There a lot of game, yo, but no time to play them all. Amirite?

I love me some videogames, boy. I like all kinds too. I think there's merit in just about every game out there. From the lowliest Flash game, to the latest and greatest AAA franchise, I think there's something you can take away from videogames, as a medium, that often goes beyond entertainment. Anyway, that's probably a different topic. My point is: there a lot of videogames to play, whether it's on PCs, web browsers, mobile, consoles... jeez! Just catching up with the games Patrick points to on his "Worth Reading" feature can be overwhelming.

So here's the question: How do we get to all--or most--of them? How do we make time to enjoy all the works this medium has to offer... while still managing our personal lives, of course. Realistically, I know that there just isn't enough time to play every game out there to completion--the math doesn't add up. If you take into account all the games that have already been made, and the games that continue to be made, there just aren't enough hours in the average human life spam to cover them all.

So if you're reading this, please share any strategies you have for making game time, and going through the stacks of games I know some of you have. As for me? I'm thinking about getting organized. I'm going to start making lists. I have games that are still factory sealed from more than a decade ago that I've been meaning to get to. I need to catalogue this stuff and make a kind-of to-do list.

BONUS TASK: If you're a math nerd, why not try to figure out how long it would take to play all the games that currently exist. Just roughly, in hours. My guess? Like, infinite. That's my guess. You would need an infinite amount of time.

Edit note: My tentative plan is to not die. Videogames and pizza forever, man! Whoo!

@kkglider: Word, playa.

Here's a handy article: http://www.destructoid.com/a-handy-guide-to-finding-time-to-play-videogames-253530.phtml

It never occurred to me that someone out there would actually write a guide. Internet, I guess.

First of all time management & ground rules.

Sleep at night don't stay up at night (unless its the weekend :P)

Nothing comes before work or social life events (Dinner with family or a meeting)

I work 6 to 7 days a week for about 8 hours a day which sums up at almost 56 hours of work per week (in week we have 168 hours) and around 6 to 7 hours of sleep meaning another 56 hours of sleep, 56+56 is 112 hours that i "spend" on my daily life routine which is a most, i have about roughly 50 hours per week for gaming and social stuff to do, I try to spend them through out all the and not grinding 5 days in games and only 2 days with family and friends, I read news about games daily weather they relate to my pick of games or not, just to get the info.

If there is a game I think will be a good buy ill try to look for a demo or a beta for it and will try it, if its worth the buying I will probably buy it (if the time is right, and by time is right I mean that I won't buy 5 games each month because I won't be able to enjoy them all).

Yes the life of us is hard but we keep on the hustle man.

@kkglider: Just make peace with the fact that you will never finish all of those steam sale goodies.

It would definitely take infinite hours to "finish" most games. My brother has been playing Team Fortress 2 for like 1000+ hours and still only has like half of the achievements.

Do what Brad does with Dota 2. Figure out a way to play games at work and pass it off as something important for work and get paid for it!

You may have to be a bit more creative in order to achieve this if you aren't working in the game or gaming press industry.

@pr1mus:

I know Brad's got a large back catalogue of games he's been trying to get through! Sounds like that man's letting that DOTA thing get outta control.

@dgt:

That all makes sense, except I kind of only like playing videogames at night, for some reason. That, and I've been working at bars for years, so I've been staying up 'til dawn (at least on weekends), for years now. During the school year, it's kind of crazy to fit in game time...

@c0l0nelp0c0rn1:

1000+? Are you exaggerating? Jeez. And just the other day I was feeling bad because I sunk 50+ hours into FTL: Faster Than Light. It thought: "I could have really used that time to try other games..."

@kkglider: Apparently, Steam is a really fun place to be with no money and a lot of time.

Humble Bundle is ruining my life. Where I would have <25 games I now have over 100. Make it stop.

@kkglider:it seems you getting it already :)

@dgt: Oh, yeah, I'm working on cataloging everything. Next, I'm working on a list of PSP and GBA games. Portable games are nice because they're often ports, and I can play them on my commute. After that, I'm going to gather a list of NES, SNES, and Genesis era games. At some point, I'll get to some PC stuff too. I've realized that since so many games are digital now (including retro games), it makes it much harder to keep track of what I've played and have.

YES! Me and you should rob a couple banks and live off pizza and video games for the rest of our lives!

My plan has always been to play one or two games at a time and if I don't like something I move on to the next thing. It's worked out pretty well for me.

I've stopped buying or considering buying. My catalogue is way behind and the games I do have aren't exciting me very much. I keep thinking there are better games out there to play, but there really aren't.

@kkglider: you don't.

actually I've been much much happier with gaming by buying far fewer games and spending more time with each. It's more relaxing. Trying to keep up turns gaming into work and makes it stressful. I've actually managed to decrease my backlog by about ten games this year, it feels good.

The key though is to slowdown acquisition of games.

I figure at best I've got 60-120 hours of comfortable gaming each month without over-taxing myself, so I limit myself to games I know I'm really going to like and play those leisurely. I ignore Steam Sales, I just buy what I want to play whether it's 60 bucks or 2. If I can't afford it I wait until I can.

For me that means mainly AAA action adventure games and Japanese RPG games with the occasional competitive games I'll play periodically throughout the year (like DOTA 2, Starcraft II, Mortal Kombat etc)

Giant Bomb Quick looks actually help immeasurably in this regard. I'll often run them in the background while doing housework and such. Even without their commentary I can usually tell if I',m going to like a game or not.

It's got me into games I wouldn't try (Dark Souls) and kept me out of disappointments I would have (Sim City).

@slag: Not only have I slowed down, I've sold much of my collection on eBay! But I dunno, really like it when a game takes me by surprise and grabs a hold of me. Unfortunately, I'm pretty susceptible to that, but I've also started to worry less about completing games if they're not holding my interest.

And yeah, GiantBomb has been a great resource. Even Patick's "Worth Reading" feature points to some interesting stuff.

So what do you think you've slowed your acquisitions down to? 1 or 2 games a month? I've gotta say, my Playstation Plus account has done a hell of a job of adding at least one game a month to my back catalogue.

@awesomeusername: Hahah. Well, I usually like to share my pizza with pretty girls, but yeah man, I'm down. Unfortunately, I hear the average bank robber only brings in about $10K per heist!

Deductive reasoning like, whoa son!

@winternet: How do I "Yeah" this?

Hey, I'm only 25 so if I start this quest of "playing every game possible before I die" I could probably get to around.. 2% completion in the next 40 years.
And then take all my stuff with me to hell and keep playing games there.

"But, they only have terrible games in hell!"

Yeah, in hell, but they also have internet and I still have a steam account so I'll get the good games down there as well.

@kkglider: We can get pizza with girls. No problemo. Also, I've played that bank heist mission in GTA 4 and Payday: The Heist. I'd like to think my bank robbing skills are pretty up there.

@kkglider: Oh man I don't think I could go that far as dumping the collection. I like looking at the wall of game too much.

Yeah I'd say I've slowed my purchases down to close to an average of ~1.50 a month or so, counting gifts or so its closer to 1.75

What I've been doing is buying a small stack of games every 4-6 months usually around 6-9 games, and then not letting myself go shopping again until I've at least played 90% of them or so. When I'm buying games I tend to get excited so I find easier not to go to the store or website at all than it is to try to and control my purchases when I'm there.

I also try to preplan my purchases as much as possible which gives me control over the situation than the retailer or service provider like Steam. I only shop when I need games, I don't pay attention to sales. It probably costs me more per game, but since I end up buying much fewer games I end up saving money overall.

I don't have Playstation Plus although I probably should because it's a good deal. I can see how that would complicate the backlog problem though.