Idealization of Playing Games
I feel like when I “want” to play a game, it can mean multiple things:
I can want to play a game for the sensory experience of playing it.
I can want to play a game so that the game has a relationship to me that I value.
The former is kind of self explanatory. I want to experience what a game has to offer and work my way through it.
The latter is kind of weird.
For example, I often idealize the idea of having a Minecraft world that I play on for multiple years. Over time, I want to grow attached to the world as I play on it as a thing that’s stuck with me for a long time.
I get that feeling from watching other people give tours of worlds that they’ve played on for a very long time.
The same thing happens when hearing about a game like Dwarf Fortress. Hearing people talk about the stories that they experienced through the game makes me to have stories of myself to tell.
These “wants” are not mutually exclusive, but things get a bit weird sometimes.
The want of physically playing the game is pretty simple to fulfil, but the want to have a special relationship with the game is much harder.
You can’t speedrun your way to growing attached to a world, and trying to force it can often lead to disappointment.