I deal with this too. I've accepted that there's a sweet spot for the types of games I enjoy, and I generally stay in that zone.

First, the short-term gameplay loop has to be rewarding enough, which cuts out a lot of tedious "shopping list of waypoints" type of games and ones that are heavily story-driven with boring/tedious gameplay in between story beats.

Second, the upper limit needs to be right below the Skinner-boxes of dopamine traps. No gachas, no games with daily grinding, and I try to mostly stay away from MMOs these days. I know that I'll get trapped in the dopamine loop and play them, even if I'm not actually having fun.

Maybe you don't need to. These are games, for leisure, not your job (ok unless you're a gaming youtuber or something). The completed game doesn't have to be submitted to your manager on Monday morning or else. Many games just get harder and harder as you progress (and even those that don't); just play until it stops being fun then move on. Save the stress for the job.

Wait, you can start video games?

At this point I just forgive myself for losing interest in really long games, and don't enter into games with any expectation that I'll finish them unless they're a very compact experience. My two recent favourites that I actually finished are Duck Detective and Minami Lane, both only a couple of hours.

Same here but different. I'll do all the side quests and then when only the main story is left I'm bored and quit playing even if the story is really good. If I do just do the main story and skip a lot of side quests I lose all interest in the game after the story is done. Only 3 games that arnt like this forbme are rdr2 gtav and ghost of tsuhima.

Assuming you don't have to like... have a life for the next month - Factorio is always waiting to completely swallow you.

I certainly do this, but it's not an issue. The issue is your expectations upon yourself.

You are playing these games solely for your entertainment. If you don't feel like finishing, then don't. Let it go.

I started picking up old saves instead of restarting and now I finish them eventually. So then when you abandon the game you can say you'll get to it on a future iteration of this cycle.

Maybe similar, but I was (and still sometimes) abandoning games and start playing another one instead.

Its like I am unable to play something for a long time and no matter how good a game is I loose focus and it becomes repetitive.

I partially managed to overcome this by focusing on the main game and ignoring most optional stuff or just simply lowering the difficulty to breeze through the story part.

Still not ideal, but I am actually finishing games these days.

Cries in KOTOR, got all the way to the end and couldn't beat him because I didn't upgrade my force powers. :( I couldn't bring myself to start over...

BG3 I kinda of fell out of at end of act 2,I think I made into act 3 finally. But I just haven't restarted. The learning curve is just really steep if you don't come from a DND background.

My ADHD is the kind where I hyper focus on things I like, and I like video games so the problem isn't that I don't finish games; it's that I finish too many of them too quickly and forget the real world around me in doing so. And also that I then have nothing to do once I've finished all my games. :(

Games I don't finish are games that I also just don't like; so I never feel bad about it.

How do you go with books ??? Or movies ??

I ask because I have a similar thing. Once I’ve had the juice out of it, I often don’t need to see off the last bit - if the plot it revealed .

I face this issue but it’s a bit more positive for me. Once I beat a game I don’t usually wanna go back to it. But I stretched out BotW for 6 years until TOTK came out by just never fighting ganon. I’ve done this for quite a number of games and it really works. Same for Elden Ring. Once I beat that game and went to Ng+ though I just wandered aimlessly not having near as much fun as the first play through.

I started watching alpha beta gamer on YouTube and rediscovered a love for indie games (channel is horror/weird focused but here I mean all kinds). Short and original, they are great to play and never too long. People's taste are different but maybe we could have a group/playlist on steam

Dopamine hits are an addiction. You have to wean yourself off of them and never ever go back. Self control is tough but it is only achieved by trying until you get it.

Don’t keep trying the same things if they’re not working, that’s insanity. Try other strats until you find one that works for you! Games can just be a zen thing too. Try to enjoy more of the little things while playing them. Explore the landscape. Look at how the fauna and npcs interact.

Sometimes it’s about the little things, other times it’s just about setting goals and getting off when you feel content. Zen Buddhist style.

I've had this problem. My solution was when starting a game to play regularly and semi exclusively. I.e. I only have one single player game I'm working on at a time, and I play it multiple times per week to make progress.

And I just keep playing until I beat it. I then may take some time off gaming for a few days or weeks, but will eventually pick up another game and repeat.

This works for me cuz when I don't play consistently and decide to take, say, a one week break from a game, I find I end up not returning. So it's crucial to keep revisiting the game and sensing that progress or it feels like it never ends and drags on and on. There's also things like muscle memory and strategy that if I don't keep fresh at least a few times per week, it makes returning to the game feel like more work rather than just jumping back in.

I don't have diagnosed ADHD so it may not apply to you but that's what worked for me (and continues to work). I've played many dozens of games following this system for some years now.

I just got really good about picking back up games I perviously put down. Some games only rehook me for a night at most. Others hook me for months.