There was a curb your enthusiasm episode of exactly this. Lol Larry was like "I didn't start it! There were a whole row of cars there I swear!"

I started life as an MMORPG addict, and now as an adult I find myself in single player games on ps5/pc/steam deck. Action RPGs or whatever new game comes out that I rent like midnight suns, Forespoken, that recent DC game, Crisis Core, etc. But my best games were Everquest, Ultima Online, DaoC, even Wow at the time... But mmorpgs dont do it for me lately anymore.

I'm gonna be real with you. Unfortunately I have no advice, but am here to say I hear ya! It is NOT you. Also in NH county and 0 friends. My wife grew up here so at least she has a couple from school.

Even my friends from college got either narcissistic or cheated on their tests in the same class as me and bragged about their test scores. While they arent as successful on life now as me, it still sucks because it's not like I had friends to spare. Here is a somewhat negative way to look at it:

• I feel like most people are about themselves. I take pride in being empathic and caring about others, but it usually leads to backstabbing me. This is probably just a me thing.

• It can be daunting as a parent to find time for friends, even if I really wanted friends. I'd be afraid of letting someone down of they wanted to go to the mall or something and I kept saying no.

Sadly, what ends up happening is I surrounded myself with "fake friends" at work... And eventually that made it harder as a manager in the past.

I was hoping when the kids got older I'd find some friend's parents that played video games like I did or something...but mostly it seems they are into sports and Im not. It's funny, the first 2 parents I actually can hold a conversation with are two moms of my son's friend. I didn't expect that, but they are both pretty cool peeps!

I also noticed CT tends to be a bit older than I am. A lot of retired people that I wouldnt connect with.

This probsbly just makes me an introvert. But I'm sure it'll get better. Seems like you are more than willing to put in the effort. I've probably just been burned too many times. That, and people are just wierd. Some dude at the Milford mall last week taunted me and my son and made us flee our table. 5 mins later the guy EATS OUR FOOD with my FORK! There's one less friendly candidate there! Lol best of luck to you!