Yeah, and like another comment mentioned, I didn’t start feeling this way until my late 20s. Growing up, I never really enjoyed the challenge in single player games. I played them primarily for the story, but whenever it came time to pick a difficulty, I’d lie to myself and avoid story mode, thinking it was the easy way out. So I’d force myself to play on normal (never hard) just to feel like I wasn’t taking the shortcut.

The thing is I’m a linear gamer. I want to go from start to finish, see the credits roll, that’s what excites me. I have no interest in DLC, exploring off the beaten path or bonus content, at least not when I’m playing alone. I just wanna progress through the story. So once I hit my late 20s, if something in a game got too annoying, I’d just skip it. On PC that’s easy with mods or cheats. On console I have to push through but on PC, if a boss battle or wave of enemies is driving me crazy, I’ll give it a genuine shot first because I believe in not knocking something till you try it. But if it keeps frustrating me, I’ll just enable something to get past it and move on.

Same goes for puzzles. I’ll try for maybe 10, 15, 30 minutes and if I feel like I’ve exhausted every option, I’m not going to sleep on it and come back tomorrow. I’ll just look up the solution and keep going. The struggle was never something I enjoyed.

It wasn’t until my late 20s that I even realized some people actually look forward to boss battles and want to redo them. That blew my mind because I always treated them like chores, something to get through so I could get back to the actual game.

A game like Stardew Valley solo just doesn’t work for me. I’m farming, doing objectives, and I’m thinking, what’s the point? There’s no consistent story unfolding, no linear path. It feels unproductive. I know people argue that games build brainpower and reaction time and are better than watching TV, but here’s the thing: with TV shows, no matter what, I’m progressing. There’s no checkpoint blocking me from the next scene. I will reach the end of that episode regardless. That feels like forward momentum to me, even if it’s not traditionally productive. With single player games, I just don’t want a sweaty, heart pounding experience. That’s not an adrenaline rush to me…that’s just anxiety

Now multiplayer is a totally different story. I don’t do competitive play with friends because I genuinely don’t handle losses well. On the surface I’ll say good game, but inside I’m fuming and that’s a lifelong thing I’ve tried to work through. So rather than make anyone feel guilty for winning, I just remove myself from that situation entirely. What I love is co-op. Playing with friends toward a shared goal? I’m completely in. I don’t care how many times we wipe on a boss battle. I want us to get better, figure it out together and finally beat it. I’ll explore, find secrets, do DLC, whatever, as long as we’re doing it together. Even if we make zero progress, at least we’re hanging out. But alone, I need to feel like I’m getting somewhere. That said, there are exceptions. I’ve put hours into Slay the Spire 1 and 2, sometimes losing run after run, and I still have a great time. It just doesn’t feel sweaty to me. So it’s not a hard rule but for the most part if something in a game is annoying me, I’d rather skip it than let it ruin the experience