Games

No matter how many I may start, I always end up focusing on just one. I also find it difficult to get back into a game after I have stopped playing it for while, so these days I try to just start only one.

I used to run 7 instances of Ultima Online at once so I could play all my characters at the same time.

I just buy whichever game i enjoy playing when it's on sale only to never actually getting to play it.

Life is a matter of you either have the time, money or energy. But never all.

I have the money now but not the energy, i just pass out the moment i get home and playing games just gets postponed until i get time off.

The Forza games, they are casual

In Horizon 5 you can do the weekly activities in 2 hours and get the weekly playlist car

I'll play one game at a time, binge the hell out of it, then stop right before I beat it (if it's a single player title) and then never touch it again for at least 5 years.

I often get game choice paralysis, so I have extensively categorized my game library to help with both decision making, but also time management. I use numbers to force my categories to sort in the order I want rather than alphabetically by category name.

Also worth noting I only started doing this after I stopped playing an MMO and reclaimed whatever % of my life.

First is my “currently playing” category. This contains roughly one game from each other category/genre.

• A story driven RPG (Witcher 3 at the moment, the Metro series after)
• A rhythm game (McOsu, an Osu mod)
• An optimization/building game (Shapez 2 but maybe back to factorio soon)
• An action rougelike (going back to Hades before Hades 2)
• A deck builder (currently MTGA, but my group really wants to ditch WotC)
• A puzzle game (probably Blue Prince once it comes out)
• A dedicated indie game spot (the Cairn demo)
• A few other odd games that I like having quick access to because I like them

There is sort of a secret bonus game to this section, but it also sits outside of this system entirely, because I will ALWAYS go back to it. And that’s the “block game” category. For a long time this was various flavors of modded Minecraft, but I’m so fed up with Microsoft enshitifying my baby that I’ve jumped ship. I’m playing Vintage Story (also heavily modded) and it’s just a better game top to bottom in my opinion.

Then there is an “Interesred” category for games I’ve either been told I should try and also think I might enjoy. I try to keep this small, following roughly a similar “one per genre” as the previous category. I honestly don’t really touch these much, it’s more there for when a spot is freed up in the “currently playing” section. This is also where demos for unreleased games go.

Then there is a “favorite” and “liked” category which largely contain games I’ve played before or are intentionally hyper replayable. This has a lot of my favorite puzzle games, a lot of the various rogue likes with a different game as the core mechanic (think peglin and ballionaire) stuff like that. Basically things to sift through if none of my current games are sparking an interest.

After this is just genre categories used for storage essentially so I can collapse them and not be sick scrolling the whole list.

I have a decent amount of time to game, but also work a very physical job, so I need to be very into a game to prioritize it over sleeping and such.

I separate games into two categories basically: Games I can play any time/in-between other games, and games I need to follow until the end or I forget everything and have to start over.

I only play 1 big game at a time if I can help it until I either finish it or lose interest. That said, I can play as many secondary games as I want like Binding of Isaac, UFO 50, Balatro, and whatever multiplayer game I'm into right now.

Especially as I got more busy IRL it became really annoying to play a bunch of big games at once. I ended up restarting Ori Will of the Wisps because I came back to it later and forgot where I was and what I was doing.

So many, depends on the booted OS and what I feel like or what the kids feel like playing.

Currently doing a mix of Quake 2 single player (100%ed it on nightmare but I keep coming back to it), Half-Life deathmatch (hilarious with the kids as we try to lay out traps for eachother), Reflex Arena, Planetside 2, Age of Empires 2, OpenRA, Fortnite (kids love it so I play along), Ion Fury, Fallout 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Last 3 are story modes, so they take long. Only Ion Fury is linear though, so it's easier to come back to.

30s, New homeowner, wife, house needs repair, cars need repair, wallet needs repair, someone has to cook, full work week, 90 minutes spent on commuting. No kids or pets, but I feel we might have similar availability. And I'm always wondering the same because I'll never have the time to play like I did as a teen. But, here's what I have. PC and Xbox.

I generally play one story game at a time. I'll play for a couple weeks or couple months. I just try to make progress and enjoy it for what it is, not set any goals. How would I know how much time I need anyway? Could be anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours per session. Something like Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, Tomb Raider(don't worry, I have bigger triggers next). I'm hoping this month I "finally get around" to Fallout 3, NV, or 4.

I have other options, though, depending on immediate time availability. Some borderline storyless games (maybe with cosmetic reward progression) for the shortest of times or highest of mental fatigue (forza horizon, fortnite, rocket league, ace combat, borderlands). My two slow burn games are Valheim and Elite Dangerous. They both take probably an hour to get up to speed if I've been out of it for a few weeks, but I'll be good for a week between sessions after that. I'll sink 2+ hours per session into those. Regarding remembering controls, ED amuses me because I use an Xbox controller to play. Every button is mapped and there's a combo for every (ABXY) + (D-pad or bumpers). 14 buttons and 24 combos. Putting the controller in my hand unlocks subconscious memory of most of them. Even in other games where crouch and jump are shuffled around, it only takes a couple mistakes for me to remember.

It's not an impressive list, but I try to not beat myself up over it. I'm busy, I'm tired. I stopped being elitist about the Epic and Ubisoft bullshit because I don't have time to waste giving a fuck. There's 100 better similar games but this is what I'm doing. I'm sitting down for a good time, not a long time.

Another aspect I had to reexamine was my notion of productivity, progression, and entertainment. Did gaming fulfill a fantasy version of real "campaign" progression? Does the building and repair I do in real life actually contribute to the same feeling of accomplishment as beating a game? Does socializing in real life fulfill that need for story progression? So far... Yes. Mostly. The fantasy game version definitely looks cooler.

Only other comment is about not choosing a title. I wouldn't play a game I started because I needed to play a newer game before I was left behind. I think it's been 2 years since I last bought a game. I can't keep up. I can't finish what I have. So I more or less decided to work through my library for now. It's hard to get over the fomo of skipping titles or being multiple titles behind in a series. But so what? I have hyped games from 2015. I have hyped games from 2020. And from 2010. And from 2005. I'm missing newer games hyped in 2023. But in 2026, there will still be hyped games. And 2030. And 2035. I don't have the time for every title. So I'll see what's out when I have room again. For now, it's just about 4 story game so cycle through. Doesn't really help you decide, but maybe makes it easier to avoid not deciding.

My only obligations are my job, so I can pretty much waste all my time on games if i want to. I play one at a time, maybe add in three rounds of CS2 per week to get the drops. What would really drain time is an mmo but I've been clean of that for a while.

I guess games just don't excite me anymore as they used to so I just pick out the ones that do and stick to them. When there's nothing on the release horizon, I revert back to city builders or racing games till the next release.

Typically only 1 story game (first playthrough) like Blasphemous or Outer Wilds. And then only roguelites or sandboxes on top of that like Factorio or Slay the Spire.

During the few months of the year I consider to be my "gaming season", I mostly stick to 1 game at a time as my primary focus, but I'll often have a game or few on the back burner that I'll work into the schedule now and then.

This year I'm focusing on the Doom remake (Doom 2016) as my main game. To be honest, the game is stressful for me, so even though it's been an absolute blast for me to play, it's nice to have some alternative games to switch over to after I'm done with Doom.

I agree, it's very hard to keep up with the stories when juggling multiple games at the same time. Almost as hard for me, if not harder, is keeping up with the controls. Every game is different. Games in the same genre can and will have vastly different control set-ups. Even games in the same franchise / series can have different controls from game to game. Yuck.

So, the control aspect and the story aspect are part of my inspiration for my secondary games. Right now I'm playing Halls of Torment. I guess there's a story? But it doesn't seem super relevant or necessary to keep up with. This game is in the same genre as another secondary game I play (and the main one from last year) called Vampire Survivors. Controls for both of these games is super basic. As I mentioned, if there's even a story line to them, it's irrelevant to my enjoyment of them.

I also have the Castlevania Dominus Collection which is includes all the metroidvania-style Castlevania games from the Nintendo DS. I played all of them back in the day on original hardware, so there's a great deal of "recall" in terms of controls and story. And this is probably one of my favorite genres of game.

Just one. I like to focus.

Wish I could say at least two.

I paused my playthrough of Final Fantasy when Black Ops 6 came out back in October. Next thing I know, it’s January and I’m totally lost when picking up my Final Fantasy save file again. The dancer didn’t share any clues whatsoever.

You lied to me, game. 🖕

One.

If I try to play mutiple at the same time I have found that when I alt+tab from one to the over, my progress in the first one grinds to a halt

If you get paralyzed picking which story game to play next, maybe getting really picky about which ones make the list and then literally roll the dice or use an RNG generator to pick one. If they are all good, and your gameplay spread across a long time with work and kids, then any "mood" you are in, in the moment, will be averaged out over time. If you get into a game and find it really just isn't for you, give yourself permission to move on.

In short, make the decision less consequential to avoid paralysis. That was my method anyway, being in similar situation with life time constraints.

Just one. Playing two at once would be tricky, I'd need like a second computer or something. And switching back and fourth between keyboards really quickly would probably lead to lots of deaths.

Usually one per system or genre at a time.

Like I'll have a ps5 game on the go, something on the pc, and a few per emulated system on my handheld.

Or I'll have a more arcadey game and an rpg on the go for when I'm in the mood for either kind of thing.

I'm an independent games reviewer, so 1. But even before I did that, I still could only play 1 at a time.

2-4 depending on the mood. Could go higher but then games would take too long to finish

One story based game at a time to focus on that alongside a coop or pvp game like The Finals.

like most things three is about right. Anymore and I tend to get overloaded and any less and I tend to spin my wheels.

Slay the spire, FTL, and Into the Breach probably have the most hours from me because the controls are entirely cursor driven and can be paused indefinitely.

Balatro is quickly taking the space that the built-in Windows solitaire game used to.

Those are the ones that I open when my brain can't brain.

At least one idle game. I just finished antimatter dimensions after a year or so. Starting on NGU idle next.

And one "100% attention" game like outer wilds or hollow knight.

A few. I’m playing through the bonus campaigns of Etherfields, while looking longingly at ISS Vanguard which I haven’t picked up in a week, while playing one-shot games of stuff like Twinfold and Harmonies and Balatro and Slay the Spire (both table and phone). Finished Silent Hill 2R recently and that was awesome. Sometimes when I’m up to it I’ll break out some sort of random Final Girl game.

I know this isn’t true for everyone, but narrative solo board gaming is really, really good for me, and lets me do a lot of gaming that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, what with my brain being all busted with stroke damage.

I work a full time job, but I don't have responsibilities like children, so I have way more free time to play games.

I'm currently playing, Kingdom Hearts 2 and Bug Fables, alongside some friends so we can talk about it together.
With my partner, I'm playing, I was a Teenage Exocolonist, discussing our choices and how our game diverged.
I'm also playing solo: Octopath Traveler 2 and Lies of P.

I'm basically hopping around the various games constantly. I'll play one chapter of Bug Fables, then hop over to Lies of P and clear an area and defeat the boss, then jump over to Octopath Traveler 2 to clear a chapter or two from some characters.

I'm currently playing Portal, Portal Reloaded, and Portal Stories: Mel at the same time.

Basically I'll play one, hit "that freaking level" and then rotate through. lol

Mostly one at a time, but it depends.

Typically I play Marvel Rivals with my friend group, as it is one of the few multiplayer games these days that supports at least 5 people on a team (we already tried League, Paladins, etc and got tired of that real quick).

On my own, I sometimes feel like playing a retro game, so I have been playing Legend of Dragoon, but recently my save file got corrupted somehow so I haven't restarted. Instead I switched to playing a less retro game, Need for Speed Carbon. Its been maybe 10 years since I played it last, so it has been interesting dealing with the horrendous rubberbanding and random crashing on PC. I also like to play Goddess of Victory NIKKE as a mobile game whenever I have down time but am away from home.

But I don't think it is atypical to really focus on playing one game at a time. I'd say that would actually be quite unusual and likely only done by people who have a job playing multiple games per day (a not so good reviewer, streamer, etc).

I play at most 2-3 games at the same time. 1 story game that requires concentration (currently "Pentiment"), one game I play online with friends (currently "Return to Moria") and one simple game when I don't want to think too much (currently nothing, I just finished "Vampire Survivors")

I'm also a dad with a full time job. As for how I pick my games, if I do the same thing too long I get bored and don't finish the game. And I like finishing games. So I don't do two horror games back-to-back, or two survival games, or two FPS, etc. I like to switch up. Before "Pentiment" my focus games were "SOMA", "Astroneer", "Conarium", "Green Hell", "The Talos Principle" and "Prey". So, quite varied I think.

I play one and watch one at the same time. Never more than that simultaneously just so i can really focus

I try to keep it down to a few categories.

There are always a few fighting games I'm playing; typically Skullgirls, Guilty Gear Strive, and Street Fighter 6. When a new one comes out, I tend to spend a few dozen hours learning it before moving on.

Then there's a story/campaign game. Right now, it's Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Then there's a "shut your brain off"/"second screen"/"podcast" game. Currently that's Borderlands. It doesn't mean that I'm always listening to something while playing it, but it does mean I don't have to think too hard to enjoy it, and I can consume it like junk food. I may not have the highest opinion of these games, but it's good to have some of them as palate cleansers.

Then there's whatever game I'm in the middle of playing co-op with friends. Currently that's V Rising.

The above is what my plan is, but it rarely goes that way. Often times I'm in the middle of a campaign/story game, and then the new, shiny thing came out before I finish it, and I can't help myself but to start up the new one too, so I've accumulated a running total of other games I'm in the middle of and haven't finished. As for time management, mine is a DINK household, so there's plenty to go around, even after social gatherings and such, but our schedules tend to be fluids that will expand to fit their containers. I've begun to arrive at something similar to an Agile board, if you're familiar with software development. I've got a number of games that I intend to finish before the month is out, and based on HowLongToBeat data, I'm estimating how much time I'll probably have to play them and how long it will likely take me to finish them. This is a new development for me from the past few months, but it's starting to pay dividends...then again, that may also have to do with new releases slowing down at the end of the year.

I'm also using the same system as you. Currently I'm playing Skyrim as a story/ambiance game and Doom 2 (community maps/mapsets, which are releasing every day) as forever playable game. I have time to play more, but I somehow settled on this as I find it very comfortable and enjoyable. Before current Skyrim playthrough I played Steins;Gate and before that original Silent Hill 1 and so on. As infinite games I also sometimes play Quake (community maps/mapsets) and modded Minecraft.

Right now I'm in between the following

Shadow tactics blade of the shogun

Control

Half life 2 : episode 2

Dungeons of deadlock

Sonic mania

I need to get back to these because I got bored of them

Fallout 4

God of war

I can play any number multiple repetitive/nonlinear games that don't require keeping track of a story or events. So racing games, most FPS, etc. Right now I can switch between Helldivers 2, Call of Duty, Forza Horizon, Valheim, Tekken, and so on at the drip of a hat. I do end up customizing controls so they are similar within a genre, so HD and COD get trmapped to my standard first person shooter control scheme.

But I cannot stay engaged with more than one game that has a storyline/things to rememeber like the Witcher, Red Dead Redemption 2, or Horizon Zero Dawn even if they have handy in game reminders for what to do. Switching between stories is my dealbreaker for playing at the same time. I also have trouble sticking with a story long enough to complete those types of games which is a bummer because I like the idea of them.

I have a hard time even playing one but that's depression.

It's been a week or so since I last played a few hours of STALKER 2.