How do you decide on what to play?

[Sprony]

The older we are getting the less time we have to actually play the games we love. It's an assumption of course, but its certainly true for me. There's so much out there that I would love to play but with a full time job, a wife and a daughter, I really have to put in the effort to even play at all. At first, I became much more strict about what I was going to buy. I did my research, awaited reviews, tried demo's and beta's before deciding if it was worth it. It helped, but not enough. The next step was to stop being tempted at Steam sales and stop replaying old games. Now, it has gone so far that if I like something, I check how long it would take me to beat the game (howlongtobeat.com). If it's too long, I have to re-evaluate and sometimes, take a pass.

I think it's great that games have become so long but sometimes I'd wish they were shorter. I'm currently playing two titles which really eat up my time. I'm loving The Witcher 3. But when I look at all those question marks on my world map and quests on my to do list, I cannot help the feeling of it being too much work. Even though it's amazing to play every time I put some effort into it, I still feel slightly demotivated by the enormous amount of time it requires of me. The same goes for Bloodborne. Very different game. But it's time consuming due to it's lack of a narrative, guide and it being very obscure in almost everything. I consider both titles some of the best games I've played in years but I do yearn to move on to other games. First world problems am I right?

Anyway, it made me wonder how other people feel about this. So don't be shy and share a little with us. Btw, life is ironic isn't it? When you were a kid, you didn't have the money for all those games. Now, you don't have the time

[laminutederire]

Hey, I would be in your shoes, I'd try to find a few games to involve your daughter, or both your wife and daughter. It will be a few years until I get married and have kids, but my father did that a bit. We had an Xbox so it was definitely easier to play family style

[Skybex]

I end up playing games that don't require constant attention. Games like Civilization, Total war, Xcom and most recently Fallout shelter where you can spend 5 mins on a turn and then go check that your food in the oven is not on fire. I purposely didn't get The Witcher 3 simply because I wouldn't have time to fully immerse myself in the game. I will have to practically take a holiday just to enjoy Fallout 4 when it's released.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Skybex

[jackophant]

Just play counter strike, simple

I too struggle to play other games, but with the little time in the evenings I have and between fiddling with the CSGO SDK and playing the game, I really have no time for anything else.

[Sprony]

Hey, I would be in your shoes, I'd try to find a few games to involve your daughter, or both your wife and daughter. It will be a few years until I get married and have kids, but my father did that a bit. We had an Xbox so it was definitely easier to play family style

Hell yeah. I've got an entire Nintendo collection ready for when she's a bit older.

[Vilham]

Just buy things on steam sale and then give them a go, if i like them i try and finish them otherwise after a few months of no play they get hidden on my steam library.

[Sprony]

Just buy things on steam sale and then give them a go, if i like them i try and finish them otherwise after a few months of no play they get hidden on my steam library.

Wait what? You can hide them? As in only show installed games or actually hide them from your lists completely? I would love to not be reminded of some bad purchases

[Vilham]

You can hide them entirely in the Set Catagories menu.

 

I have 323 hidden games.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Vilham

[Logic]

 

You can hide them entirely in the Set Catagories menu.

I have 323 hidden games.

I gotta try this!

[Pampers]

Im in the same boat on the witcher 3, I know I probably will never finish it due to the length, so any time spent on it will feel like a wasted investment even if I've loved every minute of it so far.

[Alf-Life]

I have a really weird ...quirk(?) where I will play average games that are short, over something that I know is crazily long.

Because I get caught in the hype, am in the industry, and am a bit of collector I will typically still buy games I know I won't have time to play... just so I can have them. I now have a 1 year old son, but even before I had him, I would waste my time and 'put off' playing long games like say Zelda Skyward Sword all the while putting hours and hours into something like Team Fortress 2 that I could "dip" into.

Right now, I have The Witcher 3 and Shadow of Mordor newly-bought still in their shrink-wrap, but because I know they're 100+ hour games I'm playing fucking Banjo-Tooie from the Rare Replay collection.

[blackdog]

I feel you Sprony, kinda the same and I'm not even married. I really get annoyed with people in other forums complaining of games being too short. I really wonder where these guys find the time to play that much I see them play (and it's 25+ age for some).

Anyway I make the time. If there's something I like I will play it, doesn't matter the length. I'm more concerned of the quality.

For Arkham Knight I've spent up to now 75hrs, and still will have to play a bit cos I will get those last 4-5 achievements. And in the future the SP add-ons of the season pass. I just sacrificed sleep and pulled several 3AM (or even later) nights.

Hey, I would be in your shoes, I'd try to find a few games to involve your daughter, or both your wife and daughter. It will be a few years until I get married and have kids, but my father did that a bit. We had an Xbox so it was definitely easier to play family style

I loved playing with my dad, I would shoot and he would "drive" in Wolfenstein's and Doom's mazes, while I would help him give directions… then with Halfife and the advent of mouse, became impossible. Also my dad got so hooked he went on to play HL without me  so I had to finish on my own.

That being said, I wouldn't really want my only game time to become playing Wii shit. 

[laminutederire]

I feel you Sprony, kinda the same and I'm not even married. I really get annoyed with people in other forums complaining of games being too short. I really wonder where these guys find the time to play that much I see them play (and it's 25+ age for some).

Anyway I make the time. If there's something I like I will play it, doesn't matter the length. I'm more concerned of the quality.

For Arkham Knight I've spent up to now 75hrs, and still will have to play a bit cos I will get those last 4-5 achievements. And in the future the SP add-ons of the season pass. I just sacrificed sleep and pulled several 3AM (or even later) nights.

I loved playing with my dad, I would shoot and he would "drive" in Wolfenstein's and Doom's mazes, while I would help him give directions… then with Halfife and the advent of mouse, became impossible. Also my dad got so hooked he went on to play HL without me  so I had to finish on my own.

That being said, I wouldn't really want my only game time to become playing Wii shit. 

I had better ways to play in my youth with the Xbox I guess

we played fps like halo in co-op as well as nba 2k games. But I admit that at first it was with our father but more rapidly I played mainly with my brother, so I guess the better lesson is:  @Sprony, make another child that'll give you some free time

[DrywallDreams]

I have a really weird ...quirk(?) where I will play average games that are short, over something that I know is crazily long.

Because I get caught in the hype, am in the industry, and am a bit of collector I will typically still buy games I know I won't have time to play... just so I can have them. I now have a 1 year old son, but even before I had him, I would waste my time and 'put off' playing long games like say Zelda Skyward Sword all the while putting hours and hours into something like Team Fortress 2 that I could "dip" into.

Right now, I have The Witcher 3 and Shadow of Mordor newly-bought still in their shrink-wrap, but because I know they're 100+ hour games I'm playing fucking Banjo-Tooie from the Rare Replay collection.

Same here, I just hit 100% in OlliOlli 2, but I still have only played Witcher and Mordor once.  Right now I'm finding myself getting a proper N64 setup for recording/streaming/using with my monitor instead of finally sitting down and playing some of the recent AAA releases.

[dux]

I was deep into Pillars of Eternity, then some personal stuff came up and I can't find the motivation to get back into it. I really struggle with long games now, even if they are really good. All I seem to be doing now is drop into CS GO with some friends for an hour or two, or a little bit of CIV 5. Forced myself to finally finish Batman Arkham Asylum last month then went straight onto Arkham City and got too overwhelmed by the openness of it and my interest trailed off gradually.