Relaxing games versus competitive games: which do you actually reach for, and has it changed?

[Zoe90]

A thread about what we want from games now. Broadly there are games we play to unwind, the calm, the cosy, the no fail pottering, and games we play to compete, the ranked, the tense, the win or lose, and most people have drifted strongly toward one over the years, so which are you now and were you always?

The interesting part is the drift, because a lot of people who spent their youth in the competitive trenches, chasing ranks and rages, find themselves gravitating to the calm end as life gets busier and more stressful, wanting their leisure to lower their heart rate rather than raise it, while a few go the other way entirely

There is a real question underneath about what games are for at different life stages, whether the competitive fire is a young person's game that stress and responsibility slowly extinguish, or whether some people simply need the win and others simply need the calm, wiring rather than age

So declare your current lean, relaxing or competitive, tell us whether it has shifted over the years and what shifted it, and the honest bonus, whether you miss the version of you that could rage at a ranked ladder for hours, or whether you are relieved to have left them behind for a quiet farm and a cup of tea

[StayReadyKev91]

Spent my twenties in the ranked trenches and now I exclusively potter on cosy no fail games, the drift was total and stress driven, my leisure cannot also be a source of blood pressure anymore