possible)

I’ve found, at least in myself and friends, burnout comes from playing one game or one type of game, and getting bored with that specifically. You need to find something new, but I can’t really give any suggestions since that’s entirely subjective.

I fell off gaming for a while because my job got crazy. The Switch and specifically Breath of the Wild pulled me back in. Then I honed in on Monster Hunter World in particular for a long time and kinda burnt out because a different job got very demanding of my time, and it wasn’t even a change of game, but just getting a better internet connection so I could actually participate in multiplayer that pulled me out of the rut.

Keep it varied and it’ll stay interesting. A buddy of mine just tried to swear off all veeja because he declared himself an addict. He’s not an addict, he just burned out after playing nothing but Elden Ring for a solid year. He took a break for about a month and now he’s right back on ER with renewed passion.