On New Year’s Day, r/gaming swung between reflection and anticipation. Players celebrated personal rituals, traded advice, and showcased craft, revealing how games anchor both our memories and our plans. Today’s top threads coalesce around time, playstyle, and creativity.
Time, ritual, and the New Year mood
The community welcomed 2026 with humor and heart: a near‑future wink about Deus Ex in a post that eyeballs 2027 from here sat alongside a heartfelt New Year shout-out to lonely gamers celebrating Dispatch as a “masterpiece.” The mix captures how gamers stitch tomorrow’s hype to today’s comfort—anticipation tempered by communal encouragement.
"I never asked for this..." - u/neroselene (73 points)
Nostalgia added warmth, too: many revisited a Majora’s Mask dawn ritual, evoking that “saved people” feeling, while others found quiet reflection in a contemplative Uncharted toy photograph that looks like a screenshot of rest. Time in games isn’t just clocks—it’s texture, memory, and the pause between quests.
"There are a lot of games where you save the world. The magic of Majora's Mask is you feel like you saved people." - u/GrinningPariah (5 points)
How we play: juggling, learning, and recommending
Players compared notes on process as much as on products. One thread offered a crowdsourced guide to free‑flow combat (think Arkham, Ghost of Tsushima), while another confessed to juggling multiple epics at once rather than forcing a single sprint. Even lists became playful, with a reader sharing a chaotic, joy-forward GOTY spreadsheet that prizes enthusiasm over format.
"Yes. I'm guilty of being polygamerous. Why have a diet of one, when there is a buffet of fun out there!" - u/ziboo7890 (24 points)
Accessibility was front and center, too. A newcomer’s first impression that Sonic Racing Crossworlds can feel overwhelming drew practical tips—start on the easiest Grand Prix, enable smart steering—underscoring how r/gaming crowdsources onboarding the way it does recommendations.
Craft and narrative: from canvas to campaigns
Creativity bookended the day’s threads: a fan showcased a hand-painted Silksong tribute with luminous rays and a coiled guardian, while another asked for a verdict in a head-to-head reflection on Baldur’s Gate 3 versus Expedition 33. The conversation framed enjoyment as a spectrum—breadth and replayability on one side, tightly woven story and emotion on the other.
"If you fail something in BG3, something else happens... You can play the game a half dozen times and have it be a different experience each time. I enjoy that." - u/innocentsalad (17 points)
In both the brushstrokes and the debate, the throughline is care. Fans are investing time—whether into a canvas or a campaign—because the medium’s craft rewards them back, with layers that linger beyond the first run and stories that feel worth revisiting.