That’s generally how it’s been for me, the happier I am the more energy I have for habits like this, which take a non zero amount of effort to play.

Conversely when I’m feeling down this is the first thing to go, I can desire to play and just sit there for hours not doing so.

Thank you for writing this.

And it may just be that happiness and video game playing are both correlated with something else, like having a lot of leisure time and/or a lot of discretionary spending money.