Websites to cure boredom

What a good boredom website does

It works straight away. You should not have to accept anything, watch anything or make anything before you are doing the thing you came for.

It works on what you have. A phone on a bus and an old laptop at a desk should both be fine, with nothing to install and nothing that needs a fast graphics card.

It has something new when you come back. A site you have finished is no help the next time you are bored. Something that changes by itself, by the hour or the day, keeps being useful without asking for anything.

It lets you leave. The best boredom cures do their job and let you go. A site that pesters you to return, or punishes you for missing a day, has turned from a cure into a chore.

What to be wary of

Be careful with any game site where the first thing you meet is a video, a wall of offers, or a countdown to a deal. Be careful with "free" games that stop you part-way and ask for something. And be careful with any leaderboard that nobody checks, because a score that anyone could have made up is worth nothing to beat.

If a site asks you to install something before you have seen it work, you are entitled to close the tab.

What this website does

Games for Boredom is one arcade with twelve quick browser games. Press Play and you are in a duel against a real recorded run within a moment. There is nothing to install, and you can play as a guest.

Each game lasts about 30 seconds and has a new course every hour, the same for everybody. The server replays every run from the moves that were really made, so a score on the ladder has been checked. Each game is held by whoever has the best run this hour, and that name stays on it until somebody beats it.

The games are Stop the dial, Stack, Sort, Cast, Dodge and Run. Between them they cover timing, reactions, judgement and nerve, and every one works by touch, by mouse and by keyboard.

Other things that help when you are bored

A game is not always the right answer. Sometimes boredom means you are tired, or that you need to move, or that you would like to talk to somebody. Standing up, going outside, sending a message to a friend or starting a very small job all work well, and our guide to boredom cures has more of them.

If a game is what you want, though, it helps when it is one that respects the time. Try a round, see whether it suits you, and stop whenever you have had enough.

A quick test for any website you try

Open the page and count how many things you have to do before you are doing what you came for. Zero is excellent, one is fine, and three means the site is more interested in you than you are in it.

Then look at what happens when you are finished. A website that is good for boredom lets you close the tab with nothing unresolved. It does not hold anything over you, and it does not make you feel that you owe it a visit tomorrow. If it passes those two tests, it is probably worth a bookmark, and that goes for this one as well.