When You Have Too Many Games & Don't Know What To Do: Little Help?

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

So I have over 200 games(paltry compared to some, but still a great deal) and I'm stuck on what to do. I have what I call gaming ADD, I jump from game to game and rarely finish them. I get stuck on 'endless' games then don't play them for months nearly forcing me to restart.
I've been sticking mostly to my MMO's and just grinding out a quest or two at a time, or more if I'm in the mood.
What I really want is to finish the linear/definite-end type games so I don't feel I've spent this money for nothing.

Anyone have any suggestions how to get myself to choose one or two games and finish them before moving to others? I've been avoiding most 'endless' games such as crafting or 'true' open world games.

Start with the simplest/shortest? As silly as it seems, this really is a burden on me.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

FYI, my profile is public, feel free to go through it to 'source' some information on my gaming habits and see what I have. Also feel free to ask me about anything you think might help determine a method to resolve this 'issue' I'm having, lol.

[LunaFortuna]

I struggle with ADD, too, and often I find that I'll have to "push" myself into reading a book or playing a game. But then, once I start, I can't stop...

I had to literally pry myself off of certain endless and mindless games, at one point, and remind myself that I had a vast library of untouched games.

Part of me was like "But... I like playing the same game I've been obsessing over for the past 7 days." and another part of me was like "PLAY YOUR OTHER GAMES."

Then, once I pushed myself into testing out more of my library, I got hooked on playing amazing new games that were just collecting dust this whole time, and, I was kicking myself for not playing them sooner!

Something that helped me is to start achievement hunting. That's where you get ALL the achievements in a game and get a "perfect game" that you can show off in your profile showcase. I have 21 perfect games, now, and that's been a motivator to make me finish a lot of my games to completion, or to at least try to.

I'm the same way with books. I'll buy a bunch of books, but will never get around to reading them. Then, I'll literally force myself to read the first 30 pages, and before I know it, it's 2 days later, I haven't slept, or barely eaten, and I'm like "Must... finish... book."

So, all in all, as someone who knows very well how ADD is, my advice is literally to force yourself to play more of your games. Once you do, I think you'll like it. And, try to find a reason to beat a game to completion. Usually, if a game is very good, you'll want to do this (eventually) anyways. Remember the good games and make a mental note not to abandon them. Even if it takes you several sittings to beat a game, remember to do it. The satisfaction of beating a good game is very well worth it.

[mellow]

http://decidermachine.com/

just do the game it picks, cause bad things will happen if you dont!

[TwinEdgedBastard]

Wolfenstien the New Order and the Old Blood, New Order takes about 10-12 hours to complete, there is a choice you make at the start but it has almost no affect on the rest of the game (even though it may seem that way). The Old Blood is a direct prequel to the New Order which is more action orientated than story orientated, it takes roughly 6-8 hours to beat this campaign.

Gameplay wise they are a blend of fast paced shooters and modern shooters, The coolest thing about these games is that you can dual weld the majority of weapons you find, including assault rifles, shotguns and even sniper rifles for some reason.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

Originally posted by LunaFortuna:

I struggle with ADD, too, and often I find that I'll have to "push" myself into reading a book or playing a game. But then, once I start, I can't stop...

I had to literally pry myself off of certain endless and mindless games, at one point, and remind myself that I had a vast library of untouched games.

Part of me was like "But... I like playing the same game I've been obsessing over for the past 7 days." and another part of me was like "PLAY YOUR OTHER GAMES."

Then, once I pushed myself into testing out more of my library, I got hooked on playing amazing new games that were just collecting dust this whole time, and, I was kicking myself for not playing them sooner!

Something that helped me is to start achievement hunting. That's where you get ALL the achievements in a game and get a "perfect game" that you can show off in your profile showcase. I have 21 perfect games, now, and that's been a motivator to make me finish a lot of my games to completion, or to at least try to.

I'm the same way with books. I'll buy a bunch of books, but will never get around to reading them. Then, I'll literally force myself to read the first 30 pages, and before I know it, it's 2 days later, I haven't slept, or barely eaten, and I'm like "Must... finish... book."

So, all in all, as someone who knows very well how ADD is, my advice is literally to force yourself to play more of your games. Once you do, I think you'll like it. And, try to find a reason to beat a game to completion. Usually, if a game is very good, you'll want to do this (eventually) anyways. Remember the good games and make a mental note not to abandon them. Even if it takes you several sittings to beat a game, remember to do it. The satisfaction of beating a good game is very well worth it.

I would like to specify I don't actually have ADD as in a diagnosable psychological/emotional/mental condition/variation(I refuse to say disorder simply because my study into the human mind/condition shows that there is no 'normative' and that most 'disorders' are adaptations, genetic or in response to environment, especially early in life). I call it gamer ADD because I can't just focus on one most of the time. Other times I focus so much that I ignore other games.

I've considered achievment hunting as as much as I can be a 'completionist' in some ways, I really tend to only chase achievements that don't require me to go out of my way. It's a little lazy but simply getting a pat on the back is little motivation for me.

Really, it comes down to moods. I"m in the mood for one game so I play it for 100 hours in a week then stop. Then I don't know what I want to play and I can't make myself just play through something.

I know it means I kind of answered myself, but I'm thinking of trying the simplest/shortest first to see if that works.

In regard to an lol mellow's comment, I'll look at it. But I have a hard time leaving decisions up to chance or purely based on another's perspective, priorities.

Thanks so far guys. Feel free to keep commenting. If anything, maybe the suggestions here can help others with similar issues even if I don't find my solution through crowdsourcing. Though I will be considering/trying what comes this way.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

Originally posted by TwinEdgedBastard:

Wolfenstien the New Order and the Old Blood, New Order takes about 10-12 hours to complete, there is a choice you make at the start but it has almost no affect on the rest of the game (even though it may seem that way). The Old Blood is a direct prequel to the New Order which is more action orientated than story orientated, it takes roughly 6-8 hours to beat this campaign.

Gameplay wise they are a blend of fast paced shooters and modern shooters, The coolest thing about these games is that you can dual weld the majority of weapons you find, including assault rifles, shotguns and even sniper rifles for some reason.

I definitely want to play those. I love the ID games and they are fairly straightforward and not overly long. But I do like to play a series from beginning to end. When I got DOA3 and ME3, I replayed the previous games completely before playing the new ones.

I have a lot of little quirks with games... binging for a week then not touching it for months. Wanting to have all the games in a series and not wanting to play the new ones until I've finished the old ones... It's only with gaming(and maybe Netflix). It's like I get all ADD/OCD just in this one area of my life. But in a lazy way, lol.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

For others with this or a similar issue, particularly ignoring a game halfway through until you forget what is going on/how to play, my friend recommended his method for this:

Start a new game/character. Get reaquainted with the gameplay/controls. It still may take some work to figure out what you were doing or what your goals were in a game like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, crafting games like Empyrion and the like. But I imagine it will help with not feeling like a noob mid game.

[LunaFortuna]

I know that you weren't actually talking about medically diagnosed ADD, don't worry. But ADD is basically a lack of attention to something (spacing out, not finishing tasks at hand, etc) and that's how you described your gaming, haha. Even people with actual diagnosed ADD can either be the most hyper-focused and attentive people when it comes to perfoming tasks (such as gaming), or we're so bored out of our minds that we are just jumping from one thing to the next. For me, yes, this includes gaming. It sounds like you have something similar going on. As for me, I can play the same game for 20 days straight, binge watch a Netflix show for an entire week, and then forcing myself to try something new or start a new task and finish it... now that's difficult.

Oh! I will say this. I haven't tried Empyrion yet, but, I've been meaning to. However, my boyfriend and I got Astroneer. It's in pre-alpha so it is early access but we are both IN LOVE with the game. The textures aren't as refined yet but it's so freaking fun. So, I agree that crafting games really help with gamer ADD. I've been itching to play Astroneer some more, actually. It's ridiculously beautiful and a very fun game. I sank a few hours into it in one sitting and the time felt like it flew by very quickly.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

Originally posted by LunaFortuna:

I know that you weren't actually talking about medically diagnosed ADD, don't worry. But ADD is basically a lack of attention to something (spacing out, not finishing tasks at hand, etc) and that's how you described your gaming, haha. Even people with actual diagnosed ADD can either be the most hyper-focused and attentive people when it comes to perfoming tasks (such as gaming), or we're too bored out of our minds are jumping from one thing to the next to really focus enough on something. For me, yes, this includes gaming. It sounds like you have something similar going on. As for me, I can play the same game for 20 days straight, binge watch a Netflix show for an entire week, and then forcing myself to try something new or start a new task and finish it... now that's difficult.

Oh! I will say this. I haven't tried Empyrion yet, but, I've been meaning to. However, my boyfriend and I got Astroneer. It's in pre-alpha so it is early access but we are both IN LOVE with the game. The textures aren't as refined yet but it's so freaking fun. So, I agree that crafting games really help with gamer ADD. I've been itching to play Astroneer some more, actually. It's ridiculously beautiful and a very fun game. I sank a few hours into it in one sitting and the time felt like it flew by very quickly.

Very true and often misunderstood. In school, and still today(though I don't work in the fields), I focused on psychology, sociology and history. ADD isn't simply a lack of attention just as not giving authority figures rapt attention is not immediately ADD.

In fact, in my reseaching addiction and substance use and abuse(there is a difference, like the difference between having a drink and being an alcoholic), I found that ADHD is almost identical to the behavior that meth/amphetamine users without ADD exhibit. Essentially, 'tweakers' who aren't ADD become ADHD/ADD when they are using. They either get hyperfocused, lost in their own heads or just can't stay on one task.

Empyrion is great and, last I checked, it was being well developed. I wrote a guide on it that seems to have been pretty well received, if a bit obsolete as I haven't played in weeks and made the guide months ago. Astroneer will have to wait a bit, I blew my game budget over the holidays. I did get Osiris though, which is pretty cool as well. Not as free with design since you just build segments of structures and place them, but still very free and open and awesome and has great potential so long as the devs stay on task and are committed to deliver.

[Hippopotamus]

< So much one could do so one ends up doing nothing at all.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

Originally posted by an lol mellow:

http://decidermachine.com/

just do the game it picks, cause bad things will happen if you dont!

OMG.... I have to enter every game in there? I don't know if I have the wherewithall to commit just to doing that in order to get a decision I may or may not accept, lol. But seems pretty cool for smaller choices or those who are willing to put in the effort and accept the results no matter what, lol.

[Perpetual Pilgrim]

Originally posted by ..:

< So much one could do so one ends up doing nothing at all.

You'll have to elaborate for me, I'm unsure of what you're trying to say. Sorry.