Is there a trick to forceing yourself to play a game?

The problem i have right now is that I'm bored out of my fucking mind and have been for a few weeks now with no games to play. I have a copy of Tales of Vespera that i played for 8-10 hours and haven't touched in months that i want to get back into, but every time i think about dusting off my 360 to do it i just feel like it will be a chore. I have the same feeling towards a few other games i have here sitting on my PC. I gave fallout 3 one last try to get me to like it and i was kind of starting to after 4-5 attempts over the year, but after the 30th crash and to many game play bugs to count i just said fuck it and uninstalled the POS. I also have a handful of other games i have played for a little bit but never got far into: Assassins Creed, The Last Remnant, Anno 1404, Call of Juarez, Ghost Busters and i even dug out and installed my old copies of Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2. They are all "good" games and they all have their own merits but every time i think about loading them up i just feel like its going to be hours before i get  to the point where i can have fun with them.
 
Does anyone else get this feeling a lot with games? Is it just because my mind keeps thinking about all the new fun games coming out that i just cant get into the mindset to play these? Should that even matter? I mean a fun game is a fun game no matter when they came out. Maybe i'm just getting more jaded in my old age, turning 23 this sept, and i just want instant no waiting gratification. For some reason I just cant force myself to play through the hour or two most games have of setup before the fun parts start. A man can only play through the Batman Demo so many times before he goes nuts lol

Same problem but what I've found is this.  NEVER force yourself to play a game.  Wait until the moment is just right.
 
For example, I still haven't beat Eternal Sonata.  Every so often I get an inexplicable urge to play the game.  If I had forced myself to play through it I wouldn't be able to enjoy those moments when I actually want to play the game.

Online play.

It's not that i don't want to play these games, its just that i remember each one having like an hour or two of just doing nothing interesting before the real game gets going, and that feels like the chore. I know if i could just get past the first little bit i would probably enjoy it but its just that little hurdle at the start of all these games that keep me from playing them.

get a gamefly account, then just rotate through games for like $15 a month

What's weird, is that I find I have to force myself to play games I really enjoy :\ Sounds off, but i'm very much attention defecit when it comes to games, if I don't finish the game in a few sittings, I get distracted by something else and I find it very hard to go back to no matter how much I liked the game.

" get a gamefly account, then just rotate through games for like $15 a month "

" @Brockly46 said:

" get a gamefly account, then just rotate through games for like $15 a month "

Cant Gamefly is for Yankees only. And the Canadian equivalent takes forever to get here because i don't live near any major cities. "

I simply CAN NOT make my self play Far Cry 2, that game is so boring. yet their are so many great parts of that game.

I usually end up going back to CS:S/Guild Wars when there are no games I care about. (which is more often than I'd like)

just listen to the bombcast

" @crusader8463 said:

" @Brockly46 said:

" get a gamefly account, then just rotate through games for like $15 a month "

Cant Gamefly is for Yankees only. And the Canadian equivalent takes forever to get here because i don't live near any major cities. "

There's a Canadian equivalent? Do tell. I thought it would never happen.  As to your conundrum, it might be time to try a genre you've never tried before. Go for something risky. Worse that'll happen is you appreciate your personal status quo a bit more. "

" Same problem but what I've found is this.  NEVER force yourself to play a game.  Wait until the moment is just right."

" @crusader8463 said:

" @Brockly46 said:

" get a gamefly account, then just rotate through games for like $15 a month "

Cant Gamefly is for Yankees only. And the Canadian equivalent takes forever to get here because i don't live near any major cities. "

There's a Canadian equivalent? Do tell. I thought it would never happen.

This afflicts me too :(

Curse my buying habits.

Buy some boxes of wine and start getting trashed!  It's the best way to force yourself into doing things you may not necessarily want to. 
 
......in all seriousness though, I go through some of these same moments.  I'll get to the point that there's just not any games that can hold my interest.  This is the point where you get burnt out on playing games and need to take a break.  My suggestion will sound very silly, but trust me when I say it:  go to your local arts and crafts store and dump some money on a paint-by-numbers and some decent paints...or a big fucking puzzle.  With a paint-by-numbers, you'll find that the hand-eye coordination that you've learned in video games might end up netting you a pretty picture to hang up in the apartment/house, and you'll also have spent a little time away from games.  A puzzle can do the same thing, and even with a puzzle, it's something you can come back to every once in a while.  Lay it out on a big table, and every now and then when you walk by it, just sit down for a little bit and work on it.  These are both great ways to keep your mind flexing, but it's also serving a separate purpose towards your main hobby:  it's letting new games get released without you playing them, so you'll find a plethora of new content to jump into once you finish one or the other. 
 
You may not be into art or puzzles, but I'm telling you, it helps me get past that burnt out phase EVERY time.   =  D  Moreover, I've been able to provide my parents with four really nice scenic paintings.

I'm playing Tales of Vesperia right now, as well.  I kind of got bored of it or something, for like a couple days though, but got back into it last night. 
 
While I was in my "bored state", I did the whole travel 100,000km Achievement just by hooking-up my Street Fighter IV FightStick and putting a whine bottle on top of the RT button, to make my dudes fly around the map for like 12+ hours straight.  I also got the reveal the Map 100% Achievement around the same time.  
 
I find that the older I get the more prone to video game boredom I become, which sucks, but is the truth :'( 

Yeah I have the problem all the time. The trick to it is to rent out a new game, one that you have not played in a while to get you back into gaming and to make it fun again. It always works with me.

Yeah its called gamerscore additcion

" Yeah its called gamerscore additcion "

Clear yourself some time, then jump in to a game and play for an hour at least.  I've found that it takes about that much time for me to remember how to play and where everything in the world is.  Once comfortably back in the groove of the game, you can play at your own leisure again.  Also, I think it helps to pick just one game to focus all your attention on at one time.  Don't dabble or you'll quickly lose interest in anything that isn't the latest and greatest. 

I look at playing games that I don't necessarily want to play the same way I do at taking shots - just walk up and don't think about the consequences of your actions.

I can't force myself to play a game. All I can do is hope that one of my games still has some replay value left before the major new games start coming out. Every game I buy is good and lasts a while, but most, if not all games, eventually bore you. It happens. That's why we make new games.

Cut yourself off from furious masturbation until the game is finished. That's what I call motivation!

I considered trading in every game I owned bar one and from then on in only ever owning one game at a time so that I learned to appreciate each game rather than get that overwhelmed/chore-like feeling.
 
Man, the hangover the next morning was a bitch, lemme tell ya..

Just try turning it on. Sometimes I go through a drought of not really wanting to play anything at all. Or I will stand in front of the wall and just look at the games and I cant decide what I want to play or anything. But I find that usually just need to turn anything on and then your right into it. You might not feel like playing that particular game you put on at first but once your playing anything you'll soon work out what your really in the mood for. Also dont try to force yourself onto crappy games either that just down a dark path.

I never have that problem.  If I'm not playing a game, it's because there's another, better game I'm playing.

How about instead of trying to force yourself to play games, you try to find something else to do? Don't get too hung up on just playing games because you'll end up forgetting that there are other things you can do as well. Just try to think outside of the box and you might be surprised as to what you come up with.

I know what you mean, but it only applies to certain games, for me. Fallout 3 is most definately one of them, and after starting over yet again I've just lost the will to play it. Truth be told, I was never its biggest fan in the first place; everything in that game feels like a chore, the combat is crap and the dialogue is dull and uninspiring. I have given that game so many chances you just wouldn't believe. Another example: Eternal Sonata. Repetitive button-mashing combat coupled with a trite story and generic fantasy backdrop – no thanks. Now, let's see, what else... Oh! The Club; a completely bland, charmless game. Not good.
 
It just seems like you're in a bit of a funk, man. It's a slight miconception to think that as soon as you turn a game on the fun begins. It doesn't. You play the game for itself and either you end up having fun with it or you don't. If you don't, then get rid of the game, sell it or put it back on the shelf. If you do end up having fun with, then great., enjoy yourself. And another thing: I don't know where this notion that you should be playing a game comes from. Maybe you're just bored of games at this moment in time? After all, there is no obligation or commitment  that you must uphold.

" Cut yourself off from furious masturbation until the game is finished. That's what I call motivation! "

i just sit down and play it. u just have to sit there bored then sometimes u can get into the game.