I don’t play videogames all that much anymore—at least, not nearly as much as I used to. If you compared my yearly-hours-played this year to what they were back in high school or college, I’d probably clock in around 10 or 20% of the time I spent on the hobby back then. (I used to game a lot though, so it’s still a significant number.)
But roughly twice a year year, I still get game sickness. I’ll start something new, or rediscover an old favorite, and then spend the next 3-14 days in delirious state, unable to think about anything else. I stop taking care of myself except for a few necessities—doing my job (usually), eating (sometimes), showering (less), and going for occasional walks (just to remember. I still go out with friends, but become incredibly bad at texting, and put no effort into making further plans. In the infrequent moments when I’m not playing, aspects of the game intrude into the periphery of my mind. I tap out the rhythms of the soundtrack on my leg during work meetings, theory-craft new builds, or contemplate story decisions when I should be sleeping. In short, I become captured, haunted, possessed.
I’m just getting over my latest bout of GS, which started during the last week of my sabbatical. The game that infected me is called Against the Storm. (Credit to Danny for convincing me to buy this one—you rock (but also you suck, because this game devoured a week of my life)!)
Against the Storm
Brawling & religion—everything a body needs
Against the Storm is a survival-inflected rogue-lite settlement/city builder—and I’m gonna be honest: if those words sound like gibberish, this game is NOT for you. [Reach out to me if you’re looking for advice on venturing into the bizarroworld of videogames, I have LOTS of great starter recs]. This game is designed to boil your brain with its granular resource-management mechanics. But if you are a certain kind of freak (e.g. me), you really like having your brain boiled. If you enjoy (or have been intrigued) by the likes of Civilization or Dwarf Fortress_,_ you should definitely give this one a go. If, on the other hand, you have not heard of any of those games, Civilization (5 or 6) is probably a better starting point for ramping up on resource management and engine building mechanics. Or board games! (Play Concordia with me!)
A timeline of game sickness
For your amusement & edification, I’ve created a timeline of my struggles with GS since college:
- 2016:
- Overwatch
- XCOM 2
- Stardew Valley
- 2017
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Splatoon 2
- 2018
- Thumper
- 2019
- ??? Surely I played some games this year, but maybe I didn’t get GS.
- 2020
- Hades
- 2021
- Caves of Qud
- Valheim
- 2022
- Griftlands
- XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
- 2023
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Against the Storm
- 2024
I played plenty of games that aren’t on this list, but none which captured me so fully that I became physically ill (which is how I felt the week before I wrote this).