Ex Ruined Video Games for Me

I used to be a really big video game player, once upon a time I really enjoyed the Fallout franchise, Overwatch, literally just whatever. I've been PC gaming for a couple decades now. Ever since I was able to afford buying parts, I have always built my own PCs for the latest titles.

That changed over the last year and a half though. My (now ex) gf talked down at me about playing "dumb games with friends" and so I stopped playing those "dumb games." She convinced me that retro games were where it was at - ps1, ps2 era (I've never been a platform gamer). So I canned the PC and bought her a PS5 with the premium classics catalog subscription.

I spent countless nights playing the games she recommended I play, and she would get SO frustrated whenever I couldn't figure out some wonky mechanic or puzzle. She would actually get into a rage and accuse me of intentionally being dumb to try and get out of playing the games, etc. That obviously meant that I would double down in trying to figure stuff out and (secretly) google the walkthroughs if I had to.

A lot of nights and a handful of games would get ruined though because she'd get so mad at me for not figuring things out that she had apparently figured out many years ago.

Not surprisingly, I had enough one day (she had a short temper and had physically assaulted me more than once) and I ended it.

It's been about 4 months now since I ended it and for the life of me I can't enjoy gaming anymore. I don't want to play any of the retro games I had started with her (even though I was actually invested in it when we were together) and I also don't want to play any of the "dumb games with friends.'

I actually don't have any friends which is a weird problem in itself, and I had never actually been playing with any "friends" when she had made the angry remarks in the past. I always queued up with strangers, there were never any friends involved.

Does anyone else feel like that??