Topic: Too much to play and not enough time to play it

As a guy in his (early) 30s, I have noticed how my taste in games has changed drammatically. Ten years ago I would have loved long and convoluted adventures that I could sink my teeth into for 300+ hours. Also, I used to feel like I was missing out on games, so I bought a lot more than I could play. End results = most game remained unplayed.
Nowadays, I just don't give a damn. The idea of playing a game for 70+ hours and going absolutely nowhere, achieving nothing - is terrifying. I got back to games that I can play for half an hour and still do something worthwhile in them, like arcade style games and the likes, which coincidentally were the reason I fell in love with games to begin with when I was a child.
I stopped buying so many games when I noticed that "buying them" was the exciting part and "playing them" was becoming the chore. I'd definitely say my "gaming life" is much more satisfying now that I spend only a fraction (of money and time) of what I used to spend back in the day.

I agree with this thread more than any thread ever (that wasn't made by me).

I could be way off, but I wonder if the way consoles are designed now is changing how everyone plays games? Like, just a few generations ago you would literally have access to one game at a time. Now, thanks to digital distribution, you can access many games (and apps) at the same time. And the way the consoles present them make the gaming experience that much more distracting in general.

So I wonder if the experience of gaming is changing as a whole, moving from the deep concentration of playing one or two games to the broad focus of playing many many games (or at least purchasing them) while ALSO engaging with apps, streaming video, and everything else offered by current gen systems.

@World: That is exactly the point I made with this post. but only recently I managed to look different on things. we say that the gaming experience as a whole got changed, that we are now playing lots of stuff and get distracted easily. maybe the best way to really get into a game like we used to in the past is train our minds to reach that point again.
I mean, if I really want to only focus on one or two games, ill only play them and dedicate myself to the rich expereince they provide. when times change, you can also change accordingly- or more accurately, relearn how to play the way you used to at the past

This is a really good point, and I almost think it's universal. Relearning how to experience one thing at a time, whether it's gaming or music or really anything. I don't even think it's a longing for bygone days. It's, like, technology changed way too quickly and now we have to learn how to get back some of the good we lost!

(On that note, this is probably the most thought-provoking thread I've seen in awhile. I'm experimenting with focusing on one game at a time now! Don't know if I can stick to it, but it's definitely helping my studies indirectly )

@spizzamarozzi: Hah, I feel the exact same way. I made a habit of finishing every game I bought for my PS4, currently the only game I haven't started is Bloodborne that I got during a sale on Black Friday. It feels a lot better to have no backlog than to have one. It takes a bit of planning, but I just have to make sure I finish my current game before the next one comes around. It also helps that I stopped buying used games. For a couple of years I bought the games that I missed out on in the past, although I currently finished only a handful of them.

I still haven't picked up Xenoblade X. My retailer messed up my pre-order and I didn't get the game on release, my entire order got cancelled. Kinda glad it did, I'm really not looking forward to the 100+ hour games anymore. I'll get the game one day for a good price, but not anytime soon..

@World: That is exactly the way of thinking I think we can benefit from. If gaming (and technology as a whole) started to be all about variety and you cant really find yourself inside it, you dont need to change reality but your own habits.
I opened another thread earlier mentioning how I got used to play only one kind of games. that is also the kind of thinking Im talking about- I want to teach myself how to enjoy other games that arent my comfort zone, as well as dedicate myself to each of them one at a time.

good luck! Im happy to see that my thoughts inspired someone, Im pretty new to this site and really just wanted to get some advice on my gaming habits. glad it went beyond that and reached others =]

@Octane: funny you mentioned Xenoblade Chronicles X - that is actually the game that made me question my whole practices when it comes to videogames. Don't get me wrong, it's still a mega game, but after 70+ hours of achieving absolutely nothing and going absolutely nowhere (not to mention, I couldn't even understand how the menu worked) I had to stop and reflect on how much time I was wasting doing something I wasn't enjoying in the slightest.

I always have these epiphanies playing games. Many years ago I was into buying Dreamcast games, because they were worthless back then. I was spending too much money on them. Then one day I was playing Sword of the Berserk and I got stuck in an alley, and the character's sword was bigger than the width of the alley so you couldn't hit the enemies properly. That made me think, why am I on this planet?! I haven't bought a single Dreamcast game since.

The idea of having a backlog of unplayed games was simply unthinkable 15 years ago (unless you were a journalist or something like that). Nowadays, I think the unplayed games in my collection outnumber the played ones. And that's pretty sad...I mean, I thought playing them was the fun part but it seems I was mostly buying them. I wanted to go back to a better relationship with videogames, and I think I'm doing pretty well.

In my experience less forums = more playing.

TV is a good counterbalance with gaming. It's much more relaxing. Besides that, go running: it'll give you more energy over time.

I use this site: http://www.backloggery.com/

I pop all my games in there and then use the fortune cookie to decide what to play next. That way I can give all my games some play time. As for getting play time, I have to organize my days so that I even can play xD

I can see the OP's problem it's just a classic case of too many apples in one cart. I have fell victim to this myself I would buy needlessly just to have the game there ready for when I finished another game.

I found a simple solution to it, I stopped buying games on a whim. I would just purchase 2 games I wanted and didn't buy any more until I finished them.

I did the same thing with my digital games on the 3DS. I looked over my home menu and deleted the games I already finished and dont plan to play anymore. this way I can stay with less games but the ones I really wanna dig in, plus I got some free space which is always nice XD

@Tops:
I recommend selling those unwanted games on eBay.
a couple years ago, I sold some physical games that were just eating space in my apartment, games I had for years and never played.

I made some decent money.

it's worth considering.