I currently own 151 steam games, a handful of boxed PC games, a handful of PS3 games, and a number of handheld games for various systems. I also own a number of legacy consoles from my youth, as well as all the games I owned for them then. In recent times this has become somewhat overwhelming for me. There are an increasing number of games I have yet to play and/or finish, I want to spend more time with and/or finish again, and not enough time to take them all on at once. And so I have hit a conundrum of what games I should devote my time to. My question to you is how do you decide what games you want to play? Is it instinctual? Intellectual? Reactionary? What drives your gaming tastes?
Do you ever have so many games, you don't know what to play?
All the time. That is why I tell myself not to buy any news ones until I beat what I have. It never works.
I'm pretty good about not developing too much of a backlog; despite having 250-300 games in hard copy format I've beaten 95% of them and 100%'d about half as well. The Playstation Plus free games are the only new things I haven't gone completely through, but I already feel like my 3 month sub was worth it.
Edit: Don't really like steam that much so that's never become an issue; I have a lot of Paradox strategy games and Total War games that I haven't played comprehensively but I've still put in a fair amount of time for each.
I usually only buy games when I'm ready to play them, so my pile of shame is very small, mostly just some stuff from Indie Bundles and older used games I found in good condition. With such a small backlog I usually don't run into this problem.
I've been paralyzed by fear and indecision stemming from my game collection for the past year and a half.
Here's how you deal with it :
You don't.
You wind up going back to whatever the last comforting game you beat was and slack off in that. I now have 80 hours in Saints Row The Third (a game that can be beaten in 10 hours). Eventually you get frustrated at your growing backlog, close your eyes and point at something, anything, and resign yourself to beating it. You learn to love again. You tell yourself, "Why didn't I play this earlier? Video games are awesome." You beat it. You feel like you accomplished something by making a small dent in your backlog.
But then you wind up playing more Saints Row.
Video Games.
@Sbaitso: It's the steam sales. I bet if I was a PC gamer I'd buy a ton just because of the insane deals, and then never be able to catch up.
Yes, I really screwed up in Spring 2011. I bought somewhere between 15 and 20 PC games all for really cheap off of Amazon all at the same time and I ended up not playing any games for a very long time after that because of some weird psychological thing (I guess) where I just couldn't decide what to play so I just didn't play anything at all. Still haven't beat half of what I bought then and have just given up any hope of ever playing them again. I'll never buy a ton of games all at once again.
I suppose it helps that I try to play one murderously difficult game at a time until I beat it or perform satisfactorily if there is no win condition, much better sense of accomplishment from those than from a random easy game.
@Hunter5024: Steam is honestly a big part of my problem. I absolutely love steam, but my internet at my current place is crap, so even the smallest of games take hours to install, and most modern games take the better part of a day(if not more than one) to install. And forget trying to watch GB videos while trying to install games.
Yeah I've certainly had those moments, typically I just select a game at random and start playing it, it's worked for me thus far because I know I'll continue to purchase games anyway and stack'em up for when I'm" old and retired.
I really do have a bad case of Steam game paralysis. Even though I can have an equally large stack of PS3 games I need to get through, I can always identify my targets and start picking them off one by one. For whatever reason, I don't have that skill on PC, which leads to me not playing PC games very often anymore.
@Spoonman671: How do you pick out what to play on your PS3? I currently own Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, P4A, RDR, and MGS4 for PS3, yet the only games I've finished are Dark Souls and MSG4, And I just keep playing more of Dark Souls. At this point it seems more approachable to me(meaning starting again) than trying to finish those other games.
@Hunter5024 said:
@Sbaitso: It's the steam sales. I bet if I was a PC gamer I'd buy a ton just because of the insane deals, and then never be able to catch up.
Out of 38 games in Steam installed, I've beaten... eleven. Some of those I actually beat on 360 and have rebought on Steam at insanely low prices. And that's just Steam games installed, I've got a fair number that I haven't got installed and some others that aren't on Steam.
On topic, I've been trying harder to complete games that I buy but if I spend a long time in a game and I'm not having fun with it, I'll just put it down and not go back to it for a while.
I've got tons of backlog as well. The way I approach this, is to pick a genre I want to play currently... Then pick the game I want to play the most from that genre. But really jeez it's frustrating when I think about all those backlogs.
Yes, very yes. Over 200 Steam games. I don't even know where to start. I also just bought a SNES and 6 games for that so I have to play that. I also have a copy of Persona 4 Arena that I've played for about an hour that I want to play. I'm also playing through Borderlands 2.
I have schoolwork to do and friends to hang out with so this backlog will probably never get finished.
Kinda. I don't force myself to play a game as i'll usually stop. So I have a big backlog of games I lost interest in or never played because I picked them up for cheap.
I bought the last Humble Bundle and got all 10 games while in the midst of still having to play 6 games. The last game I played was Torchlight and I probably won't go back for a while due to a Steam Cloud sync mess up that sent me back 6 floors. Man it's hard to decide what to play next... :|
All the time. I have such a large backlog on Steam alone (not to mention Origin, Amazon, Xbox 360, and PS3 games) I don't know if I'll be able to crawl out of it.
Yeah, that feeling sets in every fall. I've been busy lately, still need to finish Sleeping Dogs, Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 but can't wait to check out X-Com and Dishonored this week plus I'd like to check out Guild Wars 2...
Well I do have a lot of games too, yet most of them I don't have a real will to play at the moment. My current backlog of games I'm interested in is at:
- Infamous (currently nearing the end of the game)
- Borderlands
- Vanquish
- Siren: Blood Curse
- Dead Space 2
- American Mcgee's Alice and Alice Returns
- Lone Survivor
- Dustforce
- Final Fantasy X
- Limbo
- Bastion
- The Void
- Planescape Torment
- Final Fantasy VI
So I have a different perspective on the matter, possibly more selfish. I only count the games I'm interested in.
Hell yes I do. I think that when the next generation rolls around I'll be more selective in what I play. I feel like I played too many By the Numbers AAA titles this generation and not enough curiosities.
I just got done remaking my list of console games as I really want to dig into that backlog and start playing some of them as I'm worried that once the new consoles come around I will never get back to them. A good portion of my backlog are PS2 games for Christ sake! Turned out I had 75 console games spread across Wii, 360, PS2 and PS3 with only 14 of them completed. My Steam/PC games library makes that look like a joke in comparison however, as it's currently sitting at 300+ with at least 4-5 more pre-ordered waiting in the wings for release. Though to be fair, a good portion of those games are complete garbage that will never get played. One of the good things about most modern games that get made these days holding zero appeal to me anymore is that with less new games coming in I can try to focus on the old ones a bit more. Though that doesn't seem to have helped as whenever the wait for a fun game comes around I tend to fall back to old standbys like Team Fortress 2 and play that non-stop in the interim.
One day I hope to burn through the backlog, as it will be nice to finally be free of that dirty feeling of buying a new game at full price knowing that you have literally hundreds of great games collecting dust/virtual dust on a shelf at home.
As for your question, it's just what grabs me at that moment. Most of my games are long/deep RPGs or Strategy games so I tend to only dive into one when it's been a while since I finished the last one. When I'm just looking to get the number down I will pick one of the short games that I know can be beaten in a few sittings, but I tend to try and save them for the palate cleansers in between my deep/long games. At the end of the day it's mostly based around what I have been playing recently as I tend to get sick of certain genres after playing a game of that type so I like to keep cycling what genre of game I'm playing. Which is what makes getting through my backlog so hard as I'm an RPG guy and a good portion of my games are long RPG's that I don't have time for anymore as I only get 3-4 hours a day of free time by the time work is done.
I'm planning to use the Wii U as the deciding platform going forward, and try to keep up my current habit of sticking to purchases I know I will play (I've been better about that for the past year or so). Otherwise I try to switch genres and multi/single player.
It currently tends to be FPS, FPS, RTS, RPG, FPS Adventure, RPG, platformer and then wraps around.
At the moment ~250 PC (maybe 30 I really need to play though), ~15 X360 (highish priority on 4 of them) and ~4 PS3 (with only 3 being really attractive with my current schedule/taste). It took me a long time to really get a handle on what games I would enjoy after I had gotten back into gaming in ~09. At least it was okay price wise - stuff like $2 Dead Space 2 on Amazon.
Yes. This is the problem with disposable income and older games dropping in price much faster than they used to. With more people buying and more copies floating around, it's too easy to find good games for cheap. I must have hundreds of games I've never even played.
Hmm. My answer to this madness is to just re-sell all of the games i bought until i just have a few and problem solved.But then those steam games are quite a problem because of the ridiculous yearly sales they have. In that case, i don't know whatt to do but I'm feeling pretty bad about buying those steam sale games and never even playing them. I wont buy another steam game ever again.
How do I decide what to play next when I have a gigantic backlog that I keep adding to? Whatever I feel like.
I like most genres so I pretty much have a game for whatever mood I'm in. It varies a lot, sometimes I'll be spreading my time between 3 different games, or I just to replay a great game.
Yeap. And the problem is, I can't resist myself from buying the newer games that I want (Its stupid I know). Games like Darksiders 2 and Borderlands 2 are not making it easy for me to finish them off. Also, I think the pressure of finishing off games is deteriorating my game experience. Sigh. So much to play, so little time.
Every time I'm bored I look at my installed Steam games, look at it while thinking which one I want to play, and then end up either watching videos on GB or Youtube while playing Minecraft. Then there's the console games that I have that I've either barely played or haven't even started playing. If i'd sit down and play all the games that I haven't beaten I wouldn't need to buy a new game for a very long time.
It happens from time to time. I've been playing games that have been released this year first so I can compile a "Best of 2012" list before I get to the games I missed from last year or any before. During the past month, in preparation for the holidays, I've played through Final Fantasy XIII-2, a game I've been holding off for a long time (and enjoyed overall), and Sleeping Dogs. And while I wait for XCOM: Enemy Unknown, I'm playing through Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, a game I sorta regret missing out on last year.
Every once in a while, when I'm not exactly sure what I want to play, I'll just stare at my steam library. And eventually narrow it down to 1-3 games. And then maybe pick a different one randomly.
Currently I'm sucked into Borderlands 2 and Guild Wars 2, so that hasn't been a problem.
@Jeust: I find the best way to play old JRPGs is playing them at 400-500% speed on an emulator, slow it down for talky talk and bosses, power grind through the rest. I recently put in 150 hours for Final Fantasy V (I own Anthology) but it only took me about 15-20 hours of actual time. I suppose you might be missing out on some of the music in FFVI but it's mainly just Jidoor, Zozo, the regular boss music, and the last boss music that is particularly excellent.
Hey man, i've been unemployed for a bit and it's been hard listening to all the podcasts and "missing" out on new releases etc etc. But i've also dug into my backlog and been really enjoying Deus Ex Human Revolution and Dead Island on Steam. Games that i've owned for a good while which i bought for cheap (DE for 7.49 DI for 12.49 - amazon steam codes) and i've neglected to properly experience.
Up next on the playlist is Metro 2033 (PC). Bastion (360).
@Indiana_Jenkins said:
I've been paralyzed by fear and indecision stemming from my game collection for the past year and a half.
Here's how you deal with it :
You don't.
You wind up going back to whatever the last comforting game you beat was and slack off in that. I now have 80 hours in Saints Row The Third (a game that can be beaten in 10 hours). Eventually you get frustrated at your growing backlog, close your eyes and point at something, anything, and resign yourself to beating it. You learn to love again. You tell yourself, "Why didn't I play this earlier? Video games are awesome." You beat it. You feel like you accomplished something by making a small dent in your backlog.
But then you wind up playing more Saints Row.
Video Games.
This. I get indecision paralysis whenever I look at the 200+ steam games I have and then eventually just say to myself "maybe I'll just start up another Borderlands guy instead" and then hate myself for it. It also doesn't help that whenever a friend wants to go to EB to get something I usually tag along with no intention of buying anything and then as I walk around looking at the shelves, I see something like Infamous 2 or Resistance 3 for $20 and think "wow, I'm practically losing money by NOT buying this" and thus the backlog grows ever larger.
I still have a sealed copy of the original Dead Space that I tell myself I will play one day. This is the shame I live with.
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