Too many games?

Exactly the same way, even to the point of Borderlands 2 being the last game I finished. It seems like I give games a shot, but if shit comes up and I can't play for a few days that I just don't have any desire to start them up again. Don't think it has anything to do with the quality of the games as I just sent back The Last Of Us which I had since July or so and was maybe 2 hours into

Have spent a few bucks this sale (mostly on stuff I forgot existed that looked cool when it came out and went on flash/daily sale). This years sales just haven't been that cool. Already had the big name shit from past sales and nothing that interesting has popped up yet.

I quite often find I stopped playing perfectly good games just because something else came out I wanted, and I started playing it. Months/years later I find it and can't remember why I stopped playing a certain game, play it again and it's awesome.

I think the biggest problem, especially with Steam Sales for instance, is having too many games you want to play. You'll be playing one and have a nagging sensation in the back of your head saying 'Play the other one!'. Ultimately you won't like any as much because you can't focus.

At least that's my issue.

My metric these days is if I beat it, it was decent to better.

Unfortunately quite a few of the games I play fall into the "I tried it for 5 minutes to half way through and never played it again"

I feel like I've developed gamer adhd. I have a bunch of relatively new games that I picked up for my vacation and can't focus on one for more than thirty minutes before I need to change it up. With the exception being bf4 and nba2k14 for my ps4. Sucks but I figure I get my money's worth eventually. Hell I just picked up ff1 2 5 for my vita and been playing those. Even though I got like seven ds games for this trip. Bleh.

I too am having the same issue. Would it be constructive to share titles that might have brought on a temporary halt to our tendency to compulsively sample but not truly play a large number of games? Rogue Legacy, for example, held me rapt for a good 25 hours. Hotline Miami for 8.

Same boat here. My solution as of late has been to focus in on indie games and remakes that are short. I also try to avoid 'endless' games that focus on pvp/world building etc.

And as others have mentioned, I've stopped buying steam games because why pay $10 today, when by the time I would even get around to playing it, it would probably be <$5.

I look at my backlog of games across so many systems not as a problem, but as unemployment savings.

If I buy games while they are on sale (or I want them, I spend too much on new games I never get to before they go on sale) while I can afford them, then if I'm ever unemployed I won't have to spend money on games that I can't afford as i can just go through the backlog.

I used to have kind of a problem with wanting to finish a lot of games, even going as far as to getting a majority of achievements, as kind of an OCD kind of tendency. Boy, did steam + disposable income ever cure me of that, fast. That said, I have kind of a 'system' that works great for me.

-I give every game maybe a 40 minute run, 10-20 if it's some shitty indie fodder deal. If it doesn't seem fun, I simply won't play it.
-I keep the main 'games' category as a catch-all for 'I haven't played this yet", and then sort it into a genre after I've given it a shot. If I ever get the burning desire to play it, I know where it is.
-Time is your most valuable resource, especially in the age of "10 games for $1!" bundles. If it seems like shit, move on. The way some people describe backlog clearing makes it sound like a chore or job, and thats pretty tragic when a game turns into that.
-I download maybe 2-3 'big' games every month, and don't download any more until I finish or quit those 3. I feel like this helps me focus on finishing stuff. (Gamer adhd was a great term, whoever suggested that!)
-I delete games as I go. Don't ask me why this helps, but it does. When I'm done with a game, I don't leave it sitting installed, otherwise the list of dozens of games at 85% complete on collectibles or whatever looks overwhelming
-I play quicker stuff first. Like I recently knocked out call of juarez gunslinger and it was maybe 5 hours, batman origins and that was 14ish. Compared to huge sprawling rpgs that take hundreds of hours, I kind of knock out shorter stuff first when I can.

My backlog is always at around 5 'big' games these days, with a few perma-installed games like civ5, xcom, counterstrike, and killing floor. I keep it about there, and only buy new stuff if the deal is insane, or something I really want early. I have like a million games that I could go back to and play again on a harder mode, or do different stuff in, so I just see it as I'll never run out of stuff to play, ever. Realistically, I feel like I'll always have 4-5 games ahead of me to play, and thats alright with me.

I have no hope of ever playing through all the games I own. It's down to three factors. The first is that it's not a library, it's an archive, so there is a number of games I bought for reasons other than wanting to play them (NB: It's composed only of physical console games). Inside this archive I have a 'small' selection of games that I want to play eventually but then I hit the 2nd factor: procrastination. Over the years I realized that I don't only procrastinate for chores or work, but also for leisure, so I can find myself playing a shitty flash game for hours while leaving a pile of masterpieces untouched... The 3rd factor is that things go in phases: gaming goes in a rotation with Movies, TV Shows and Books, so there can be months without me playing anything other than short downloadable/indie titles...

At least I stopped buying recent games until I played the previous recent games I bought! Saved a lot of money like that!

I limit myself to:

1 PC game installed
1 console game disk

I can't buy a new PC game until I finish the current game. Same with the 1 console game, which I always trade in for the next game.

Seems to work and there is incentive to finish.

Games are now like books and movies-- stop having this expectation that you will read or watch them all; you won't! There are just too many now and it is not feasible to expect to ever play all the ones you want to play. I've had a PS3 for 4 years now and have yet to beat a single game on it, as most of my time was spent with PC games (particularly DOTA, LoL, DOTA 2). Lately I've been collecting PS2 games I always wanted to play, and that was after I finished collecting PS1 games--and they've just been sitting on the shelf (maybe I just got them for the waves of nostalgia they give me?). Now I find myself collecting DS games >< (and all of these games I collect are RPGs). I finally gave up and decided that I will stick exclusively to playing my Wii U, 3DS, and the collection of console games I have from older gen consoles. Not sure what I'll do with all the games I got from Steam sales. I will wait 2-3 years before buying a PS4.

I recently started playing Darksiders on my PC, and man does that game feel dated. The mechanics are just so tired, and I started feeling like "am I really going to spend my free time slogging through this?" I am more interested in Darksiders 2, but didn't want to miss out on the story of the first one. And then I remembered all of those Let's Play videos on YouTube. So I am going to try a new strategy of watching those, and I wonder if they might be a good substitute in general for this broader "problem."

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has run into this!

What's helped for me is realizing (or telling myself, take your pick) that beating the game isn't the purpose of the game, it's having fun while playing it. If I'm not having fun an hour or two in, probably not my kind of game and I'll just try something else or go back to something I know I'll enjoy. It's a bit like walking out of a movie if you think it's shit, no point in sitting there for another hour just because you paid for all of it.

Once I started playing Everquest I started moving away from games that had endings and typical console/PC titles. I bought FF9, 10, and 10-2 and Everquest beat them all for my attention. I don't think I played any of them for more than an hour. The game that eats up the majority of my time now is League of Legends. Don't Starve really captured my attention but that's another game where I'm making my own content.

I guess I don't care about stories presented in video game form.

Same issue word for word. Soon as I figure out the mechanics and the magic wears off. Same issue I'm having with MMOs as well. Once I "crack" the game, it's like throwing more gear at me or continuing the story doesn't really do much for me.

I hate myself for blowing $100+ on WoW the other month only to have them put a bunch of stuff on sale. Played for a couple weeks and now the account is sitting there rotting for the next few months. Bought Xcom:EU and can't bring myself to play it past the first few missions.

For me most games fall short of my expectations. They don't fulfill what I want in a game right now:
1-Prefer turned based, but not important.
2-Good solid graphics.
3-Full visual customization, characters I personalize and call my own. I'm fed up with pre designed characters or story book games like Mass Effect. I prefer games where I design, equip, customize visually and statistically my own character and companions.
4-Perpetuity, a game I can play over and over without an "end". One reason I played Bloodbowl so much (500+ hours played) was because it has no end. I really want something like this but instead of football have it be a band of adventurers in some fantasy land or some sci-fi squad or a band of wasteland dwellers. Something akin to Mordenheim or Necromunda but for the PC.
Nearly all the games out right now have a prescribed beginning, middle, and end game. Usually you're godly by the time you get to mid and end game and there isn't much really to go for.
5-Design decisions by the developer that disenchants me. State of Decay, and Fallout: NV both fall into that category. I now stay away from story book games (like Mass Effect) for that reason. Like #4 I'm going to stick to sandbox or any title that allows perpetual gameplay without an end. I'm looking forward to The Mandate in hopes that it offers a full sandbox never ending experience (perhaps controlled by spiral expensenses of fleet costs, character deaths or something?).
6- Co-op. I found I finish and enjoy a game a lot more if I can Co op with a friend.

Xcom both EA and EU kind of fall into the above categories. Unfortunately the campaigns are canned and you know what to expect and at what point the power apex is the highest. No real reason why they couldn't add a sandbox campaign mode. They could have added some form of spiraling expenses as well as diminishing returns. The larger the base, the more expensive it becomes to maintain. They could also tie in success with more base attacks by alien forces and so on. Making all armor types and weapon times balanced and useful against one another with advantages and disadvantages would have also helped.

Omerta: City of Gangsters also kind of had the idea. Unfortunately like Xcom it was another canned campaign game with no visual customization of my gangsters. Sandbox mode limited you to only one map in the city.

The only games I'm waiting for now is Grim Dawn (waiting for Co-op) and The Mandate.

earthfell_sl said:

Games are now like books and movies-- stop having this expectation that you will read or watch them all; you won't! There are just too many now and it is not feasible to expect to ever play all the ones you want to play.

Click to expand...

Bullshit. I will!

Pussies. It's easy, just stop interacting with the rest of the world for the rest of your life!



*The Surgeon General warns against actually doing this. It is bad for both your physical and mental health.

Sometimes I envy your free time Sean, my wife would cut off my balls though.