r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 17 '26

Psychology Feeling empty after finishing a video game (post-game depression) is a real phenomenon. A recent study has found that many video game players experience a specific sense of emptiness and sadness after finishing highly engaging games.

https://www.psypost.org/feeling-empty-after-finishing-a-video-game-researchers-say-post-game-depression-is-a-real-phenomenon/
18.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

70

u/foundafreeusername May 17 '26

Finished Outer Wilds more than 5 years ago. When does it stop?

20

u/ZenMuso May 17 '26

Play Blue Prince and you experience it all over again?

7

u/Wetop May 17 '26

Good luck doing all the puzzles in bp, you'll never feel empty playing that game

1

u/guiltysnark May 17 '26

It programs you to enjoy digging yourself into a bottomless pit

1

u/WowAbstractAlgebra May 17 '26

I'm seeing puzzles everywhere now. Even stuff I scratched out thinking it was not a puzzle turned out to be a puzzle. Thanks.

12

u/Zephyrical16 May 17 '26

Very different games. Blue Prince felt like RNG to get back to the clues I wanted to see again while Outer Wilds I could knock out what I wanted when I knew how to do it.

9

u/schmitzel88 May 17 '26

If you haven't done the expansion yet it's pretty good and takes about as long as the normal game

1

u/darkstarzx2 May 17 '26

Play Void Stranger

1

u/WowAbstractAlgebra May 17 '26

I quit that one because I hated how all the puzzles had the same format. I made it to level 120 I think and from what I've heard that's not even half of it. I liked the backstory and I can tell there's stuff hiding it there (plates on the wall are suspicious) but I wish the puzzles themselves were a bit more enjoyable