Play Style

100 at a time.

I usually play several games at the same time.

However, I focus mostly on one game that is story based at a time, a couple of hard games/roguelikes that take a long time to beat and some short games for when I can't commit to a long game session.

At the moment I am playing Steamburg (short bursts), Cursed Castilla (hard), Darkest Dungeon (long) and Jotun (aiming for beating).

I play one game at a time and get 100% achievement completion on it or as close to that as I can get. If this game is too long, like Age of Empires II I'm currently working on, I can alternate between two games as opposed to one at a time.

For me, I'd say it is always > 5 and < 20 at the same time. I think that is the ideal balance.

Why, you may ask?

It's really simple, to be honest. Having more than one game to play has a certain benefit, which is very important in my opinion. First, there is just this universal simple truth, known as variety is the spice of life, but that's not all. Different games play best in different time spans. Some games are demanding, you have to take some time to get into it, or require a certain amount of your attention, but reward you with a great story for this. Those games cannot be enjoyed completely when playing in short bursts. You just have to give them some playtime for the best possible experience. Other games, regardless of genre, best described as more "casual" in their nature don't have those requirements when it comes to time. You can just start them, directly hop into it, and maybe play for 10,15 or 30 minutes and you're good. Easy to pick up, easy to enjoy, for when you simply don't have the time to play for a couple of hours. That's why it is great to have your go-to group of a bunch of games, you always have something you can play, whatever the current circumstances are.

But, at the same time, I always strive to stay below a certain amount of games which I play at the same time. In my example, not more than 20, maybe even less would be better. Otherwise you risk running into demand overload. Again, games require a certain amount of your attention, but this is a very limited resource you have. This also depends on the type of the game, of course. You can play a lot of simple casual games at a time, that is true. This is not the case for games that are a bit more complex, or story-driven games where you have to know certain details of the scenario to be able to really follow the plot. It would not make much fun to simply sit through such a game without being able to remember vital aspects of what is actually happening in front of you. Another issue, at least for me, is realizing that you just started a game you wanted to play, but don't know all of the controls off the top of your head. So you end up having to switch into the settings menu to just check the controls and keys of the game again. This is a dead giveaway for me that you are trying to play too many games at a time :)

Too many choices now a days I guess. But anyway, thanks for your time.

Yes, this is absolutely true. A real problem of our time, in my opinion, cf. "The Paradox of Choice" and similar works..

I always have several games installed at once.
Partly it's a matter of having different genres. So, I like to always have some puzzle games to play. I play them in short bursts over a long period of time.
I usually have one big strategy game and one big rpg going at any one time. RPGs are the toughest for me at this time of my life, because my time is so limited. I have four kids and a busy job and life. So, playing long enough sessions to get into the story of an rpg is difficult. But a good streategy game (like XCOM or Civilization games) can catch me and I play it a few times a week for a couple months before I get tired of it.

Finishing games has never been a priority for me. I have no OCD tendency toward completing. So, I am quite content to play only as long as I find the game interesting.

When I was younger and had more time for gaming, I had fewer games. But they tended to be the big long ones - Fallout 2, Oblivion, Arcanum... I played those games to death. Now, it's very different. It took me years to finish Skyrim. And I liked it very much indeed.

I also will typically install new acquisitions to try them out. I like to play them long enough to get a feel for them. After all, it's why I acquired them - because they appealed to me! I like to see if they really are what I thought they were. Most times I am pretty happy with them. Only rarely am I disappointed. One such disappointment was a cheap little game called Tower of Elements. I don't know how I mistook this game so badly, but when I fired it up to check it out, I was so disappointeed! It was not at all what I expected. I mean, I must have thought it was an entirely different game. It is now in my hidden list.

I have my multiplayer games that I always play and then I have that one game I play for the story.

Always 1 at a time.

For me it really depends on how busy I am, if the game has achievements, and if the game is even tolerable. Usually I go through a few in one sitting, but I rarely go to completion due to how awful or buggy they are. I always end up reviewing them and adding them to a category called "NeverPlayAgain", which I keep minimized.

Other times, my ADHD gets the best of me and I really enjoy a game, but the gameplay is so boring that I stop playing and forget that I had even started it. I've been cleaning up my library little by little and I'm trying to sift through the heap of trash, but it's difficult when it takes 10 minutes to download 200 megabytes.

I've had a problem recently when I just start staring at my library and can't think of a single thing that I want to play. I've decided recently that I'm going to start cleaning out my backlog just to categorize and finally sift through everything. I'm probably going to download and make a list of things to plow through and have them all download during nights and give myself a goal of sifting through at least 10 a week.

Good luck with anybody that is cleaning through their backlog, it's very difficult and time-consuming, but in the end it is entirely worth it.
P.S. - If anyone has tips on how to categorize games I'd like to know what works best for everybody.

When I play a game, I keep going as long as that's what I want to play. I might play nothing else until I finish it, I might not; if I decide I want to play something else, I do that instead, but I keep the game I already began in a category at the very top of my list, so I'm constantly reminded, "Hey, you haven't finished this yet. Either do that or decide you're not going to and delete it." I haven't counted in a while, but there are usually at least a dozen games in that category at any given time.

I also try not to have two of the same type of game in progress at once--so, one JRPG, one 4X, one FPS, etc. If I want to play that kind of game, I've got one already started, and if that one's bad enough that I'd rather play a different one, then I might as well just delete it.

I hate not finishing games, but forcing myself to beat a game that I don't like just makes me not want to play at all. (I do have a few weird games where I have no motivation to open the program, but once I get ingame I might end up playing for hours, but that's another thing entirely.)

most of the time i stick to 1 game till i finish it, especially with long games like elex or fallout 4.
with shorter games i can play a bit of each one. games split in short chapters/missions are good for this, like duels of the planeswalkers or book of demons.

I like to jump around to different games. Yeah, sometimes I'll play one game for a couple hours in a row. But not usually.

I have over a hundred games that I started and have yet to finish, and let's not talk about netflix, every time I wanna watch something I end up wasting almost an hour just searching.

I usually pick one game to play and finish at a time. If I liked it enough by the end, then I go back for achieves. If not, its uninstalled. And if its too buggy/boring, then I dont bother to finish.

I also have what I call my "palate cleanser" games. Games like Banished and Eurotruck sim that are super easy to pick up and put down so after I get through a binge of lets say.... Fallout, I can play some Banished until Im over the "I wish this game was more like Fallout" phase.

Well, I'm always playing Overwatch but I try to stick with 1 game at a time. However sometimes I have a few, it just depends on what is going on with gaming for me.

Currently, I'm playing Final Fantasy X and I'm about half way through. I'm playing Divinity 2 with my boyfriend when he has time after work. I'm doing a few achievement games like Plague Inc. I got gifted Black Desert Online so I'm trying to get into that but its confusing xD Plus I won Dawn of War 3 which I'm doing a mission here and there when I can...

So quite a bit recently but most of it I can handle with weekends off or half days at university :3

Thats just PC... I also got a Switch recently so I'm playing Zelda but that I can play in bed so its no problem. Currently not playing anything on 3DS or PS4 so thats good also :3

I try to focus on one, but usually end up playing several.

Some games require total concentration, and longer sessions, which I may not be able to give them. So I try to also play something lighter, quicker to play and put down again, for the times when I can't commit to 30+ minutes of uninterrupted game time.

So currently I'm trying to play Mirror's Edge Catalyst when I have time to focus on the game, and Seraph when I don't, and pop into Forza Horizon 3 for when they have a Forzathon event or I'm bugged into playing it by others.

I also started a game on my phone, but I realized I kind of hate playing on my phone. And I have a game running on a 3DS, which I never have time to play.

It is really bad for me as I have always been tackled them one at a time. But I'm a bit of an achievement hunter, so if the game is kinda meh, I will get really tired of it after a long grind for all the cheevos :< Anywho, games that are great will get more playtime tho :>

I Play csgo and Monstrum and pub g.

i want to play more games in my library but i get bored quickly. then watch youtube or twitch

I have about 10-15 installed at a time and jump between them depending on what I feel like and how much time I have.

It can take me a long time to pick something to play. I keep a text file of all my games and I highlight the ones I am the most interested in playing to make it easier to pick something. I also create separate lists for different types of games that fall into certain categories so I can find something I want depending on what type of game I want to play.

I always try and finish every game I start. I will only stop playing a game if it is really bad, but that is rare because I have become pretty good at weeding those out and not collecting them in the first place. I have a pretty good idea of the type of games I like and don't like.

I will usually only play 1 main story based game at a time so I can focus on that. I will play other games at the same time, but only games that are not story based or in depth in any way, like a racing, puzzle, or online competitive game.

I have over 100 unfinished games installed (and another 100 not installed) at the moment so I might have a bit of a problem. If the games are < 3 hours I try to finish them in one sitting. If longer chances are the game will end in the unfinished pile of doom till I decide to get my shit together and power through it till I finish it.

I have currently 43 games installed that somehow crawled up from < 20. It can be pretty weird if you have games you return to because they are roguelikes, or just civ-kind of endless skirmishes, or unfinished games. Like how I installed SR 3 and 4 solely to get an achievement (damn I need to do it today D: ) or how I just tried to run Dark Messiah of M&M. I try to focus on one bigger game at a time to finish, and try not to get really sidetracked by roguelkes, short games - low-hanging fruits of the backlog - or another bigger one. In this it helps to keep the download list fairly short.

I'm typically playing three games at once: a visual novel, a game that's not a visual novel, and a game I play with my girlfriend. It helps me cut down on unfinished games - I either complete it straight through, or realize I don't like it and set it aside for good, rather than lie to myself and say I'll come back and pick it up later. It helps keep my backlog moving!