I am no longer a highly competitive person. In recent years, my attitude has shifted related to games of all types. I only compete in limited ways as I play sports and other games. I carefully choose the games I play which may or may not be competitive in nature with outcomes determined by skill, strength, or luck.
I enjoyed competition throughout my life. As I get older, however, I find less need to compete against others. I played pickleball for the first two years I lived in Estes Park. It was a wonderful way to meet people. Over time, however, the players became far more competitive than I liked so I stopped playing.
Some people have family traditions associated with game playing. Games were not a tradition in my family of origin, much to my mother’s consternation. We always got a family game from Santa. We often played it on Christmas night, but it was not usually popular beyond that evening. I have few fond memories of those family game nights other than my mother thought that a better name for Scrabble was Squabble. I have friends who enjoy playing card games when we get together. I play because it is a social thing, but it is not something I actively seek. I especially enjoy playing Farkle, however, if I am backpacking and a rock is the playing board!
Having said all that, however, I play computer games as a form of diversion in the evening. I am not a “gamer,” but I have played Free Cell for years and consider myself good at it. The competition is with me, so the outcome doesn’t matter that much. I play Sudoku occasionally and have played Wordle every day for the past three years. I don’t take any of those games too seriously although I once had a 107-game streak going with Wordle. I don’t have the patience so I doubt I will ever get that run again. It is fun but just not important to me. I know people who have much longer winning streaks than me and that is more than fine.
Playing games should be fun and I do enjoy the efforts from time to time. At this stage in my life, however, I choose what is fun and no longer care about competition and winning.