Would like to spend under or around 1k.
My refurbished laptop that I got from work crapped out and I need a new one. I'd like to do light gaming, like Cult of Lamb or Disco Elysium and that would probably be the most heavy use application that I need it for. I'm also a caveman and can be pretty rough on my things, I think my last laptop ate it because I dropped it like 3 feet to the ground by knocking it off my couch on accident. So something that's somewhat durable, but I do not plan on throwing it across the room lol.
I plan on learning how to use Linux; I know next to nothing about it but have just heard good things and I think I'm just computer savvy enough to figure it out. Also any suggestions on solid alternatives to things like Word, Google docs, etc would me super appreciated!
If you want to use linux on it check out some lenovo thinkpads or notebooks. I have an lenovo g50-80. Its 10 years old. I run debian on it. It has wifi issues cause of old hardware. But its fine otherwise. I have an asus laptop which I use daily running windows. That one is old too.
As far as alternatives go theres libreoffice. There's only office but its not open source maybe and it runs fine as an app image. You can google docs in browser anyway.
If you never used linux I wouldn't suggest putting it on a laptop you are going to get. Try it out in a vm. Keep in mind its a lot tinkering files to like run games on wine or lutris. The games you mentioned seem to run fine on proton I just checked.