When you've too many games to play, but no desire to play them.

Dat awkward moment, son. I find myself in this situation quite a bit more than I'd like to admit to. It's fucking awful. It's honestly my worst quality as a gamer, I suppose. I ought to find a lull in releases as a blessing so I can catch up on games, but I have NO desire to play anything right now.

Anyway, just figured I'd ask how you guys combat this sort of thing. Seriously, it's terrible how many games I have yet to beat.

Just a quick run-down:

Still haven't beat Mass Effect 3. It's not that it's bad, but the whole talk of the ending has soured me, and I really have to be in a 'mood' to play Mass Effect. I'm not right now.

STILL have to beat Arkham City. It came out the day after my birthday, and my girlfriend and I split on it for each other's birthdays since hers is so close to mine. I'm maybe five, six hours in? Again, not that I haven't enjoyed it, but I just cannot bring myself to play it. Part of the reason why is that I feel no motivation to do so because she still needs to beat Arkham Asylum.

Portal 2: no excuses, really. Got stuck, kinda got lazy, other games came out. EVENTUALLY, I PROMISE.

A few PS3 exclusives: Got a PS3 late in the cycle, borrowed my girlfriend's games, haven't beat 'em.

Yakuza 4: Well, it's fucking Yakuza, but still. I really wanna beat this.

Skyrim: I actually quite enjoy this game, and I know you can never 'truly' beat this game--to a degree. However, I just find myself really taxed to play this game for more than an hour or two. Makes trying to beat it incredibly arduous.

Darksiders: Bought it on the cheap, thoroughly enjoyed it, just haven't played it for a month or two.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: I just straight up got bored of the Assassin's Creed gameplay. I honestly don't think I'll ever beat it.

Dark Souls: I'm kind of plugging through that, but it's quite the arduous process. It's not like I'm not enjoying myself, but I can't play Dark Souls 24/7.

Chrono Trigger: The Endurance Run made me wanna re-play this. I also played this when it was first re-released on Playstation, and literally, my save file got corrupted as I was levelling up to fight Lavos. So, extra motivation to finally, truly beat it, right? Levelling up to beat Lavos/doing side-quests, again. It's been a good month or two. D: Why?

Pokémon White: This is why. I just recently got a DS again, and while I enjoy this game quite a bit, I'm just a bit bored of the grind of the Pokeemanz. Not to mention, I'm also just kind of bored of the design in Black and White. Ugh.

And my God, there's more. I'm embarrassed to continue.

So... uh, yeah, that's it. I'm trying to think of what to do. Right now, I'm in the process of looking for a job, and school's done for the summer. As much as I'd love to say bonking the girl, reading, and writing takes up my entire day, it doesn't, so I need something to do. Cleaning up my massive backlog of games seems like a good idea, but I just cannot motivate myself to play ANY of them for a good amount of time--at least not long enough to make a significant leap in progress. And I can only play the non-story based games I have so long before those get a bit monotonous as well. The release of Trials: Evolution will help, I hope, but once the allure of that wears off, I'll still have the same problem. >_>

I guess, just wondering, what you guys might suggest to do, or if you have any suggestions for a game I can sink some time into, even if it's for a week or two? Even if it's just to fool around with modding the game, I'm down with that. I'm more than fine with the weird, or incredibly deep games that you just create your own worlds in. I get way too invested in time-sink games for a week or two, and for that week, or two, it's amazing. Then I move on. If I can beat a game, or at least play one, maybe it'll motivate me to play some more games and just get through them.

Well you might as well just sell the whole damn thing and do something else. No way are any new exciting games coming out anyway....

I go through the same thing at least once a month, I have games I haven't finished but I have no desire to play them. What do I do? Nothing.

It's something that comes and goes, so I know I'll play again, but only when it seems interesting again. Am I getting old?

I'm in the same boat right now. Don't know what it is, but it's annoying. Long weekend coming up and I know I'm going to stand in front of my shelf of games, shift my weight and then go do something else or play more fucking NHL 12, which has very weirdly become my fill-in game. I've got stacks of unopened shit and stuff I really need to polish off, like Skyward Sword. I've got games I want to jump into and polish off some achievements on, but I can't seem to bring myself to do that either. Haven't played Old Republic in a couple weeks either. So many options, but I can't bring myself to jump into anything.

I know that feel. Sometimes having less options is better. I will probably just get rid of my PS3 and keep the 360 around (and I'm a former PlayStation fanboy) just so I have a more limited amount of games to be playing. Bought a bunch of shit on the PS3 too. Vanquish, Shadows of the Damned, RE5 Gold Edition, some light gun shooters, bunch of other stuff and instead I'm sitting around playing old school FMV adventure games I got from GOG instead...

Just stop playing games. I'm having a problem right now, so instead of forcing it, I don't even bother with it.

Just consider them you retirement activity. When you retire, you will lots of games to catch up on. Consider it an investment.

Actually, I strongly suggest just dropping games for about two weeks. No, really, life without video games isn't as unfathomable as it may seem. Besides, in those two weeks you may find a million different things that you like to do. It really just sounds like you're burnt out on video games period and need a break from them.

I'm pretty sure that if you have too many games and no desire to play them, it just means that you're not busy enough. I'm in grad school and I'd kill to be able to sit down and finish a game. I still haven't made it through ME3 yet. Once upon a time, I would've sat down and played a game like that all the way through in a few sittings.

I routinely go through periods where I know I should be working my way through my unplayed and unfinished stack of games and I just can't seem to get in the mood for any of them. I picked up Lost Odyssey at launch, but I only just finished it late last year after playing it on and off since I first got it. Stopped playing Halo Wars at the second to last mission or so a week or so after release, and only just recently got around to finally polishing that off. Stalled out less than halfway through Tales of Vesperia, and I'm honestly not sure if I can muster the will to pick it up again. And then there's all the DLC and even full-on downloadable games that I purchased and never got around to playing, some of them years old.

It's kind of a sick cycle. New games come out, I pick those up and play them, but then I never get around to going back to my earlier games. Just keeps happening over and over again.

If you don't want to do something, don't do it. For some reason everyone always tries to turn their play into work and ends up dreading the idea of doing anything. Do what you want for fun when you want to do it; you don't have to beat any games at all.

@believer258 said:

Actually, I strongly suggest just dropping games for about two weeks. No, really, life without video games isn't as unfathomable as it may seem. Besides, in those two weeks you may find a million different things that you like to do. It really just sounds like you're burnt out on video games period and need a break from them.

Oh, believe me, sir, I know what you mean. Other than Mass Effect for a few hours the other day, I haven't played them for a good week and a half. And I completely agree, it's too do with too much time on my hands--which, actually, strangely enough I don't have much of. Or, I didn't up until the past few days. Just finished school for the summer, like I said. And I've been writing and reading a lot as I look for a job. But,only so much reading and writing I can do in a day. I know I don't HAVE to finish these games, obviously, but at the same time, I've made the investment. Not just with money, either. I've made the investment into the characters and the gameplay. And I've invested time. And it's not like I've not enjoyed these games. No matter how amazing a game is, familiarity breeds contempt. If that idiom was untrue, I wouldn't buy new games.

It's just that fucked up, kinda self-entitled, first-world problems, probably-can't-realistically-afford-games-anyway kind of thing where you feel a sense of duty. If you bought the god-damned game, regardless of whether it's for fun, you'd better fucking beat it.

@Vinny_Says said:

Well you might as well just sell the whole damn thing and do something else. No way are any new exciting games coming out anyway....

It's not to do with that. But right now, there aren't any overly-exciting games to me that are coming out, at least not in the forseeable future. And I am relatively broke, or else I would buy a few games. But that would just compound the problem and I'd find myself with more unbeaten games eventually. Like I said, familiarity breeds contempt. No matter how amazing a game is, there's only so much you can play of it.

Aside from obviously just not playing games for a bit, anyone do something to alleviate this? I figured approaching a game from a new perspective, approaching a new genre, or fucking around with modding a game could be fun.

ULTRA SERIOUS NOTE:

Sudden disinterest in entertainment avenues you previously had interest in, including specific items you had interest in (Movies you like watching a lot but have no desire to see anymore, games you thoroughly enjoyed playing, and haven't finished, that you don't want to play anymore, etc) can be a sign of serious depression.

Note the CAN BE. I'm just stating this because I don't want to hear a story about anything disheartening happening to my fellow GB users, as I love this community, usually. So if you find this is getting more frequent or expanding to other things as well, speak with a doctor.

Less Serious note:

My "pile of games I need to go back too" is currently nearing 100 games, going back to the PSone. I try to go back when I can, but then a new game comes out and pushes the pile even further down the list.

@supermike6 said:

If you don't want to do something, don't do it. For some reason everyone always tries to turn their play into work and ends up dreading the idea of doing anything. Do what you want for fun when you want to do it; you don't have to beat any games at all.

This.

Don't forget that games are supposed to be entertainment, so don't make them a chore.

But seriously, Portal 2. Get on that.

I hate it when that happens. Got a bunch of games and just end up watching tv shows instead. It's been a while since I had that feeling though

It comes and goes. But yes, it is odd that it usually happens when you have the most free time on your hands. I've had a backlog of no less than 20-30 games in the past couple of years and that number has not changed. Any games I do finish are just replaced by newer games that I haven't even unwrapped yet, and the cycle just continues. And the crazy part? I still want to buy more games...

@Napalm said:

Just stop playing games. I'm having a problem right now, so instead of forcing it, I don't even bother with it.

Exactly. Games are for fun, not for worrying about. If you don't want to play, then don't. Of the games you mentioned, I have the same with Portal 2 and Dark Souls. I'll just see when I want to restart those. And if I don't, then I don't. But I'm not going to feel bad about not playing a game. You're doing it wrong.

Luckily for me I'm so picky about stuff I like that I have a pretty limited amount of games in my backlog. I have the problem of not having enough games to play rather than too many.

Yep, Always happens with me, luckily though i've currently been really finishing heaps.

Maybe the problem is that you buy all the "high rated", games of week, hype hype hype games? But deep down you dont like them (tough you to admit that).

Be careful not to jump on any hypetrain, it seems to me people enjoy doing that more than actually playing the games themselves. Oh look Portal 2 was highly praised, get that one ! Oh what about Deus Ex eh, pretty cheap now and was highly rated! Skyward Sword, its Zelda afterall! etc etc

Next time, just step back and see all these games for what they are, do you really envision yourself playing them?

It reminds me of my friend who was hyped for Reckoning because IGN "loved it", he had no knowledge of the game or anything he simply got into the hype and promise of "Skyrim but with great gameplay!", he played it for 3 hours and never picked up again.

Take a break for awhile maybe. That or replay Half-Life 2. That usually gets me excited for other games.

Happens to me every once in a while. I have a fairly massive backlog, too, and I deal with it by just giving in and not playing those games. For me, gaming is a hobby, not a profession, and I really want to keep it that way.

So I'll just not play games. Or finish significantly shorter games and/or free games. I'm about halfway through Wing Commander Saga, and I'm really glad I decided to install it instead of opting to put a dent in something like Skyrim.

Personally I don't mind a lull now and then, simply allows more time to catch up on the "to read" pile which either because of the medium itself or just my personal taste' never seems to disappoint the way some games do.

@IntoTheN1ght:That's a fair point, but I think it's more relevant concerning expectations rather than quality of a game.

What is this treachery? You S-Rank one after the other without sleep.

Personally I've been finishing my games, butI understand your situation.

Happened to me for like a full year. I bought 14 games for PC in one order from Amazon because I got them all for mostly under 15 bucks and I barely played any of them to completion for a long time. I finally gave up on the thought of ever finishing most of them which is what got me to playing them again.

Starting to accumulate quite a pile of shame. But I'll play those games when i feel like it, or never. I won't force myself to play it. I tried, but when i don't want to play them i usually can't get passed the 5th minute. Hint: Oblivion.

i have a ton of games and i want to play but none of the ones i got. pretty much every game that was released, and that i had some sort of interest in. and i already completed them. and it looks like i have to wait until prototype 2 comes out.

so usually i end up doing something completely different. but cant wait until may 15. then i know what my next couple of months will be spend on

Sounds like you may just be burnt out on games and that you just need to take a break. I'm in the same boat, but mine is due to crippling depression that I have had for years. I have a backlog of a little over one hundred games, and every time I get bored and feel like I have nothing to do or any games to play I feel even more disgusted with myself given how many games I have just sitting on the shelf un-opened. Until a year or so ago I spent my entire life maybe getting 2-3 games a year, so when I got one it meant something special to me. Now that I have so many it's just overwhelming and it's hard to know where to start.

Just take a week off and read some books, go meet up with people and just try to not think about games in any way. Then see if you feel like coming back.

@crusader8463 said:

Sounds like you may just be burnt out on games and that you just need to take a break. I'm in the same boat, but mine is due to crippling depression that I have had for years. I have a backlog of a little over one hundred games, and every time I get bored and feel like I have nothing to do or any games to play I feel even more disgusted with myself given how many games I have just sitting on the shelf un-opened. Until a year or so ago I spent my entire life maybe getting 2-3 games a year, so when I got one it meant something special to me. Now that I have so many it's just overwhelming and it's hard to know where to start.

Just take a week off and read some books, go meet up with people and just try to not think about games in any way. Then see if you feel like coming back.

Sorry to hear that, duder. Get better. :(

And most definitely been reading, consuming other media whilst not playing video games. Re-read Naked Lunch, about half of The Walking Dead's run in a week. And finished the first season of Oz, since my friend let me borrow it. So much man-rape.

I think that's another thing, too. Right now I'm perfectly content consuming other types of media, or writing. But there's still every so often when I look at my games, I have time, and like I said, I've grown tired of writing or reading for a bit. Obviously it's not the biggest problem in the world. And I don't particularly care, but I am somewhat of a perfectionist--aside from keeping my apartment clean. I also wanna see these games through for the stories, for the most part.

@IntoTheN1ght said:

Maybe the problem is that you buy all the "high rated", games of week, hype hype hype games? But deep down you dont like them (tough you to admit that).

Be careful not to jump on any hypetrain, it seems to me people enjoy doing that more than actually playing the games themselves. Oh look Portal 2 was highly praised, get that one ! Oh what about Deus Ex eh, pretty cheap now and was highly rated! Skyward Sword, its Zelda afterall! etc etc

Next time, just step back and see all these games for what they are, do you really envision yourself playing them?

It reminds me of my friend who was hyped for Reckoning because IGN "loved it", he had no knowledge of the game or anything he simply got into the hype and promise of "Skyrim but with great gameplay!", he played it for 3 hours and never picked up again.

And no, this is most definitely not the problem. I wouldn't have hundreds of hours into Football Manager if I cared about hype games--those games are insanely deep, but they aren't exactly selling gangbusters. Alpha Protocol wouldn't be one of my favourite games of this generation if I cared about hype, or only bought into the 'games of the week'. I wouldn't have played damned near forty hours of Viva Pinata, or get my wrestling games fix with Fire Pro Wrestling, or King of Colosseum II. >_>

And generally, those hype games are hype for a reason: they're god-damned amazing. It's nothing to do with the quality of games. And I envision myself playing every single game I buy, or else I wouldn't buy them--hype games or not. I just at the moment have no desire to play video games for more than an hour or two, regardless of quality. It'll pass in a week, maybe a few days.

I think, too, my problem is insomnia. It's the god-damned worst, so when I find myself too tired to write but unable to sleep, and I can't read anymore, and with only so much porn to look at, video games become an easy outlet. Not feeling it right now, though. Aside from fooling around with kits in Football Manager--might as well do something since I got myself promoted. It's video game-ish. Actually helps quite a bit, surprisingly.

just go and play some games man. if you force yourself then you will get into it. unless though you don't like the game at all then, it gets boring.

@Ravenlight said:

Take a break for awhile maybe. That or replay Half-Life 2. That usually gets me excited for other games.

That's a game I haven't beaten and have no desire to. Yes, I'm sorry.

@Peanut said:

I'm in the same boat right now. Don't know what it is, but it's annoying. Long weekend coming up and I know I'm going to stand in front of my shelf of games, shift my weight and then go do something else or play more fucking NHL 12, which has very weirdly become my fill-in game. I've got stacks of unopened shit and stuff I really need to polish off, like Skyward Sword. I've got games I want to jump into and polish off some achievements on, but I can't seem to bring myself to do that either. Haven't played Old Republic in a couple weeks either. So many options, but I can't bring myself to jump into anything.

This is me exactly. Haven't played TOR in a few weeks, have a bunch of games I need to finish but every time I plan on doing them I just end up playing NHL12 cause its in my system and my friends ask to play.

I imagine many Steam users (myself included), experience this all the time. I have 120 games on Steam, and have only played around 50 of them, and when I actually get free time (which is almost never), I look at them all, go "meh" and then just play more Burnout Paradise, SC2, Forza on my Xbox or some random game on my iPad.

Nothing like a good couple losses on league of legends to make you come running back to your 360 for a while. For me at least. Be forewarned league can melt your soul with addiction.

Game paralysis. It's a weird problem to have, but it happens. I have desire to play, but I can't decide which one. I can never bring myself to play Skyrim, it's just not as interesting as Morrowind or Oblivion were to me.

I'm currently at this place. I have a bunch of retail and DLC games to play but have no desire to play anything despite the fact that my PS3 is always on. That's mainly due to netflix but still...

Your problem is pretty simple.  You're buying games that are too long for you, you're getting bored and deciding to try a different game that is also too long.  Instead of starting to play a bunch of RPGs and open-world games, try some linear shooters and platformers that you can finish in a few sittings.  Also, smaller downloadable titles.

I will never catch up to my games.

First, I should mention that I played games a few times as a kid, but I didn't really have a chance to get into gaming as an adult and not as a regular thing until I was about 23 or 24 (in 2001). And until about five years ago, I never really played console games at all. So there is a ton of stuff I'm missing out on from the whole history of gaming and even more recently in the history of console gaming.

Second, I've tried to compensate for that by treating myself to things. For example, I now own at least one of just about every console out there and a handful of games for them (except the Atari games which is way more than a handful of them).

Third, my gaming eyes are bigger than my gaming stomach.

So:

• I have 989 games on Steam, currently. I have probably played 10% of them and finished less than 5% of them.
• I have 209 games on GOG.com and have probably played less than 10% of them and finished probably nowhere near even 5% of them.
• I have about 500 games on all of the current consoles and have probably finished 10% of them at the most.
• I have about 500-800 games on older consoles (Dreamcast, 3D0, Odyssey, NES, SNES, N64, Jaguar, Nomad, Lynx, GameGear, GameBoy, GBA, Atari 2600/5200/7800, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Game Cube, PS1, PS2, etc). I have played maybe 5% of them. I have finished maybe . . . 1% of them.

A handful of games I currently have started but not quite finished (just haven't felt super excited about doing so) is ME3 (right at the very end), Assassin's Creed IV, SSX, Arkham City, Skyrim and probably some more that I've started in the last few months and have just forgotten that I've even got waiting on deck for completion.

In the last couple years, I've made gaming a regular part of my relaxation. I tend to be a workaholic both professionally and on my own projects. No time for reading, gaming. Nothing. Just work/projects. But as I age, I realize decompression is vital. So, gaming fills part of that. But even then, I'll never catch up and I'll probably always buy more than I'll ever finish or even actually play. And that's okay. I guess I can be a little bit of a collector, to a degree. Nothing really wrong with that. The only thing that really worries me is the potential to play games that I will lose over time as support for some games falls by the wayside (both for PC games and by consoles and operating systems no longer working/supporting older stuff).

I had this problem, so I started to crowd-source my video games. My friend wanted to play Skyward Sword, so he's playing it when he comes over to my house to hang out. This is also what I did with God Hand, and most of my 3DS collection.

You should finish Portal 2. That game is only like 6 hours long and you can finish it in one or two sittings (I did, since I couldn´t stop playing)

A nice little game like Rayman can also help. It´s almost like anti stress therapy in game form and it doesn´t matter if you finish it right away, you can always get back into it.

The most important thing: Games are for FUN! Don´t pressure yourself into having to finish games. If you don´t like em, let em rot. Now, excuse me, I´m off to hour 172 of Skyrim :D

I used to have the same problem and it came from buying too much games. So now I've limited the amount of games I buy, usually I'll get just get a new one when I've actually completely the one I currently am playing.

More likely than not there will be a sequel to one of these games in the near future and you'll probably feel compelled to replay them. I'm doing that with Bioshock at the moment.

You kind of don't beat games... at best you finish them. If you have too many games seeing as much of them as you feel you want and then moving on is the best move. Don't let buyers remorse hold you to finishing everything.

Chances are you're burnt out on games, like others have said. Take a couple of weeks off then come back to see if you still want to play something. Happens to me all of the time.

However, if you feel like playing something but just not the stuff you have, try other genres. I got burned out on the shooters and RPGs I was playing, so I bought Forza 4 a week ago and I can't stop.

Just sell your TV, games consoles and PC.

Then you will find out what you should REALLY be doing with your spare time.....for you I mean.

If you're looking for a simple little game to mess around with I'd check out Terraria on the PC. It's like a 2d minecraft, its really fun to just wander around. Or maybe you're just burnt out on games like others have said. I'm at that point currently.

I got a stack of games to get through and probably could if I tried but I just look at the mountain of games, freeze and play more Borderlands... I have a problem.