I need a distraction

[Rattja]

I won't go too much details here, so let's just say I need to keep my mind occupied by something else for about a year.

I already have a few things, but it's not enough.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to what to do. Keep in mind that it's only for a year, so no MMOs or anything else that could be hard to just drop on the spot.

Games are good, anything but RPGs as they are becoming far too predictable and boring.
Prefearably I want something that is singleplayer only, and has a decent length to it.

Series are also welcome, though I have seen a lot of them already, and I have a bunch of animes waiting for me.

If you don't have any suggestions, just tell me what you do when you need to take your mind off something, how do you distract yourself?

 

[SomeLameStuff]

You can always play Dota against the bots. That's what I do to pass time anyway.

It would help if we knew what systems you have.

 

[Summerstorm]

LOOK, behind you.. a three-headed monkey!

Distracted yet?

Hm... you want to do something for about a year... then drop it? To keep busy? That is just weird. Well, i recommend following ALL the webcomics... maybe cheezburger and cracked.com and such sites, maybe free flash games on Kongregate? Procrastiantion ahoy.

 

[Barbas]

A distraction, you say? Czech this out:


Nope, no idea what that is either.

I recommend sketching, painting, reading or writing. Those have helped me pass countless hours. I'd be sketching right now if I had enough desk space.

As for games...Star Wars: Empire at War was an easy space RTS to get into. I gold the Gold pack (with the expansion) and installed the AEM mod for it. I used to just boot up the game have a skirmish match with all sorts of ships, or try and conquer the galaxy system by system with my fleets. I found myself going back to that game again and again.

 

[Rattja]

You can always play Dota against the bots. That's what I do to pass time anyway.

It would help if we knew what systems you have.

Already picked up LoL, but Im not sure moba is the right thing for me.

As for systems, I have ps2, ps3, pc, gamecube and 3ds.

A distraction, you say? Czech this out:


Nope, no idea what that is either.

I recommend sketching, painting, reading or writing. Those have helped me pass countless hours. I'd be sketching right now if I had enough desk space.

As for games...Star Wars: Empire at War was an easy space RTS to get into. I gold the Gold pack (with the expansion) and installed the AEM mod for it. I used to just boot up the game have a skirmish match with all sorts of ships, or try and conquer the galaxy system by system with my fleets. I found myself going back to that game again and again.

Already draw/sketch a lot, gone through two sketchbooks since christmast, but that does not really help, as I don't really think about what I am doing when I draw, it's just something for my hands to do, so that does not work.

Have been away from the RTS genere for a while now, think I'll have a look on some older games. Remember wasting a lot of time just building things in games like Black & White or Red Alert 2. I'll have a look at those two you mentioned, but it has to have some sort of building part for me to be interested.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

If you like Pokemon... Well there's that.

I personally spend a lot of time playing World of Tanks. It's a good arcade armored warfare game and its free if you have the time. If you want to progress fast, throw money at it. Either way, its fun.

 

[Frezzato]

...

Already draw/sketch a lot, gone through two sketchbooks since christmast, but that does not really help, as I don't really think about what I am doing when I draw, it's just something for my hands to do, so that does not work.

Have been away from the RTS genere for a while now, think I'll have a look on some older games. Remember wasting a lot of time just building things in games like Black & White or Red Alert 2. I'll have a look at those two you mentioned, but it has to have some sort of building part for me to be interested.

Weird, you do that too? I mean Red Alert 2. I play Yuri's Revenge in the same way that people play Sim City, except for the occasional Kirov attack. I can't explain it, maybe it's building stuff like you said, but part of me is waiting for the game to do something really weird. That does happen sometimes.

It's too bad there aren't many maps in which you can isolate yourself.

 

[Rattja]

Weird, you do that too? I mean Red Alert 2. I play Yuri's Revenge in the same way that people play Sim City, except for the occasional Kirov attack. I can't explain it, maybe it's building stuff like you said, but part of me is waiting for the game to do something really weird. That does happen sometimes.

It's too bad there aren't many maps in which you can isolate yourself.

Or mindcontrol every animal on that jungle map and make a zoo, just because you can.

 

[Spider RedNight]

OH OH I'VE GOT IT

Go all the way through Bleach, One Piece and/or Nauro (And Shippuden) and write a lengthy review about each episode with, like, three episodes a day. THAT'LL keep you busy

But for real though

Lego games, as childish as some claim them to be, are really good time sinks if you don't cheat and put in any codes or anything and just earn stuff the old-fashioned way. Lego LoTR, Lego Batman 2, Marvel... single player, easy-going, Lego time sinks.

Other than that, though...

When I need to take my mind off something, I just replay through some of my old favourites. I've played Bioshock through about ten times, my old Gamecube games are favourites, Wind Waker is nice and tedious (especially the one pre-HD release where you actually had to scrounge up 398 rupees PER MAP and you had to go precisely locate EACH PIECE of the Triforce)

 

[Risingblade]

Model building, I recently got into builing gunpla and boy it's a time consuming process if you aren't half assing it. I build while watching movies so I don't even have time to be bored anymore!

 

[DaWaffledude]

Learn to play an instrument. Then you'll at least have a new talent out of the thing.

 

[Yopaz]

Exercise, if the weather is nice start jogging, find a stretch that you are able to run then try to map your scores and beat your times. I used wåto work out 5 times a week, but now there's too much going on so I can't do that these days...

There's also Midsomer Murders, Psych, The Mentalist and Dirk Gently if you want to watch something.

 

[Fijiman]

My suggestion is to start reading webcomics. Lots and lots of webcomics. Some of the more popular and older comics have enough of a backlog to keep you busy for months depending on how many pages you read a day.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I always suggest picking up a creative hobby, like a new instrument, or drawing. That's quite literally endless enjoyment and it's incredibly satisfying.

 

[Auron225]

Bethesda games tend to take a while if you're planning on tackling a decent number of side quests. Any chance you haven't played Fallout 3/NV or Skyrim yet? Do they fall under RPG in this case? If not, one of those games would eat up a lot of time.

The Mass Effect series as a whole could well take up a couple of months too.

I can only make stabs in the dark seeing as I don't know what you've played.

EDIT: Minecraft? I've never actually played it but I know it's a good timesink. I feel a little bad suggesting stuff that isn't productive in comparison to others so far (drawing, exercise, learning an instrument) so feel free to disregard my suggestions for one of those but you did as for game suggestions too so... I mean this is the stuff I'd do for distractions!

 

[balladbird]

a dozen posts in, and no links to a conway twitty video... you've grown mature, gaming community. XD

I can't think of any particular video game that would keep you entertained for a solid year, outside MMOs, which you've said have the opposite problem of lasting too long.

I'll chime in with the ones who say to pick up a new hobby.

You could learn to play go! (baduk, wei-qi, igo, depending on which nation you learned to play in) that game takes five minutes to learn, but it's kept me distracted from the hard times in my life for well over a decade now.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Read For Better or For Worse [http://catalog.fborfw.com/indexbooks.php?q=washload&Submit=Search] from the beginning. That will keep you busy for a long time.

 

[Frezzato]

...Red Alert 2...

Or mindcontrol every animal on that jungle map and make a zoo, just because you can.

I'm so disappointed that I never thought of that! I never played Yuri in Skirmish because it felt like there was a ton of micromanagement, even more so than the regular units. I would whittle the hours away by trying to get all of my units promoted to max, including vehicle occupants.

Have you considered programming? There's a surprising amount of free tutorials on YouTube and even websites dedicated to free instruction.

Code Academy [http://www.codecademy.com/dashboard#!/exercises/0]
Programmr [http://www.programmr.com/]
Or make your own text games with Twine [http://twinery.org//], Quest [http://textadventures.co.uk/quest/], or Adrift [http://www.adrift.co/cgi/adrift.cgi].
[hr]
I think I understand perfectly what you're saying though. Personally, I could never start Minecraft because I need games with narratives, or at least a beginning and an end. The same goes for WoW, but I avoid it in the same way that a recovering alcoholic would never work at a liquor store.

I'm considering re-playing KoTOR, KoTOR 2 and Beyond Good and Evil. I never did finish Jade Empire, plus I still have an unopened copy of Sleeping Dogs staring at me. I've also never gone "evil" in Fallout 3, but that would require a third playthrough, which is exhausting just to think about.

 

[Frezzato]

Read For Better or For Worse [http://catalog.fborfw.com/indexbooks.php?q=washload&Submit=Search] from the beginning. That will keep you busy for a long time.

Oh wow, thanks for this! Hark! A Vagrant [http://harkavagrant.com/] hasn't been updated in a while, so I've been searching for a new comic.

There's always a chance that somebody hasn't heard of the Perry Bible Fellowship, so here you go [http://pbfcomics.com/].

*Damn, I've read For Better or For Worse as a kid, but I had no idea Lynn Johnston has been published since 1979.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Did you know that the moon is escaping the Earth's orbit at the same rate as your fingernail growing? Yes, that fast. Ok, so, that was a little morbid...

Did you know that 1 in 5 bipolar sufferers commit suicide. And succeed...

Have you ever noticed how the words suicide and succeed seem so similiar?

..Have you, ugh...

Or that the little "'" (dot) above a lowercase I (i) is called a tittle? ...wait, that's irrelevant...

..Or start reading a manga... long runners, like Naruto. Or Katteni Kaizou. Or Bleach... or you could watch bad movies and television shows, like Alpha and Omega or Guitly Grown and laugh at how awful they are for a year, or...

make a webcomic. Make. A. Damn. Webcomic. Any idea? Turn it into a 40 chapter made-of-15-pages epic. Upload it on the internet.