This morning, an image detailing the symptoms of mental and physical exhaustion came across my Facebook feed, and can I tell you, I felt so seen. It seems weird to be suffering from burn out when I’m actually really fortunate right now compared to so many, but there it is. I’m burned out.
Combine this type of exhaustion with fibro-fog (which is made worse by both fatigue and stress), and I’m left with the feeling that I just can’t learn something new or get invested in a story right now. Unsurprisingly, this is putting a major monkey wrench in my oh-so-meager goals for this month.
Instead, I find myself seeking out “comfort food” for my mind. I’ve lost count of how many games I’ve booted up and then almost immediately closed out of. Everything is not interesting, or too hard, or too easy, and nothing is giving me the distraction I’m craving.
If I’m perfectly honest, I was pretty surprised by what finally stuck for me.
Cook, Serve, Delicious 2 is a game I had previously put about 35 hours into, and it gets hard fast, especially if you’re a perfectionist that wants to gold medal every single level. I elected to restart, rather than jump into my old level 46 save (although I didn’t realize I had two other level 1 saves, oops). The game is just a challenging and fast-paced as I remember and that is precisely why it’s working for me.
CSD2 is works on muscle memory I actually have (typing), rather than most other arcade-style games that work on muscle memory and twitch reflexes that I’m lacking. It’s been awhile since my fingers were so firmly planted on the home row.
I’m trying to take it a little bit easy on myself. Right now, not every level has to be a gold medal (and the coffee shop levels so far are just not a thing I’m capable of at the moment). It’s satisfying in a way that nothing else has been, and I’ll let myself indulge in this comfort food game for as long as my fingers will tolerate.
What are the games you go back to time and time again? Tell me about your comfort food games – either in the comments or feel free to steal the heck out of this idea for your own blog.
Nerd Girl Thoughts 
Usually my comfort foods for gaming are either The Sims 3 or a heavily modded Skyrim/Fallout 4. The first because I like to build stuff and come with silly stories in my mind for my Sims. The latter because I’ve played those games so much that I can just wander around, doing some random dungeon and completely ignoring the story.
Other times it is some strategy game that is what I need, like Civilization VI.
But there are times my mind is just so bad that games just won’t do at all and just something like an anime or some TV show can help.
LikeLike
Reinstalling the Sims 3 is something I’ve seriously considered, as well as re-activating my World of Warcraft sub since I could play my shaman in my sleep. I just keep thinking maybe something new would really grab me, but it hasn’t worked just yet. My husband, however, has been deep in Diablo 3, and it seems to be working for him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Every now and then, I wind up back in modded Minecraft. I dig a hole into the side of a mountain and shelter in there happily like a hermit, indulging my loner dwarf tendencies to tunnel into the rock, building up underground farms and accumulating resources like a OCD hoarding dragon.
It seems to tick almost every gaming checkbox I need – indulging introversion, a procedural world to explore, simple automation, accumulating without loss, farming/nature scapes and the freedom and autonomy to do whatever strikes my fancy in a gaming session.
LikeLiked by 1 person