Out of thousands of games, how do you choose the one to play

[Wavelflack]

I ran out of room for the question mark, so here it is:
"?"

So how do you choose what you're going to play?
Back in the early days, it was easy. "Hmm...I haven't beaten this one yet."
Now, it's not so easy.


Also, how do you stick with your choice and not get impatient during dull spots?

[tritium]

I ran out of room for the question mark, so here it is:
"?"

So how do you choose what you're going to play?
Back in the early days, it was easy. "Hmm...I haven't beaten this one yet."
Now, it's not so easy.


Also, how do you stick with your choice and not get impatient during dull spots?

I don't know, but I could use some help too!

As a matter of fact, I tend to play the system I don't collect for more, because its easier to choose what game to play next...

[mills]

How I choose to play a new game I have or haven't before. It usually goes a little like this:

"Hmm I heard this game was.."

"wow haven't played this game in a ...."

"I enjoy alot of the other games in this series so I guess I'll.."


and so on.

[vultar]

It depends on why I don't have a new game to play. If it's because I'm waiting on a new release, and it's close, I tend to play games I know I can finish in a day or two or the kind that it doesn't matter if I finish them or not. Generally I just look through my boxes where I keep my games until I find something that meets those requirements, strikes my fancy, and whose system is currently hooked up to the TV.

If its going to be a long time, I find that a lot of times I end up deciding what I'm going to play next because of what I'm currently playing. Basically what happens is something in the current game will remind me of something in another game, and I'll end up feeling all nostalgic for the other one. Or sometimes it'll be more of a "this is a great game. Hey, remember X? That was a great game too. I need to play that one next," sort of thing.

Since I'm generally only playing RPGs, and I play them almost exclusively for the story, I generally stay with them until I've beaten them again, unless something really neat that I just have to play comes out.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Coming here and reading about what other people are playing often inspires me to play something that:
=I have..
=have played and would like to play again.
=Read good things about a game here that I miss looked and then I'll try it.
=Go out and by a new game that I hear is good....or search for the game on Ebay/flea markets or game stores.
=When sequels to games come out,are coming out I'll often play the first one to get ready for the next..

Otherwise I try and play what's in my "to play" stack of games....I'm still no where caught up with new games I bought say a year ago.
I finished X Box Swat tonight..(took my awhile)
I may start Black Hawk Down tomorrow.....but I've yet to even try GC Resident Evil 4...and I know this game rocks..

Many times when friends are coming over I may get warmed up on the games they mention on the phone that they want to play,thus this gets me playing stuff I don't play much..atleast by myself.

My Son gets me playing a lot of games...
he'll chose a game off the shelf to play and I'll wind up playing it for awhile.

[Wavelflack]

Well, I end up playing the same old games more times than not, simply because I no longer have an incentive to sit through Game X's dull cinema scene or Game Y's stupid bees/ bats level. If that game loses my interest for a picosecond, there's more than enough other games to take it's place. It's totally Darwinian, I guess.
Plus, the drinking doesn't help. It makes you impatient.

I used to crank through "beatable" games (ie; mostly NES and later titles) all the time. I actually had a list of hundreds of games that I finished. I would rent them, beat them, and return them the next day.

Now I have all the games I could ever want. Well, most of them, at least. And I can't find games that I can "commit" to long enough to finish them.

Maybe there whould be "MAME club" for older games?

[Fuyukaze]

I simply follow a basic patern.

1.what system is curently hooked up to my TV or monitor?
2.is there any games I have for it I want to play?
3.is there any games I have for it I havent played yet?
4.do I even want to play any games on that system?

If the answer to all 4 of these is no, or simply if the answer to the 4th question is no, I repeat it with another system untill I'm playing a game. If I dont like it, I put in another and keep doing so untill I either find a game I want to play or have something else that needs to be done.

[Windy Miller]

It usually depends on what sort of mood I'm in. If I'm feeling stressful, then it's an fps or something like Burnout. I'll stick to handheld gaming if I've only got short periods of time on my hands & if I want cheering up, I'll play Hamtaro or Harvest Moon.

[jdc]

It depends on the time of year. The majority of games for the newer consoles are shorter and can be finished in a few evenings. I play these in the summer, along with any racers because they are "pick up and play" games.

Something like a PSX has longer games in the library, RPGs for example, and I save them for those long winter days when I DO want to settle in and enjoy a good story.

We're renovating what would commonly be called the "sitting room" in our circa 1850 house. This is a room that is just off of the living room, separated by double doors, and will become the game/reading room. It's been a few years since I had the space to hook up all of my consoles at the same time and so I've generally played what was hooked up, usually my Xbox. My Dreamcast, 64, PSX, Genny and NES have been fairly idle for awhile and you can bet that they will be played constantly once the room is finished.

[hex65000]

Milage varies here. I have a giant stack of 'to play/test out' games to attend to and then there's the 'clean me boxes of carts'. If the question was more along how I buy this stuff. I'd say something along the lines of: "This looks interesting, I'll gamble for the price." or "It's a remix of something familiar, I'll bite." or "I can't afford the neo-geo version. $40 is tolerable." I usually get sucked into GBA RPGs mostly. The only RPG-like games I remotely finished on any other current platform was .hack1 and Fallout:BOS. I'm not a turbo RPGer either, I painstakingly build characters up, explore where I figure out there's something to see, etc. There's so much out there that's pretty cool that even if I never bought another game, I'd have plenty to play.
However, it's like having a closet full of 'nothing to wear' sometimes.
A bit rambly, but that should give you an idea. Now, where's my Mr. Diller?

Hex.
[ Last seen looking at the road behind. ]

[josekortez]

I have a very hard time because I'll spend more time looking at a stack of games rather than actually taking one out of the case and putting it in the system.

Perhaps, the mood I'm in decides for me. If I want to sit up and play, I'll do PS2, GameCube or Xbox.

If I don't mind having the system in my lap while I lie back, then it's PSone with the screen.

If I want to lie back all the way, then it's DS.

And if I'm not feeling completely lazy, I'll drag one of the other systems out of its tomb and plug it in...

[Jumpman Jr.]

For me, there is a difference between games that I buy to play and games that I buy to stick on my shelf.
Currently, I'm trying to beat all of the Zelda games, so each time I beat one, I pick a new Zelda game out of my collection and play that.
But it takes a while to move on to another game because it usually takes me about 2 months to finish one. Therefore, somewhere in that two months, I begin thinking about what my next game will be.
Currently, my 'next-game' will be the second GameBoy Color Zelda. Something about Oracle of the Seasons or something... I forget.

[EricRyan34]

I usually always know what to play, play the games I havnt beaten yet!

[Zing]

I am actually in a dilemma right now. I just got off of a 3 month binge of World of Warcraft. I now have no PC games I am interested in, but a sizable library of Playstation 1 and 2 games that I have never even booted up.

So I sit and look at my stack of PS1 RPGs. I finally load up Lunar: SSSC. I play for a while and don't really feel the excitement I remember from playing Lunar on the SegaCD. Hmm... I never did finish FFVII. I start that up, play for a bit. Maybe I would enjoy one of the strategy RPGs. I read over Final Fantasy Tactics, Vandal Hearts, Suikoden. I end up popping in Rayman for some instant gratification. Play through a few levels and remember that Intelligent Qube is really fun. I actually settle down and play that for a few nights in a row, but it is an intensive game and once I get good enough to get to the end stages, it become a commitment to start playing this game.

So now I am looking back to Lunar to give it another chance.

It's really hard when you have so many games at your fingertips. Even the tiniest flaws in a game make me question whether there is a better game I could be playing.

[Windy Miller]

Even the tiniest flaws in a game make me question whether there is a better game I could be playing.

That's a good point. If I'm playing a game & the faults become really apparrent, I'll just move on to the next title.

[buttasuperb]

I don't have thousands of games.

So I play Elevator Action Returns.