Do you get bored easily?

[Progster]

Nope. For me life is almost always a matter of what I want to do, or what I need to do.

If I run out of one, there's always the other. And there's always chores to be done.

Me too, there's almost always stuff that HAS to be done, as opposed to stuff I WANT to do.

I have plenty of stuff that I have to do, chores, the problem is that I find chores boring and it's hard to motivate myself to do them.

 

[Judge]

I have plenty of stuff that I have to do, chores, the problem is that I find chores boring and it's hard to motivate myself to do them.

In my case my motivation to accomplish chores is directly related to my OCD. I can put them off for a bit, but I can never put them out of my mind. They're always there waiting for me.

 

[Misery]

Yes i absolutely hate how expensive it can be. Have lost out on millions several times in my life because i just couldn't come up with enough capital before the next biggest thing took everyone by storm. On one hand... this is the future of entertainment. and if you get in early as a developer could build yourself a great life. Many highly successful endeavors took what people already do and digitized it. In the not so distant future you could take the digital version and virtualize them and call them something else. A gold mine. An absolute gold mine. It's at least 5 years away before commercial availability reaches this quality at a reasonable price.

Could you imagine a VR game development engine? Omg. How beautiful would that be. Bone animation software compatable with the engine so you can reposition the body of your character frame by frame using your hands or whatever vr extension. Or even an interactive 3d design VR program which would have the same functionality as GIMP / photoshop / adobe. Yet you can view your work from different angles. Grab and pull, expand shrink using your hands or whatever extension.
Even if it's fairly primitive if you're one of the first people to do it in VR many will flock to it for the novelty factor. Your brand gets known. You gradually roll out back dated amazing improvements, a loyal following is born.

It's pretty cool that could you use your own roms. Might even be able to rig up a cardboard box irl and fill with material where the machine would be in VR space. To help with immersion *kicks machine when game glitches or or you die* Have you been able to play around with designing your own apps or games in this yet?

Also, with the chroma demonstration video you shared....
When you shoot ink out of your controller is your brain tricked into feeling the recoil force due to the other immersive elements?
Or, if you walk through a dense cloud of color, does it feel like your actually walking through some resistant thicker space?
( The "tricks" played on the brain when vision and hearing are immersed in a different reality interests me quite a bit)

The 3D design programs you speak of already exist. Art/modeling are a very common use for VR at this point. Look up a couple of programs: Oculus Medium, Tilt Brush, and Google Blocks. There are many, many others but those are the ones I have access to and thus can name. Being able to reach out and just yank on whatever you're making really makes the experience. Or being able to take a paint brush and just paint IN THE AIR is another matter. Yes, this is all as amazing as it sounds. It also shows that VR can be used for way more than games or "screw around" programs. But yeah, look them up. Expect to be amazed, but also know that videos just wont even come close to showing what they're really like.

And yes, the roms are awesome. That program even does NES/SNES/gameboy (an actual gameboy unit you can pick up!) and more. There's a "rec room" in part of the building with all of these things. But actually getting the bloody roms (it doesnt come with any, that's not exactly allowed) can be a problem for some. In my case I already had every arcade, NES, 2600, and Gameboy rom ever, so... that made it easy. And no, I havent designed any VR apps/games myself. I'm no programmer. I've done some game design, but my part of the work was all in XML. I do know someone who makes VR games though, entirely on his own. I have no bloody clue how he does it.

For the Chroma thing: No, I've not gotten that when doing the ink-shoot thing. However, I have gotten other bizarre effects. Two notable ones. Firstly, in SteamVR (the main hub on Steam, there's environments you can explore and customize) I found this one place someone had made, which was this little resort building. It had a pool outside. So I teleport around and wonder "Can I teleport into the pool? Will it let me do that?". Sure enough, it worked. And I'm in "water" up to my neck... and yes, I felt that. It was very bloody strange. Didnt feel like actual water, felt instead like... uh... something. I'm not sure. The other weird bit was, well... ever heard of the "Tetris Effect"? Where after too much time with something it's like your mind gets "stuck" in a seperate mode for awhile? I have a tendancy to get that after too much time with some games, it can be annoying. But I got it in VR for the first time after playing around with a program called Toy Box. I musta been in there for 40 minutes just messing with all the stuff. And then I came out, and.... whoa. Things got weird. I had this constant feeling that my hands were in the wrong place... I dont know how to describe it. The bizarrity lasted for about 20 minutes. Being familiar with the Tetris Effect though I knew full well what was happening despite how weird it was. I expected something like that would happen sooner or later (and it wont be the last time).

@ Misery, would you be willing to give me a list of the very difficult and challenging games you know? My "aspie" friend is a huge gamer and super intelligent and I'd love to be able to get him something he doesn't already have. He eats games like I eat potato chips. I be so grateful if you would suggest a bunch- he's shared his games with me on steam so I can check to see what he already has. Oh and he has a PS4 so if there are any for that they'd work too.

Well, that depends on what sorts of games he likes. I tend to stick to a couple of very specific genres. Shmups (bullet-hell stuff, usually) and roguelikes/lites or whatever blasted term people are using these days. I also do strategy games but those are harder to find. Games I play tend to be very low on story (provided they even have one) but extremely high on replay value.

If you want possibly the greatest, most absurd challenge you can find on Steam (or pretty much anywhere really), look up Mushihime-sama. Bullet hell shmup. Fire that up, select Ultra mode, and prepare to be utterly obliterated. I've beaten it (Ultra mode specifically), but it took a freaking year of constant practice. This was AFTER I'd already done the whole "git gud" thing for that genre. Dodonpachi Resurrection is another good one but less demented.

Some others:

AI War (single best and most complicated strategy game I've ever seen. I've worked with this developer, too. Learning curve from hell though, but many fans clock thousands of hours with this one... it's that good).
Cogmind (awesome turn-based roguelike, traditional yet new. Best interface/presentation I've ever seen in that genre.)
Hyperrogue (another turn-based one, but this takes place on a hyperbolic plane. I'm not even going to try to describe what that means. Look at the trailer. Of all roguelikes, this is my all-time favorite. Be warned that some players get headaches or other issues just from looking at it)
Synthetik (not turn-based. Top-down roguelike with a huge focus on realistic gunplay but in a futuristic setting.)
Starward Rogue (Like Binding of Isaac, but bullet-hell. When something kills you, and it will, it'll be because I myself designed it that way... this is the game I worked on with that developer).

If you want some more suggestions, feel free to message me directly. Particularly if you have any more specific sorts of games you're looking for.

 

[Kyou Nukui]

I get bored easily because I don't have the motivation and/or get too anxious to begin tasks that I should be doing or that I want to do.
I spend a lot of time on the Internet or the game on my phone because it doesn't require any motivation..
Well, actually writing a reply to a post here takes some motivation. Sometimes I can't even get started on that.

 

[Fino]

My boredom flares like a quick-draw!

In school, I couldn't sit through an entire class without getting up at least once.

I can't sit through an entire movie unless I find it amazing and like to watch a little at a time at home, often taking a week or more to finish.

At stop-lights, I do something on my phone, even if it's just changing the song over and over.

In between songs at work, I use fidget toys.

I can't stand how slow people generally talk and before Adderall would interrupt or start talking during any pause in their speech.

I want to do the same thing around the same time every day because that makes me comfortable. It also makes me so bored I want to die.

I can't stand to practice the same music for long, so I stop and play others. Now my sight-reading is disproportionate to my playing ability, which isn't bad, but it confuses people LOL

I can't stand to wait in a line or car, I'll immediately pull out my phone.

Piano recitals and other music shows I was required to watch for school were frequent enough and long enough and boring enough that I found them traumatic. People think I'm exaggerating, but they made me want to self-harm or die.

One of the reasons I took so long to finish college was because I changed my major so many times, growing bored not just with the subject but with imagining my career in that field. I often daydream about a job then get bored with it, just from the daydream!

I often just left school in high-school. Kind of seems weird that you can, now that I think about it. I literally just walked out.

Sometimes I think about getting a job somewhere far away, just out of boredom!

I read 10-15 books at the same time. I want to read for long periods of time but can't stand to read the same book for more than 10-15 minutes. So I read a little bit of each every day! I do the same with playing piano.

Boredom was one of the main reasons I loved drugs so much! Not bored when you're high as the UFO you think you saw but no one believes you!

When something isn't working right multiple times, a silly example being autocorrect changing a word to nonsense. Then I fix it. It changes it again. I fixed it. It changes again. Rage. Murder. I could have calmly prevented it from changing it the first time but that's not the point! Rawr!

My family used to tell me, "You don't need constant stimulation!"

That may be true now! Medication! Now instead of a maddening need for stimulation at all times, I only need it 90% of the time!

I couldn't handle working longer than 3-4 hours, even at a job I liked, before Adderall. Now I'd like to stop after 5-6, but even then, it's not a desperate feeling, just a mild restlessness. Progress!

 

[Progster]

I can't sit through an entire movie unless I find it amazing and like to watch a little at a time at home, often taking a week or more to finish.

I have this issue too - I can't sit still through a movie or documentary and have to keep stopping it, getting up, going and doing something, coming back, watching another 20 munites or so before stopping it adn getting up to do something. It doesn't take as long as a week, but it can take me two hours to watch a one hour documentary, and sometimes I split them over two days. My mind wanders a lot, and I find it hard to keep my focus on it, unless it's really, really interesting.

When something isn't working right multiple times, a silly example being autocorrect changing a word to nonsense. Then I fix it. It changes it again. I fixed it. It changes again. Rage. Murder. I could have calmly prevented it from changing it the first time but that's not the point! Rawr!

Same here, I had huge problems with frustration as a kid, still do now.
I'm well known for getting up at social gatherings and going outside for a walk or just getting up and wandering. I last two hours at the most, then must get up and walk around. If I'm in a situation where I can't get up, then I fiddle or stim or move around a lot in my seat. That's how I coped at school and at uni, or I doodled; my lecture notes were full of caricatures of the lecturers, and at school I made a whole comic book, which got confiscated.
I changed my focus of studies at uni too, and ended up with two degrees almost completely unrelated to each other, and had no plan for a career, it was all about whatever my current obsession was. I'm different with books though - I read the same book, but in spurts - can't concentrate more than about 20 minutes, then I need to do something else. One thing I never did though, was experiment with drugs... unless you count that time I took magic mushrooms.

Piano recitals and other music shows I was required to watch for school were frequent enough and long enough and boring enough that I found them traumatic. People think I'm exaggerating, but they made me want to self-harm or die.

For me, by far the worst thing was double English literature lessons, that's exactly how I felt. I couldn't stand them.

 

[AuBurney Tuckerson]

I can't live without internet, TV cartoons and animal shows, or a game to keep my doing something.

 

[stratocaster]

As long as I have some reading material or an internet connection I can actually entertain myself pretty easily. I had a really vivid imagination as a kid as well so I wouldn't even need that too keep myself busy. Guess I'm kind of the odd one out though.

 

[Erik Bennet]

yes life is very boring to me because i spent most of it inside and i rarely go out and when i do go out theres too much noise and i feel frustrated

 

[Major Tom]

I can't stand the phrase "I'm bored". This stems from my childhood, because whenever I said it my parents put me to work. Now I can't stand it because I never have the opportunity to be "bored". I wish I could feel that feeling again.

 

[Ezra]

Perhaps as a byproduct of originally being severely autistic, my busy mind does not require much auxiliary stimulation. Being bored is a concept I don't relate to much. Usually I have to tone down my thoughts to get into and enjoy a diversion. I probably have a poor memory because my thoughts cloud whatever I'm reading, watching or doing.

 

[Gracey]

I think the difference between now and when in formal education is that I accept I will get bored and expect myself to forget things.

For me this adds a bit of a challenge.

I now look for a bit of an extra dimension to what might otherwise be ordinary.

For example, I recently attended two courses whereby I had to listen to a lot of information.
Two and half hour morning session on Mental Health Awareness.
Lunch.
Two hour afternoon session on Suicide Prevention Guidance.

I know my focus wanders and my body will usually follow so I have two or three things going on all at the same time.
My challenge is to remember as much as I can by understanding, asking questions and taking notes

- note taking is an excuse to move a part of my body in an acceptable way.
A bit of a stim - twirling pen through fingers quickly or lifting lid on and off repeatedly and quietly in between writing down facts and stats and a doodle or two.

My ears are hearing everything and I’m processing that,(information, distractions, accents, job specific lingo, colloquisms and meanings etc.
my eyes are reading the power point, colours, font type, size, information, the people in the room, uniforms, lanyards, place of employment, clothing material, hair colour, styles, wearing spectacles and brands in addition to details about the room, poster displays, furniture etc.

All at the same time as retaining as much given information as possible on the course subject, recording stats, teasing out the personal or work related emotional experiences offered by others so I could make the learning meaning for myself.

I knew I would be aware of many other things going on during those courses, to try to help my focus I set myself the challenge of remembering as much as possible about the subject.

I didn’t get the opportunity to get bored.
I could hardly speak or hold a conversation after those courses but I can remember a fair amount of subject information

 

[KD7]

I get bored, but not in the usual “I have nothing to do” sort of way. My mind is always thinking on something - an interest, a to-do list, an idea... etc. I have some chronic health problems that periodically land me in bed for extended periods of time though, so even though I have all these things I want or need to do, I’m stuck in bed unable to act on any of those things.

It’s incredibly frustrating and usually drives me stir-crazy. As a result, my future project list is a million miles long. Maybe one of these days I’ll get it under control.

 

[Progster]

I can't stand the phrase "I'm bored". This stems from my childhood, because whenever I said it my parents put me to work.

This happened to me, too. I learned not to tell my parents that I was bored.

I probably have a poor memory because my thoughts cloud whatever I'm reading, watching or doing.

Do you find that your mind wanders when doing these tasks and that it is difficult to concentrate on them? This is what happens to me, unless I'm really interested and wanting to absorb information.

Thanks everyone for your replies so far. My conclusion is that being bored easily is not due to autism, but it might be related to ADHD.

 

[Ezra]

Do you find that your mind wanders when doing these tasks and that it is difficult to concentrate on them? This is what happens to me, unless I'm really interested and wanting to absorb information.

Yes. It's the same for me too.

 

[Sid Delicious]

Jumping in here as a VR developer... we mainly use a program called Unity. A lot of the regular development programs are pretty straightforward to use for both 3D gaming and VR.

 

[Theta.G]

The 3D design programs you speak of already exist. Art/modeling are a very common use for VR at this point. Look up a couple of programs: Oculus Medium, Tilt Brush, and Google Blocks. There are many, many others but those are the ones I have access to and thus can name. Being able to reach out and just yank on whatever you're making really makes the experience. Or being able to take a paint brush and just paint IN THE AIR is another matter. Yes, this is all as amazing as it sounds. It also shows that VR can be used for way more than games or "screw around" programs. But yeah, look them up. Expect to be amazed, but also know that videos just wont even come close to showing what they're really like.

And yes, the roms are awesome. That program even does NES/SNES/gameboy (an actual gameboy unit you can pick up!) and more. There's a "rec room" in part of the building with all of these things. But actually getting the bloody roms (it doesnt come with any, that's not exactly allowed) can be a problem for some. In my case I already had every arcade, NES, 2600, and Gameboy rom ever, so... that made it easy. And no, I havent designed any VR apps/games myself. I'm no programmer. I've done some game design, but my part of the work was all in XML. I do know someone who makes VR games though, entirely on his own. I have no bloody clue how he does it.

For the Chroma thing: No, I've not gotten that when doing the ink-shoot thing. However, I have gotten other bizarre effects. Two notable ones. Firstly, in SteamVR (the main hub on Steam, there's environments you can explore and customize) I found this one place someone had made, which was this little resort building. It had a pool outside. So I teleport around and wonder "Can I teleport into the pool? Will it let me do that?". Sure enough, it worked. And I'm in "water" up to my neck... and yes, I felt that. It was very bloody strange. Didnt feel like actual water, felt instead like... uh... something. I'm not sure. The other weird bit was, well... ever heard of the "Tetris Effect"? Where after too much time with something it's like your mind gets "stuck" in a seperate mode for awhile? I have a tendancy to get that after too much time with some games, it can be annoying. But I got it in VR for the first time after playing around with a program called Toy Box. I musta been in there for 40 minutes just messing with all the stuff. And then I came out, and.... whoa. Things got weird. I had this constant feeling that my hands were in the wrong place... I dont know how to describe it. The bizarrity lasted for about 20 minutes. Being familiar with the Tetris Effect though I knew full well what was happening despite how weird it was. I expected something like that would happen sooner or later (and it wont be the last time).

i spent half a day just watching videos and getting oriented (mentally) with tilt brush. Some amazing creations out there although much of the work has some flaws that conflict with the art styles. In photoshop for example you brush would draw a solid color whereas in many of the works i've seen in tilt they appear to be more like an analogue water color brush. In where either some transparency effects bleed in or some areas become jagged colors with their shading. Nevertheless, would love to become immersed here with a pine scent in irl environment to accompany the experience:

This guy could probably recreate the life stream in FF: Advent Children. Would be pretty cool to step into that.I'm surprised there aren't many who recreated scenes from old rpg's. Work projects aside that would be the first "fun" thing i would design.

I have a strong ability to... project my consciousness into the scenario without being detached, due to prior experience. So i know what you mean when you're talking about being "in there" to appreciate it.

Oh sorry, my mistake. I remember talking to you a while ago and that's right you worked on bullet hell patterns and stuff!

Pleasantly surprised that you could feel compression on your body from the water teleporting! haha that's amazing. Last time i looked into VR tech most people could only feel things based on inertia or things like looking down from the top of building. But this is promising. Very promising. Ugh i wanna get my hands on a dev kit hahaha! There are so many mental conditions and phobias that can be overcome with VR.

Use to get that all the time with guitar hero. Playing expert songs then you look away from the screen and everythings melting away for a minute or 2.
Ah! Yes i know what you're talking about. Seen experiments done on this several years ago when some people were testing some things on consciousness. Some of the setup details are fuzzy but... They were inspired from the Avatar movie. Had to do something with prosthetics and consciousness. Long story short the man was able to have feeling in his Fake arm... completely fake prosthetic. I think they had him setup behind an identical layout or maybe it was in vr. Either way he was able to feel movement in his fake arm. Pain. His fingers move. When his trance was broken things went back to normal, no feeling. However it was a shock to his mind and took some moments to readjust.

It's similar to VR in the way that when you become so immersed. When your consciousness feels like it's inhabiting another body. And you forget about the real world for a while... it can be pretty disorienting coming back. Your legs may buckle and feel like gooey junk. Or as you've said spatial displacement. The more immersive vr becomes the strongest this effect will be.

 

[Progster]

@Hdphn33 @Misery @LucyPurrs @Sid Delicious Could you please create a separate thread about video games please, and keep this thread on topic?

 

[LucyPurrs]

I'm sorry Progster! I didn't mean to subvert the thread at all and am now using PM to ask gaming questions, so won't take up this space for gaming stuff.

 

[Toby77]

Ever since I was a child, I get bored really easily. I always wanted to be doing something, making something, reading something, new things and experiences, I was always complaining of boredom. I was bored, bored, bored and wanted more! I always need to constantly have a high level of stimulation, something going on all the time. Then, other times, I use to experiment a lot as a child, and like to invent or make things, or take things apart to see how they worked. I was very restless, but could focus on something for hours if it interested me. I got chronically bored at school, too.

This had often caused me to be conflicted: one the one hand, I want to do new things, new experiences, but on the other hand, I can't cope with some aspects of a new activity, such as the social aspects, or an aspect of the environment. So I'd be super-stimulated and charged up by something, and then suddenly crash and melt down, sometimes without warning (though I'm better at detecting the signs now. At Christmas, for example, I was always really excited by the presents, the food, the lights, etc, that then, at the end of the day or on Boxing day, I would just crash. I'd be really cranky, seek isolation, or melt down. Boxing day was more like Meltdown Day in my family.

Now, as an adult, I like to go to a restaurant, to order food and to eat and drink something rather than cook at home, I have this restlessness and want to get out of the house and do something, but then when I do it, I can't cope various aspects of the restaurant - the background music and noise is too loud, I can't follow and join in conversations so I get bored, I get restless, and I feel unsatified and/or stressed and am likely to just suddenly snap and even melt down. It's a kind of push-pull feeling, on the one hand I'm bored and want more and crave new things and experiences, on the other hand I can't handle them because of my Asperger's and never feel satified and fulfilled.

Can you relate? And do you get bored easily?

Yes, I wake up bored! So much so that without an alarm clock, I wake at 5 am and go to my woodshop for 3hrs. I come home take my 4yr old to school while listening to acoustic versions of every song she loves (because 2 instruments and a vocalist is all I can tolerate). I am to my day job by 9am, leave at 6pm and spend 2 more hours in the woodshop. I actually have to set an alarm just so I know when to stop and go inside. I do this exact same routine everyday. Obviously except on the weekends I do not do my day joff but the woodshop hours stay the same. Without it I melt and lose it slightly. So yes I completely understand. But I think busy is health for the wandering imaginative mind.