Friday Night Shots – What’s Your Go-To Game When You’re Down?

It’s Friday night!

You know what time it is, then.

Pull up a stool and listen to the music for a bit.

Given my post last week about games and my mental health, I was just curious what your thoughts were on this topic.

Say you’re feeling a bit down in the dumps. Nothing super bad, but just a little depressed.

What’s your go-to game when you’re feeling like that?

Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a game, no matter what it is, and that’s ok too.

But as I said in that post, playing games can often improve my mood, or at least be an indicator that I’m not doing as well as I thought I might be.

I think we probably all have different types of go-to games in this situation, almost as many types as there are people.

Some people, taxing their brains and making them work to figure out things like Gaia Project or a big complex wargame are what they need.

They’re in their element when they have to work, and it brings them out of the doldrums.

That’s not me, though.

For me, I need something relatively simple and not involving a lot of setup.

Probably the best example I can think of is Wurfel Bohnanza, the dice-chucking, bean-counting game where you are simply rolling dice and trying to fulfill contract cards to get coins!

(Incidentally, that was one of my first reviews back in 2017, and I hit 700 posts today with my previous post review today!)

This game, that’s all you are doing. Rolling dice, “planting” at least one and rerolling as needed to try and satisfy the requirements of your goal card.

There is nothing simpler, and that’s what I need when I’m really down.

Even a card game (like Subastral?) will do the trick for me.

I do find dice games very relaxing. There is a lot of randomness and you’re not having to really think about a lot.

Certainly nothing that will make your brain burst.

These games can really bring up my mood, because it’s playing a game (check my post about that) but it’s not making me work too hard at them.

Whether it’s playing a game or doing a blog post, I find that when I’m kind of down, thinking about complex things can become very difficult for me (and probably many other people).

I don’t want to think too much.

I just want to veg out.

It’s just easier that way.

(Sorry, that’s kind of what happened this week)

Sometimes that’s playing a video game.

My go-to video game when I’m really down in the dumps is Out of the Park Baseball, the iPad version.

I bought the 2023 version late last year and even though there is a new version out now, there aren’t enough changes for me to buy it.

Plus, I’m already in the year 2030 in my St. Louis Cardinals campaign!

I don’t want to lose all that progress.

The thing about this game is that it doesn’t take a lot of brain power (though you do have to keep on top of your roster moves and stuff).

When I’m really down and playing this almost mindlessly, I’ve sometimes left my pitcher in way too long until his arm is almost dead before actually warming up a reliever.

That’s not good.

But the game is so fun for me and each game just takes about 10-15 minutes.

I have played every game (162 games) in 7 seasons now.

That’s a lot of games!

And yes, I play it even when I’m not down in the dumps, so don’t think I’ve been depressed that long.

These are the types of games that just make me feel good, or at least get my mind off of bad things.

When I’m thinking about things I shouldn’t be, this will definitely do it.

So what about you?

What games do you like to play when you’re feeling down?

Let me know in the comments.

(This post brought to you by Canadian Club whiskey, the Letter A and the Number 9)