Spoiled for choice: adrift in a sea of games

[heybeardo]

 

I know this is a total first world problem, but my latest video explores how and why I struggle to choose my next game to play. Hopefully this doesn't come off like I'm bragging about how many games I've got (I know many other people are in a similar position).

 

I'm just basically thinking out loud. Let me know what you think and if you guys experience similar decision making struggles.

[Roderick]

My go-to option is to play a game I already played, since then I know exactly what I'll get

 

Excellent soliloquy you got going there, I think it's very recognizable. With movies I have much the same problem, so I've devised a system that I'll always watch the most 'difficult' movie I have, rather than going for the easy entertainment. But that's only possible because the investment in any movie is roughly the same as the next, time-wise. For games, imagine if you'd always choose the most obscure Dwarf Fortress megafest! So on Steam I tend to balance things between 'quick wins' (i.e. small indie games I'll finish in a few hours) to clear out my list and give me a swift sense of accomplishment, and bigger games that require more of an investment.

 

It seems to work out, though on average I only play 1.5 - 2 hours a day, so you understand I'm not getting anywhere.

[Griddlelol]

This is a complaint I hear a lot of people say and I can't quite empathise with it because I'm quite the opposite of you in how I choose things. Instead of labouring over a menu in a restaurant, I'll make a snap decision and have whatever sounds the most delicious. Same with games, I jump from one to the next with whatever is the most interesting at the time.

That said, I usually finish (or go as far as I can with) a game before I move onto the next, and I tend to have multiple games on the go at the same time on different platforms. For example right now I'm playing Metro 2033 on ps4, Mario Kart 8 on WiiU, Dark Souls 2 on PC and Rogue Legacy/Spelunky on Vita (I have too many gaming machines). They all fulfil a different niche in whatever I'm craving. Do I want light hearted multiplayer? Mario Kart! Am I watching boring TV? Rogue Legacy! Am I settling down for a good hour to play something intense? Dark Souls! 

In quiet times of my life I get through backlogs very quickly - this past month or so I've completed roughly 5 games, which is insane for me! Normally takes me months and months to finish one.

 

My childhood I had the same deal as you - games are £60, you're allowed them at birthday or christmas. However, I delved deeply into MMOs (well one MMO) in my late teens/early twenties and now I have a huge desire to play loads of different games with wildly varying experiences. We do live in probably the best era of gaming, with such a huge amount of diversity in the experience each title offers. 

[sclpls]

Buy all the games, end up playing DOTA 2 all the time.

[JonCole]

My recent methodology has been to play the game I most recently purchased. Once I beat one, I go to the one before that or one I bought between the one I last played and now. It's a method of trying to 1) actually get my money's worth out of games that I pay full retail or close to retail for 2) either justify buying lots of games on sale or prove to myself that I'm buying too many games just because they're on sale.

[itsamoose]

This is actually quite an interesting phenomenon and one you certainly aren't alone in.  This TED talk breaks down the issue a bit.

[Reyturner]

I'm in the process of compiling a list of all the games I've amassed since my money has exceeded my time and I'm planning on using the following methodology to get through them. 

 

1. shuffle list

2. reveal a game to play

3. reveal the next game in the list 

4. play the game on deck until I don't want to play it ever again

5. dispose of it forever 

6. move game in queue to on deck and reveal the next game in the queue 

7. repeat roughly 200x 

 

By removing the wealth of choice and the option to play a game later, I hope to cut through the paralysis that has allowed the backlog to get so out of control in the first place. 

[ihavefivehat]

I have stopped buying games recently, even from Humble Bundles, because of the large list of un-played games in my steam library.

 

For me, guilt is the primary factor in motivating me to choose which games I play. For one, there is the feeling of guilt that I get from the illusion of wasted money, and secondly there is the feeling of guilt from playing games that don't challenge me or force me to think in a meaningful way.

 

It's not very pleasant to spend my leisure time wallowing in a pool of shame, but I can't help it. I blame it on catholic school.

[elmuerte]

I can completely relate. It doesn't help that you can't really browse your steam library. I've got a lot of games of which I don't know what they actually are. So I have to go to the steam store page to see what it is, got back to my library, back to the store page. ugh.

If I could simply browse my library by category or something.

[Tanukitsune]

Frankly, I've always thought the bigger the library, the more likely it is that a big chunk of it is actually not worth playing, making it easier to decide.

 

The chances of owning 250 games and having them all be pure gold gaming goodness is pretty much 0%, I'm not saying you should skip games that aren't the best around, but if you think about what you like or dislike in certain games, it should make it easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

Play a few shorter games first, and if you have a game you don't play for the challenge, playing it on an easier setting will shave a very noticeable time off the time of completion and there are so many games without difficultly settings to make up for it.

 

I also like to wait for the price to drop, since it gives you time to beat your other games and it lets the hype die down. It wouldn't the first time a game that everybody loved a game on day one was hated a month later. Also it's incredibly frustrating to see you haven't even touched a game and it's already 50% off the price you originally bought it, so I rarely buy AAA games at full price.

[clyde]

I had similar issues. At first I tried to commit to games, but then I realized that the problem is that they are just too long. The solution for me turned out to be access to infinite quantities of small, free games. If I don't know what I want to play, I just scroll through Warpdoor, pick one and play it.  Typically it takes 15 minutes and often I am not sure if I finished it. Somehow, putting this default-action into my routine has made me start playing more larger games. I don't know why that is. 

[heybeardo]

Some good ideas and discussion here. It's a situation I bring on myself, definitely. There's a lot of interesting research into the paradox of choice, as highlighted by itsamoose.

[itsamoose]

Forgot to add this to my post: Personally my strategy for this is the same with other things.  I basically load up my library, start with the letter A and play that game until I don't care to anymore.  I suppose I'm missing some games that are initially frustrating in this manner, but I've actually managed to expose myself all kinds of stuff that would have otherwise been clutter.

[tegan]

I wanna know how Zeusthecat managed to play all of his games to completion.

[hedgefield]

I have about 250 games in my Steam library too, most of them I've played before I got Steam or before this greenlight shitshow started, so they're more like throphies on my proverbial mantle. I'm glad Steam now allows you to hide games, that helped me get rid of some of the junk that came in bundles or just somehow appeared in my library (promotions? valve's generosity? magic?). Some remain unplayed to this day, a select group of games I still want to get to, but mostly I just play what I'm excited for at the moment and just bought, or TF2.