Finding myself only playing "Podcast" games....

Over the past couple of months I have basically found myself only playing games that I can pretty much turn the volume down completely and either listen to a podcast, watch GiantBomb videos, or watch Netflix. I basically have started ignoring anything that I have to seriously commit my full attention in favor of games like Civ V, diablo 3, Borderlands 2, and etc. Hell I found myself the other day playing pokemon while laying on the couch watching sports.

I know Jeff seems to talk a lot about how he does this same thing with Marvel heroes and Rorie seems to like WoW for this reason as well.

Does anyone else do this? Are there any other games to recommend in this style?

I do this a lot too. Lately my go to has been Binding of Isaac Rebirth or Spelunky. Racing and fighting games work well too if you're into those.

I definitely do this. A big part of it for me is time I think. I'm a full time student with a full time job so when I have free time I want to do as many things as possible - play a game and catch up on a show on Netflix or whatever. The 3DS definitely makes this easy for me, as it offers lots of games that require little attention. I'm also a big fan of city builders or simulation games to pass the time.

Yeah for sure.

Alternate a lot between "actively playing games" and playing podcast games.

Massive Chalice is a good recent one. I mean, pretty much any turn-based vs. AI game is a good one. Or playing fighting games vs AI.

I'm in a similar boat. I still play "non-podcast" games every now and again (mostly the Witcher right now) but with the extremely limited free time that my daily life is currently allowing me, I too gravitate towards games that don't require me to be fully invested in them. Specifically, I play matches of FIFA, because they're a short burst of relaxation to me, while listening to a podcast or watching a video by Giant Bomb or similar. I also play lots of online chess blitz matches, which require focus to an extent, but also allow me to get multiple impulses at once. Maybe that's just because I'm about as average a player as they come in blitz though.

I think it's because I've grown so accustomed to having multiple impulses at once, that not having that effectively puts some kind of weird strain on my ability to focus and not get bored, if you will. I think it's similar to the way people look at their phones while they're watching TV. I don't watch much TV, but I do enjoy FIFA and chess. Those two games just don't hold my attention well enough if there's not another "layer" of impulses on the side, though. Thus, I listen to podcasts while playing FIFA. I would not do one without the other at this point. And because these games allow me to jump in and have a quick and gratifying experience in 20 to 30 minutes at a time, they get prioritized over, say, playing the Witcher, because spending half an hour and knocking out two things at once -- a bit of the Bombcast, and a game of FIFA -- is easier to find the time to spend three to four hours a time on an RPG.

I almost always play podcasts while gaming. I just turn the volume down when I'm doing story content. I played podcasts through like half of the Witcher while trophy hunting, playing gwent, and travelling from place to place because the music is outrageously repetitive.

I've been catching up on some podcasts while playing XCom.

I've only really played Marvel Heroes 2015 this past month so yeah. Time is precious man and I've probably seen myself spending alot of my free time I do inside the home doing stuff I can multitask with.

Spelunky and Dark Souls 2 are my current favorites. I can't really play strategy games well doing this kind of thing, it just takes so much longer than it normally would.

As an aside, I have found that this sort of behavior has totally fucked up my ability to focus on something. Simply closing my eyes and trying to focus on a single thought has become very difficult, whereas 10 years ago (I'm 29) this was not so hard. I also have noticed that, when I try to 'multitask' like this, long swaths of sound and visuals pass by without me really registering what they were, and I find myself needing to rewind or take a lot longer to accomplish a task than I otherwise normally would. Podcasts as sound while playing an action game on mute works fine for me, but podcasts while writing code or trying to strategize - or, worse still, a video while trying to do these things - only provides the illusion of multitasking, in my experience, and that longing to have many sights and sounds washing over me all at once affects how I am able to focus when I really need and want to, since it seems that my mind is acclimated to struggling through a blizzard of sensory overexposure.

I have stopped myself from checking my phone during loading screens or stop lights, and from alt-tabbing over to a fun site in the middle of a work project, and within a month it has already improved my ability and willingness to focus my thoughts.

Civ 5 is my go to podcast game. I listened to a ton of podcasts during DA Inquisition, doing every side quest in an area was made easy thanks to the GB GotY podcasts

That feeling of maximizing time spent is so, so satisfying. Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, and Pokemon are all great for this, but for me the very best podcast game is Dark Souls. At this point I can load up the Bombcast, roll a new character, zero in on the podcast and when its over find myself having absentmindedly stumbled my way through half the game.

I just got You Must Build a Boat for this very reason. It's actually one of the things I miss most about WoW - I often don't have a podcast game anymore.

I kind of feel like it's a symptom of some form of ADD or something, I know for sure I didn't use to have this issue and I feel my attention span growing smaller and smaller. I can't even watch movies anymore, I'm 28.

Edit: I also feel like giving it name like "podcast game" is kind of dark in reality, like it's a totally okay and rational thing to do, and it may be. But I almost guarantee most people you talk to who do this have a serious lack of focus kinda like @kcin was saying. I'm with him 100%. I listen to podcasts when I'm at work and I find myself having to rewind sometimes cuz I literally wasn't paying attention or my ears only perk up when something interesting happens..

I do this too much I think. To the detriment of my game time, I mean I still haven't finished far cry 4, barely touched divinity, and now the witcher is taking any time I have left for games I need to listen to.

I do this with multiplayer games as well

I really appreciate when I can listen to a podcast while playing a game.

Well what I don't get is watching a show on Netflix while doing it. That implies you're watching some kind of mindless Netflix show, right? As in....hopefully you're not watching Breaking Bad or something while playing video games. Not getting the full experience there

Yes as a student going to school for software engineering I find that programming labs that shouldn't take that long end up getting drawn out for me because I have a quick look or something on one monitor and eclipse up on the other. It's like my brain thinks it is optimizing my time but in reality I'm not.

It's definitely a problem with modern society and its focus on multitasking. I also find it hard to focus on games/activities that I need to do without doing anything else at the same time (editing drafts of my writing, memorizing Japanese words, etc.) because I feel like I'm almost wasting my time by not doing multiple things at once. This leads to me playing a bunch of games that I don't really want to pay full attention to and watching videos I don't care about or listening to music. In the end, neither activity gets much focus and nothing of value really gets done.

For this reason, I've tried to save games like Marvel Heroes to be played solely with podcasts, something I know I need a mindless activity to interact with. At all other times, I try to remain as focused as I can on one and only one thing.

Everyone should play a lot more PSO BB that's still my favorite go to game for Podcasts though I dabbled with a few hundred hours into multiple 70 D3 characters.

Im trying to break this habit, at the moment. With some games I was doing it with I felt like I was cheapening the game experience. I still do it with certain games but not with every game.

Yep. I played through the Souls games and Bloodborne with podcasts, videos, or twitch streams on in the background. I've had an on again, off again relationship with NCAA Football 14 since I love college football but kind of hate that game, but when I spend my evenings playing it, having something else on in the background is a must.

That's why I fell into daily Spelunky for over a year. I got to play stuff while listening to stuff, and this made me feel productive (despite just doing two dumb things at once).

I do this often, well every week in fact.

What I find it's especially good for is collectible hunting/Side Quests in Open World Games or as @geraltitude said games like Massive Chalice where you don't need many audio cues.

for those who feel guilty about this, I sure as heck don't. Grinding for achievements or listening to 3 hour gaming podcasts probably aren't great uses of my time. But i like to do them and I know I'm going to do them anyway. So if I can get both in, in the same three hour block, I'm actually using my scant free time more effectively than I would if I didn't.

Massive Chalice and Dirt Rally have been this for me lately.

Nope, I never do that. I really dislike trying to pay attention to something as I do another, otherwise my interest level in either isn't so great. Actually, it's not really about disliking it, it's more about simply not being able to do it well, because the focus can't be on multiple things. I'm either listening to a podcast, and my focus isn't on the game, so I become bored with the game and lose interest in even playing it, or I play the game and put focus on that, and I don't hear what the person on the podcast is saying, so I'd have to rewind, or better yet, listen to later. That said, I am not one to listen to most podcasts, and I'll do other stuff on the computer as I listen to one I'm interested in.

Less of my game time has been devoted to full-focus experiences lately, so I guess I'm in the same boat. Diablo 3, Trials, Hearthstone, GW2 (or your MMO of choice) are my go-tos for this. I've tried with TBS games like CIv 5 or Endless Legend, but then I find myself focusing too much and losing chunks of podcast.

FWIW, I once asked Jeff for a good podcast game and he mentioned Trackmania.

I don't really play games without a podcast or tv show on anymore. Even story driven games like The Witcher is fine cause 90% of the time I'm just running around the wilderness killing dudes.

Yeah all the time. Mostly because I want to listen to a podcast and not sit there doing nothing while I am. Civ 5 is my big game for that right now. I'm working my way to Deity difficulty, and trying new strats all the time for fun. It's all about that Mayan infinite city strat.

Mmmmyep. So many games get bought by me with "can I listen to a podcast while playing this?" in mind.

I think I'm addicted to podcasts...

For me it's actually less about podcasts specifically and more which can I have Twitch or Netflix on my second monitor or listen to music during.

I have gotten like this some. I play NBA 2K this way though (a game I'm constantly playing) and that's great. And I was finding it hard to dedicate myself to just a game for a bit but I'm starting to think that meant the quality of the game stories in some recent games. Far Cry 4 was that way for me. It's just at the point where I don't care that much about their story if it isn't good.

But I feel good because as soon as Witcher 3 came along (a game I've been really looking forward to) I have really had focus on it.

I dunno if I'm strictly in the same boat. It is more that I turn whatever game I am playing into a Podcast game.

Oh yeah. Always. Except instead of podcasts its videos on the site. But I knowingly do it with the intention of really only focusing on either the game or discourse between crew. Turn based games are perfect for this. Divinity: Original Sin was my go to. Assetto Corsa is good for this as well.

I used to play day of defeat while listening to the bombcast and I have so many fond memories of listening to the flying lotus album until the quite comes to dark souls. They are like the dark side of the moon to wizard of oz of video games

1,000+ hours played in both Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4 because I like listening to podcasts while I play them. Shogun 2, M&B: Warband and Victoria 2 also fall into the same boat and each of them have a couple hundred hours of playtime. It's not enough for a game to be easy to play without the volume on, to me it also needs to have serious mod support, so in the event I get bored with the game I can just swap the mods around and I'll be entertained.

I play multiplayer games without looking at a video on my second monitor or listening to podcasts/music/etc. Not having the volume on can be detrimental to my ability to play well and it just focusses me more. I've done this recently with Verdun but apart from that it's rare for me to even consider multiplayer.

Don't make a habit of trying to multitask while working or studying or doing anything important. Only a matter of time before you get ran over by a car because you're listening to a podcast while crossing the road. You'll develop a seriously unfortunate attention span.

Yeah, I do this with Xcom and FIFA mainly. Even when there is games that I've not finished I'll still play my podcast games. I think its a problem.

I do it with Hearthstone, but that's the only one I think.

I found my self do the same thing a lot lately, sports game seems to work the best. Played many of seasons of NBA 2K and MLB The Show while watching Netflix or HBO. Mostly because it feels like I'm wasting my time with these game, unless I do something simultaneously... oh god am I getting to old for games :(

My goodness, I could never do this with games (not even Fifa) But I do do it while painting on photoshop or something.

I alternate between doing this.

When I want to play a game and give it my full concentration and drink in every part of the world I'll play Witches.

But if I just want to play a mindless game just to do something then I'll play Destiny and listen to podcasts.

@physicalscience:

I'm actually doing the same thing right now. In fact, I never even listened to the Bombcast or any podcast for that matter until earlier this year. Then I was playing some grindy or 100% gameplay oriented game and just had the Bombcast going and realized how ****ing perfect the situation was for listening to a podcast.

Probably unsurprisingly, I was playing a Dynasty Warriors game where your game can pretty much turn off and any pretense of following the story is thrown out the window after the first stupid line of dialogue. (I think the exact game was Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, which is basically Dynasty Warriors and it sucked, but I forced myself to finish it.)

Since then, I've combined the Bombcast with most open world sandbox games. Running around doing whatever nonsense or working on unlocking trophies. AC: Unity was a good one for that. Especially because the game forced me to go grinding terrible side-content in order to get gear to even be able to complete the 4 and 5 star difficulty missions.

I'll listen to a podcast if I happen to be doing something mindless in a game I'm already playing, but I rarely pick games purely because they are mindless enough to listen to a podcast. There's a few handheld games that I have found hard to focus on without some kind of background TV or something. (Etrian Odyssey comes to mind.)

This is probably going to make me sound like an old man, but I feel like people doing this in excess is a problem. I've seen my little brother play a game on the computer, while also having a tab open for youtube, while also watching TV or playing cards or playing on a handheld. I'm pretty sure he is actually incapable of only focusing on a single thing at a time. It's kinda insane.

Fifa, Dungeon of the endless, Spelunky , Dota2 with bots and BOI are my podcast games.

been doing this with MMO's for years, cept I actually watch TV on the side while playing the game.

Yep, I do this too. Doesn't help that a frightening number of games coming out these days are pretty much designed for this type of play.

Found myself playing Diablo 3 over the weekend. The ultimate podcast game. I need to play some podcast games from time to time, you know? It's like junk food for my brain.

I'm actually starting to worry this is a problem for me. I really struggle to fully commit my attention to just one thing at a time, almost as if I'm wasting my time if I'm not consuming multiple types of media at once. Anytime I sit down to watch a show I usually find myself with my laptop/vita out within 15 minutes and if I boot up a game I load up a Giant Bomb video/podcast.

This has seen me gravitate towards less story driven games or replaying things I've already beaten so don't need to pay attention to the story. I really enjoy story based games but I haven't been able to get into one for some time now because I'd rather play something simpler in order to be able to have something else running on my laptop. I might have to force myself to lock away all my other devices so I can focus on something like Dragon Age (which I've owned for 6 months but have only played 2 hours of) or The Witcher

I feel like I fall into this rut a lot, especially because I spend a lot of time playing WoW, which is so easy to play while zoning out unless you're doing bleeding edge content or PvP. Mostly I find that this only prevents me from playing games that I'm only sort of interested in, or prevents me from finishing games I'm finding that I don't like as much. When it comes to games I really love, I'm able to put the YouTube videos down, put some headphones on, turn off my second monitor, and really enjoy them. This has become a big contributor to me having unplayed or unfinished games on my Steam account. I buy games because I think they'll be "alright" or to try something just to see if I like it, and then never launch it because I never sort of "make the time" to play that game when I can just play WoW, listen to a podcast or watch a video, and also dick around on forums at the same time.

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Victoria II are my current podcast/"zoning out" games. But I love replaying games and trying out mods and what not so even story heavy games are fun to play like this.