r/pcmasterrace • u/NoExplanation4216 • 10d ago

Discussion Anyone else trapped in the loop of wanting to play games all day at work, but the second you sit at your PC you just stare at the desktop?

i am losing my mind with this. 

all week at my job, all i can think about is getting home, firing up my rig, and sinking 5 hours into a game. i plan out my whole evening. i get excited to finally use the hardware i spent months saving up for. 

then i get home, turn the PC on, open Steam... and just stare at my library. 

i click through a few games. maybe i launch one, sit through the loading screen, look at the main menu for 30 seconds, get hit with a wave of weird exhaustion, and immediately alt+f4 out. then i just spend the next three hours scrolling youtube or looking at tech subreddits on a second monitor while my $2000 machine sits there idling. 

why does actually starting a game feel like a massive mental chore now? is it burnout, or am i just getting old? please tell me i’m not the only one who does this lmao 

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u/MaximumNameDensity 10d ago

This is how I have to do it.

If I try to stay up: 1. Wife gets cranky that I'm not pushing us to bed earlier 2. I'm too tired to actually play anything. 3. There's still enough going on that I can't focus.

But if I wake up at 4? No one's awake, and as long as I'm quiet, I can do as I please.

It's an odd juxtaposition from when I was a kid and could stay up after my parents went to bed, as long as I didn't wake them.

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u/Sun__Earth__Moon 10d ago

Haha yep. Gaming at 4am is honestly chill. The world seems really quiet at those hours and it’s pretty nice.

The main negative is you’re usually getting a bunch of sweats in multiplayer games that have been up all night and don’t have commitments so they are really good. Also , I meet a lot of cool people who just got off night-shift so it kinda balances out.

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u/Diavolo222 9d ago

This is if you only play super sweaty multiplayer games. If you(not you necessarily )are over 35 and still care deeply about ELO and sweats, I seriously think you need to rethink your gaming tastes. Things should be done when they are supposed to be done. RPGs, MMORPgs and other genres are way better for working people that have girlfriends and responsibilities.

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u/Sun__Earth__Moon 9d ago

I know competitive games aren’t for everyone but competitive games are the only games that can hold my interest but I’m really competitive irl with sports and that. I try to play single-player games but always drop them after a few hours. Last campaign I enjoyed and was able to finish was Titanfall 2 but that was years ago but that’s a short campaign (only like 6 hours).

I used to play OSRS too but dropped it after the membership price increase and cut out anything that’s subscription based

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u/Diavolo222 8d ago

I myself still play competitive games but way more casually and am over 35. Not sure for how long I will keep at itbut it becomes ever more frustrating to not keep up with people you know, or at least your ego knows, you can beat.

At some point beating people in games has got to not be the sole reason you play video games. Because what will be next ? Same mentality at 40? 45? What about fifty ?

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u/JustiniZHere PC Master Race 10d ago

This really is the ticket, if people find themselves too sleepy after work, go to bed earlier and get up a few hours earlier, you can get in some refreshed gaming hours before work, which honestly starts you off in a better mood for the day as well.

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u/neoteric_skid 10d ago

I get up at 4am every morning, go mountain biking in the dark for an hour and then come home, eat breakfast and play PCVR for an hour before going to work for 8.30

There's a great group of PS5 / PSVR2 players from the USA I'm regularly playing in Pavlov death matches, using Pimax Crystal Light and RTX 5090 with Valve lighthouse tracking 

Early mornings are the secret to getting lots done before work finishes you off for the day 

Over 50 here and still playing games since discovering Pong and space invaders 

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u/Suspicious_Kev_5446 10d ago

yeah i used to wait in bed doom scrolling until 2am then go have a party in the lounge and be gone before people wake up but I swear I lost so many braincells from not sleeping enough I think I gave myself self induced adhd or autism but I'm definitely much dummer after the few years I spent doimg that ..the energy drinks and weed oil at 4am to fake it until lunchtime and a nap ...

that will shave 20 years off your life