Discussion Post | Sims 4 & Minecraft binging

So on my short hiatus, you might be wondering what I was doing. And I figured I should first, foremost, and mostly talk about the thing that threw me into this. Video games. Ah, I do love me some video games - playing, watching someone play, just listening to the music over and over...

Video games are by no means new to me, at all, but recently I've found myself getting more and more into actually playing them (I'd say the past year). That's compared to watching Let's Plays or other people playing the game, which I still adore watching. And I just mean more into, lately my focus has been on other things, but when I was younger I played certain things for hours. But I just had a period of time where I binge played Minecraft and The Sims 4. Not the most original of games (there were some other titles in there, but the binging was those two, they're binge type games to me).

Whenever I play either, I start just playing and playing. My obsession with the Sims goes back to... the first one, I believe. I don't remember playing it except impressions and magic - yes, I was that young, playing with my older cousin if memory serves, and my memory is notoriously bad - but I remember the Sims 2 very well.

The Sims 2 might have left some scars, in all honesty. I was playing it alone, first off, and didn't know any of the cheats. And, as far as I've played - the second is just the hardest to do things in. I don't know why, but I remember struggling hardcore with this family of three and how their 'fun' was never high enough to do ANYTHING, which just sucked, because one of them was a teenager and homework. See? Scared for life.

Anyway - besides my struggles with that one, I haven't really just... played the Sims in a while, until this week. Without the cheats, I mean. (The only time I enabled them were to try and fix bugs, you can debug them like that, theoretically, and good god I wanted to strangle them. Or the fridge). Besides my rants about fridges, it went... surprisingly well.

It's chaos at first, it's always chaos, but it's a fun kind of chaos. I'm honestly kind of thinking of doing one of those challenges and following the rules completely. I've started a couple that I'm not being too strict with myself with, but I think it'd be fun, I tend to react well to challenges, anyway, so maybe it'd be good for me.

And I've actually gotten to the second generation and into the third (although, as of writing this, they're still just kids, but I'm going to persevere!). Which is probably the farthest I've gotten in a family, definitely the farthest I've gotten in a family without using any cheats, just having them try and work and make things and collect things. It's interesting and fun. And a little ridiculous.

And now, you're probably thinking - Casey, is there a point to this post?

Which I can proudly say... kind of? I'm kind of just curious. I know this is how a LOT of people binge play the Sims, and other games. For me it's always those sandbox/open end type games. The Sims is, theoretically, never-ending with endless possibilities, as is Minecraft. I'm a completest, but there's nothing to complete with either game. And so... I just keep going, which leads to binging, or I just kind of tend to start another game when I get a little bored with the one I'm currently working on, normally when the challenge is gone (when the sims have enough money to not worry, when they're starting to just be too easy to manage. Or, in minecraft, when I've mined ALL THE THINGS).

Anyway, what I'd like to know is... do you binge play games? And how do you do it? I want to know how your binge playing ends up happening / how it goes? Mostly to comfort myself that I'm not completely insane in this. I have gotten better at just kind of going with my mood, though, which is why I'm not currently trying to push myself to read, even though I'm starting to miss it, but that's a whole different post.