This is awkward to write when ‘video game critic’ is your full-time job. Sometimes, I just can’t enjoy video games.

Video games are a wide, varied, limitless medium for interactive entertainment, being a part of wondrous worlds or benign puzzles, fantastical stories or competitive teamwork.

Video games are an amazing way to leave the world behind and be somewhere else for a while. I believe that they are going to be an incredibly important part of the media landscape for decades to come.

But some days I just don’t have the energy for them.

Sometimes a period of time will swoop in and, for a few days, weeks, or even months, I just won’t want to play video games.

Sometimes a game I have excitedly been waiting years for will finally arrive, and I won’t even bother putting it into my console.

Sometimes I’ll have free time. I’ll have spare time that would be perfectly served playing a video game. I might just sit and do nothing instead, rather than play that thing I was excited for and is sat within arm’s reach. And that’s okay.

I know this article seems very me, me, me right now. It may actually be about you.

It’s okay if sometimes your love for your passions vanishes. It’s okay if sometimes the things that normally bring you joy suddenly don’t, and you don’t know why.

It’s okay if sometimes you just can’t enjoy playing video games.

It’s okay, because you’re not alone. You’re not the only person feeling this way.

It’s okay, because help exists out there.

It’s okay, because these feelings do pass with time.

Don’t worry, one day your love for your passions will return. Until then, just know you’re not alone.

We all sometimes find we can’t enjoy video games ❤