How do you choose which games to play?

I used to play most new releases when I had the time, simply because I love gaming and I like to experience most things that come out. Lately I don't have the time as my studies have intensified a lot and I've been doing a lot of dev work on a private website on the side. Every month I see games on the Steam store that I long to play, but I know I'll never get to.

This got me thinking; in today's busy world how do the rest of you MyGaming peeps decide which games to play and which not? Ideally I'd love to play everything because hell yes, but that's simply no longer possible. The biggest problem is MMOs. I love MMOs but they're complete time sinks and whenever I'm busy with an MMO I don't have time for any single player games, making me feel like I'm falling behind in terms of new releases.

So how do you decide which games to play and which to ignore?

I think it's human nature to want to play every new game that gets released. Whether we want to admit it or not, a part of us jumps onto the hype train the moment it arrives at our station.

So, at the moment, I'm completely invested in Kerbal Space Program, and it is all that has consumed my thoughts. At the moment, it's the only game I want to play, but that doesn't mean I don't want to get all the new games as well.

So how I choose which games to buy comes down to a few point:

Firstly, I only get games that I truly have a big emotional investment in at launch. This is why games like the new Wolfenstein and Project Cars will be day one buys for me, as I love racing games soooooo much, and Wolfenstein was my GOTY last year, and I MUST have it's follow-up. I can wait for later to get the Witcher and other games.

Secondly, if there is no game that I really must have, I look at specials for games that I may have missed, but wanted to play.

Thirdly, I'll get a game from friend recommendations.

Or just use http://randomsteamgame.com/

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Originally Posted by PsychoFish

Or just use http://randomsteamgame.com/

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Alternatively, http://www.steamroulette.net/

i also struggle to decide what to play next. right now, trying to make a concerted effort to finish the game i'm currently playing completely, before starting anything new.

but there just seems to be less and less time available for the ever increasing backlog of games :(

you can also try this site :
http://www.steamcompletionist.net/

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Originally Posted by DieGrootHammer

I think it's human nature to want to play every new game that gets released. Whether we want to admit it or not, a part of us jumps onto the hype train the moment it arrives at our station.

So, at the moment, I'm completely invested in Kerbal Space Program, and it is all that has consumed my thoughts. At the moment, it's the only game I want to play, but that doesn't mean I don't want to get all the new games as well.

So how I choose which games to buy comes down to a few point:

Firstly, I only get games that I truly have a big emotional investment in at launch. This is why games like the new Wolfenstein and Project Cars will be day one buys for me, as I love racing games soooooo much, and Wolfenstein was my GOTY last year, and I MUST have it's follow-up. I can wait for later to get the Witcher and other games.

Secondly, if there is no game that I really must have, I look at specials for games that I may have missed, but wanted to play.

Thirdly, I'll get a game from friend recommendations.

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I think you can pretty much close the thread after this. Well said.

When choosing a new SP game to play I try to make the next game one from a different genre to vary things up. I also weigh up the investment required in the game in order to truly enjoy it - if I know I'm going to have a few hectic weeks of work/life I try pick something I can jump in and out of fairly easily. Every now and then I jump into an immersive epic that demands I play long hours.

Mostly these days I pick out games from my backlog but specials also influence what I'm playing. If I grab a game I've been wanting while it's on special I try to play it as soon as possible - this is mainly because I've felt the all-to-often pangs of regret when a game I bought at 50% off a year ago still sits unplayed and is now going for 75-80% off!

I'm not so into MMO's but not matter what I'm playing I still find myself spending a good few hours on the MP competitive games (CSGO, Awesomenauts, HOTS, Smite)

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Originally Posted by Graal

This got me thinking; in today's busy world how do the rest of you MyGaming peeps decide which games to play and which not? Ideally I'd love to play everything because hell yes, but that's simply no longer possible. The biggest problem is MMOs. I love MMOs but they're complete time sinks and whenever I'm busy with an MMO I don't have time for any single player games, making me feel like I'm falling behind in terms of new releases.

So how do you decide which games to play and which to ignore?

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Less sleep more gaming is how I do it. Else then that I generally just stick to the genre's I like. I play swtor(my serious mmo), eso(casually) + all major crpg releases.

A lot is based on what I see and/or how I perceive the game from first glance. If something looks interesting (like the sorta game I would fancy playing) then I consider getting it. Now that I think about it, my impressions are my deciding factor. I then watch/read reviews and decide from that if I want to play the game(s).

Another point I'd like to make about my choices in games, is the point of Pre-Ordering, and how reviews influence my decisions to play games.

On pre-ordering:
Yes, I do still pre-order games, but I now am very wary of the games I do pre-order for. It must be games from established franchises that I've enjoyed in the past, causing me to label the follow-up games as Must Have. There are only a few franchises like that remaining for me, as others I am happy to wait and see before making any sort of commitment to buying the game

On the influence of Reviews:
I have 2 sources of reviews that I would go to to read up more about games I am interested in. These reviews I use for information gathering only, as I try and picture myself playing the game I am reading up on, and whether I would enjoy it or not. It is very seldom that a Metacritic score will influence me in any way to buy the game.