Well, depends.
Yesterday I had a literal urge to nuke both Russia and the USA (God knows they both deserve it so much.). Thatās where Civilization VI came in handy. The nuclear mushrooms were really satisfying.
You have story-based games, like RPG. I have played Divinity 2 Original Sin with the wife. Itās like watching a movie except you write the story, and the graphics and musics are sooooo beautiful, so it is like a movie. Since itās an open world, you pick quests and adventures where you like.
You have lots of mind and strategy games that resemble chess or checkers, only with more possibilities. Iām a big fan of real-time strategy games, especially the old-timers (modern games need so much powerā¦) like Cossacks Napoleonic Wars, Age of Empire, Pharaoh/Cleopatra. Build cities, run them, honours the MOFO gods if any, build economy, fight wars, keep your people happy while they complain about taxes, that kind of thing.
When I was younger, I use to enjoy first-person shooters like Urban Terror (on Linux since at least 2008 !!!) or later Call of Duty (Black Ops & World at War), but now when I start them, I get fragged like gunmeat by kids half my age whose reflexes indicate they should probably go see the sun more often (and that was before COVID, not sure now).
That said, I maybe open a game once every 2-3 months, play it every day for about a week, and resume to not gaming for the next 2-3 months. The computer box having become my working box for way too many hours/week makes sitting in front of a computer for funā¦ much less fun than it use to be. Now, most of my fun happens doing stuff outside, in the woods or else. And most of the games are played with the wife now.
Iām not sure games are responsible for game addiction. In the 2 times of my life where I deliberately over-gamed, it was definitely to escape shitty real life, not because a shiny game trapped me. If virtual worlds start being more appealing than reality, thatās most likely not to blame on the gameā¦ Same as a lot of people drink alcohol too, not that many end up alcoholics. Or can you get addicted to therapy ?
Anyway, all of my games live in Steam since 2014 or so, and it says 626 h played in 8.6 years. Meanwhile, Garmin says 150 h spent on a bike since last summer.
Speaking of addictions and sport, lots of middle-aged men solve their mid-life crisis by becoming born-again athletes who push themselves too hard and canāt get through a day without their daily cardio trainingā¦ These guys are walking heart-disease-hazard, but since exercising is socially valued, thatās an acceptable addiction. And a future socially valued heart attack.