I’ve recently found that big (mostly open world) games tend to overwhelm or even intimidate me. I’m a big fan of the Rockstar games and absolutely adored Breath of the Wild, but my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit rocky from the get-go.
As soon as the game let me explore all of its content and released me from the tutorial island, I was able to roam the lands of Hyrule freely as I once did in Breath of the Wild, but I’ve come to a sort of paralysis. I feel like there’s such an enormous amount of content to see that I’m constantly anxious to unintentionally skip content or to not make the most of my experience. I did not feel like this back in Breath of the Wild, and I’m not really sure why. I did, however, have this same sense of FOMO when I first played Skyrim. That game also made me feel like I was constantly missing stuff which left me kind of unsatisfied.
This is not a big problem and all of the games I listed are great games. I’m posting this because I unconciously took a two week break from ToTK in order to alleviate that feeling but when I came back to the game today and still felt the same, I thought of posting here and maybe hearing your opinions on this thing.
Have you ever felt the same in big open world games? Do you feel like this in more linear games with multiple endings? (I do) Do you think I’m an overthinker and should just rock on? Looking forward to your comments!
Absolutely! I spoke to my GP because I was completely functional with my stress and anxiety levels, but I just wasn’t feeling great - I was whiteknuckling my way through each work day, despite nobody knowing or my job performance being affected. I tried to justify the feeling to myself as “well, it’s just busy, I’ll be more relaxed once this rough patch is over”. But the “rough patch” would never end, it was like chasing a rainbow. Once I finally realised that it didn’t matter why I felt shit, if I still felt shit all the time, I spoke to a psychologist and tried some CBT. That didn’t make a huge difference, so my GP suggested trying out an SSRI. I’m now on a low dose of escitalopram and it’s been pretty life changing. If you’ve considered meds before, I’d highly recommend revisiting that idea. Modern anti-depression and anti-anxiety drugs are a lot more targeted than the older generations. You don’t need to be on them permanently either, you can try for 3-6 months and see how you go.
But you’re right - the one downside is potential insurance implications. For example, my life insurance no longer covers me for anything mental health related, which is quite a broad stroke considering I’ve got it under control and it was just garden variety mild generalised anxiety. I’m apparently one of “the crazies” now to them. But considering how much better I feel now, I’d make the same decision a million times over.
Happy to discuss more if you have follow-up questions, more people should chat about this stuff!