How do you choose the next computer game you want to play?

[Velegon]

Sorry if this topic shouldn't be in the off topic forums - wasn't sure it was appropriate to put in the other games section.

Recently I finished Subnautica - then played through a complete game in Civ 6 - but since then I've been dabbling in so many other games (over 10 so far). I can't seem to figure out what game to play next (for more than a sampling that is). It doesn't help that my game backlog is enormous (over 150 or even 200 games by now).

So, especially for those with large game backlogs, how do you end up choosing the next computer game to play?

I usually try to alternate between game genres - since I just finished games of Subnautica and Civ 6 - I'm looking for games that aren't strategy or simulation/survival - which is difficult since they are my 2 favorite gaming genres - and in fact some of the games I've dabbled with are in those 2 genres.

Other times I go to my game spreadsheet and try to find the most expensive or the oldest purchase date of a game that I bought that I haven't played enough.

Another problem I have found with my "dabbling" is that I find it a bit wearisome is learning the new UI and game structure - I have to get over that hump in other to get deeper into the game.

I might include a list of possible games but it would be too long due to the size of the game backlog - and some people would say "you haven't gotten around to playing that game yet? It's great" - true but I find I haven't played enough of its prequel or I'm not sure I want to get into a long game instead of a medium or quick type game - probably the reason I haven't played Skyrim (due to Oblivion) or Witcher 3 (due to Witcher 2) or Mass Effect 2 (due to ME1).

Any advice?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

For me it comes down to what I feel like and how much time I have. Some games are easier to jump into and out of, others are not so easy.

I can drop Mass Effect: Andromeda and for the most part I can come back weeks later and pick up where I was, so I tend to play it when I have smaller chunks of time available to play it. It's a bit harder to jump back into a Civ game but because I'm a crappy player and don't min/max everything, it's not especially difficult. KSP, however, I find hard to get back into after breaks so I tend to only play it when I have a few hours I can waste on it to complete an entire mission.

But other than the time consideration, it just comes down to what I feel like playing.

 

[Arakhor]

I look at my list of games and wonder if there's anything I want to play. Then I look at the list of games I really want to play and see if I feel guilty enough to play them.

Then I often say, "sod it" and go off and play some more Assassin's Creed on the Xbox.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'll sometimes have a game going while watching my soap and afternoon Star Trek episodes (yay for the Space Channel; I can watch 6 hours of Star Trek every week day, and there's an additional movie on Mondays). But it has to be one that doesn't require sound to enjoy, so that limits it to things like jigsaw puzzles, specific mosaic games, or Monopoly.

Other times it depends on the mood. I'm currently doing NaNoWriMo and my project is novelizing one of the game series I've been playing for the past few years. I'm on the first in the series, and have found that this requires playing and replaying every scene multiple times to make sure I get the descriptions right and do justice to fleshing out the rather loose plotline. Each replay gives me new ideas. Luckily I've already played this series through twice and really enjoy it. I'll sometimes play a level or two of another game just to relax before diving into another night of writing, and will sometimes replay the current scene I'm dealing with in the game.

And for once, it means my NaNoWriMo entry isn't either science fiction or fantasy, and the only death that is likely to occur is that somebody might swat a mosquito.

 

[Lexicus]

I behave completely impulsively when it comes to this. Looking through my Steam library, a game catches my fancy, I'll play it, there's no more to it than that.

 

[Synobun]

Mostly like @Lexicus.

At this point, though, the majority of unplayed games in my library are casualties of bundle redemptions that I'm not interested in or games that won't run on my laptop.

I recently went through 30+ games in my backlog with the simple interest of wanting to play first-person shooters/RPGs instead of games like Civ/EU4/etc.

 

[sophie]

I only play, like, three games, so it's generally not that hard for me to make a decision.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I dont choose the game, the game chooses me.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I fire up Civ V. I'm worse than Owen; I only play, like, one game.

(I own VI. I've played it a number of times. But I'm still learning it, whereas, when I have time play, I usually want to play rather than learn.)

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I've got stuff from FPS to strategy in my Steam catalog, and I just have a look at what's there, what I've been playing. Often I choose something different than the genre I have just been playing, sometimes I play another game of an old favorite. It just seems to be whatever strikes my fancy at a given time. Lately though, I haven't been able to play FPS games. Too much violence in a world that has already gone mad. I'm sticking to strategy like Civ 4, or Stellaris, or world building like Cities: Skylines. Things like Doom and Bioshock are just upsetting me lately so I'm not playing things like that.

I have recently got into RPG games though. I'm enjoying Baldur's Gate immensely, and I'm waiting for Icewind Dale to go on sale. Should be fun.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

1. Looking through a specific forum, just out of curiousity.
2. Searching the net for a certain genre and topic.
3. Browsing GOG.com.
4. Reviewing those random bookmarks I've made in the past.
5. Sometimes I need that past experience hard and so install an old game. However, I tend not to for the recent years. Feeling that I waste time to get experience I already lived through like million times.
6. Sometimes I need multiplayer hard. AoE Definitive Edition works nicely for now. But usually it is difficult for me to find a satisfying game which has that old-times dynamics and atmosphere while still being fresh for me. And I don't try MMO-style games (with grinding and all that long-time unending game flow) anymore.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I've got stuff from FPS to strategy in my Steam catalog, and I just have a look at what's there, what I've been playing. Often I choose something different than the genre I have just been playing, sometimes I play another game of an old favorite. It just seems to be whatever strikes my fancy at a given time. Lately though, I haven't been able to play FPS games. Too much violence in a world that has already gone mad. I'm sticking to strategy like Civ 4, or Stellaris, or world building like Cities: Skylines. Things like Doom and Bioshock are just upsetting me lately so I'm not playing things like that.

I have recently got into RPG games though. I'm enjoying Baldur's Gate immensely, and I'm waiting for Icewind Dale to go on sale. Should be fun.

I only play FPS games if they have a strong single-player campaign. It's no fun playing online for me; I'm not good enough and I don't enjoy dying every 5 seconds.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I wish I had some kind of rule of thumb. I can never predict which games will grab my attention.

 

[warpus]

Good question. I have no idea I guess, it just happens. The choice is really easy if you're really into a save right now. My Cities: Skylines city is now up to 130,000 people and I'm upgrading the highway system. It's a lot of fun, that's probably what I'm going to be playing later tonight, as I have clear ideas in my head as to what I want to do next.

If I'm not feeling any game in particular, I'll start scrolling through my steam game list until something catches my eye. I have 650 games on there, which makes that process annoying to a degree, but it does give me plenty of variety.

It's a lot easier to decide what to play when I'm lying back on my bed. I have a steamLink hooked up to a 42 inch TV on the wall right in front of my bed, and a steam controller. I have a whole bunch of platformers I like to play using that setup, plus I have a whole bunch of platformers and puzzle games I have never even tried. So I'll tell steam to only show me games that are compatible with my controller, and for whatever reason have a much easier time picking out a game to play, than if I were in front of my computer

 

[Snerk]

My gaming habits have changed quite a bit for the recent years. I no longer feel motivated to dive into big and time consuming games. There's the issue with not having time for them but I could probably easily have freed up some more gaming time if I had the motivation.
Now I'm more drawn to gaming experiences it's easy to consume in bite size portions. Without having to keep up with intricate stories and learning complex UIs. I guess I've become more of a casual gamer. /shudders
I like games that somehow overlap with IRL hobbies

I find the VR experience perfect for my current preferences in games. Shorter, and when done right, extreme immersive gaming experiences unlike anything I've tried before. And usually pretty intuitive and easy figuring out controls and stuff. Except VRFC, the game is brilliant but it took a while to figure out the move controllers in this game. Too bad it's a bit of a desert online.

I hope I'll still be able get into games like TES 6, future Civ titles and the likes. But tbh I dunno.

 

[warpus]

My gaming habits have changed quite a bit for the recent years. I no longer feel motivated to dive into big and time consuming games. There's the issue with not having time for them but I could probably easily have freed up some more gaming time if I had the motivation.

I have the same problem.. I consider myself to be a casual gamer of sorts, but I do enjoy playing through games, even complicated ones.. but.. most of the time when I sit down to game I want to jump into an entertaining gaming experience right away. Learning an involved new game is usually put aside as an option, probably because there are already so many options in existence that would give me that "quick fix"

I guess my attention span is lower than it used to be. I still haven't for instance made my way through almost any of the story in Skyrim. I had a save going, but I would play it so sporadically, that each time I loaded it up I just wouldn't remember what the hell was going on, what I had already done, or any of the other context that usually makes games enjoyable for me. Yet to this day I continue to have this fantasy in my head that during "some snowstorm or something" I will sit down and dedicate a couple days to properly playing through a big chunk of the game.. That will probably never happen I guess

It's also just so easy to get annoyed at badly designed game dynamics, like Skyrim's horrid inventory system for example, and go play something else. If this was still the 1990s, I would probably just play through it. But with so many games in my gaming library it's harder to dedicate yourself to a game, especially if some part of the game is badly designed

 

[Thorgalaeg]

My gaming habits have changed quite a bit for the recent years. I no longer feel motivated to dive into big and time consuming games. There's the issue with not having time for them but I could probably easily have freed up some more gaming time if I had the motivation.
Now I'm more drawn to gaming experiences it's easy to consume in bite size portions. Without having to keep up with intricate stories and learning complex UIs. I guess I've become more of a casual gamer. /shudders
I like games that somehow overlap with IRL hobbies

I find the VR experience perfect for my current preferences in games. Shorter, and when done right, extreme immersive gaming experiences unlike anything I've tried before. And usually pretty intuitive and easy figuring out controls and stuff. Except VRFC, the game is brilliant but it took a while to figure out the move controllers in this game. Too bad it's a bit of a desert online.

I hope I'll still be able get into games like TES 6, future Civ titles and the likes. But tbh I dunno.

Same here. I am leaning towards VR racing sims lately, RFactor 2 to be more precise. A few laps to Monaco to relieve tension.

What HMD do you have?

 

[Snerk]

I guess my attention span is lower than it used to be. I still haven't for instance made my way through almost any of the story in Skyrim. I had a save going, but I would play it so sporadically, that each time I loaded it up I just wouldn't remember what the hell was going on, what I had already done, or any of the other context that usually makes games enjoyable for me. Yet to this day I continue to have this fantasy in my head that during "some snowstorm or something" I will sit down and dedicate a couple days to properly playing through a big chunk of the game.. That will probably never happen I guess

I started Skyrim VR but I soon realised that I just didn't have another SKYRIM playthrough in me. I've only played through the game once before and not the DLCs so I even had new content I would play but no, I can't get motivated for it.

Same here. I am leaning towards VR racing sims lately, RFactor 2 to be more precise. A few laps to Monaco to relieve tension.

What HMD do you have?

I haven't tried a racing game in VR yet. I'm not a huge racing fan in general but I'll have to try it out at some point. Should be pretty intense.

I'm on PSVR. I'd love to try the Vive Pro coupled with a beastly gaming rig. Would probably be a significant step up. But I just can't justify spending that kind of money. PSVR does the job alright and PSN is building up an impressive library og VR games and content.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

It is, first time my brother crashed he turned pale, he was that impressed. You may need some VR legs to not get sick at the turns though, at least that was my case.

I have a normal Vive combined with a 1080ti which thankfully i bought just before the crypto fever, and it is pretty impressive. Lighthouses give state of the art tracking. However i would not go with the Vive pro unless you are filthy rich. I am crossing my fingers for the Pimax 8k to deliver.

 

[Carol Boller]

Its always fun playing games on Xbox as Xbox 360 games are quite par of excellence due to their quality graphics and digital sound system. Me and my brother, both are fond of playing console games and we love playing games like Fortnite, Sea of Thieves or FIFA. We decide to play all the latest games and to get access to all of them we have also purchased Xbox live 50 euro kaufen (Press-start) to enjoy all the benefits of multiplayer gaming or online chatting.