How do YOU play games?

[Beo]

So I’m curious. I’m wanting to put up a potential feature on MEW and have it as a weekly feature, but I am also wanting to gain some insight, as a result, this thread appears.

I want to know from all of you, how do YOU play games?

• This is not a thread about on which platforms you play, I couldn’t care too much about semantics. Gaming is gaming no matter which platform you play on.
• What I am interested in is the way(s) you play games.
• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time?
• Do you play one single game to completion?
• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting?
• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games?
• Do you have multiple games going on any given time?
• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials?
• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one?
• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game?
• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game?
• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter?
• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style?
• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games?

As you can see there are so many variables, I’m not necessarily wanting your exact methods but rather trying to get an idea of your processes. What goes on in your head, your thought processes and behaviour patterns etc.

I know some community members like @Solitude are very dedicated and committed to their processes where he goes so far as to have a Trello board he updates as he progresses.

Then there are other members like @Hiro that make a lot of game purchases, despite this he manages to complete games, and rather regularly I might add. Though as many as he completes, he also doesn’t

On the other hand, there are people in the community who play and switch games as the wind changes, members like @Wlad who cannot settle on one single game at a time and become bored with one type of game. Constantly swapping and changing between game types and stories. Not at peace with one specific genre and tries to play as many games as humanly possible.

So there you have it. Some of my ideas and thought processes on this topic. I would like to expand a bit further but would like to gauge some form of interest on the topic, if any at this point. If you’ve read through all of this malarky and are still engaged at this point, I applaud you, thank you for sticking around.

I would like to hear from you, share your thoughts and inputs, let us get this convo going.

PS: Please don’t think of this as a survey, the questions were merely a starting to point to get you thinking and spur your creative thought process. Allow yourself to open up, elaborate, explain or even give the journey map of your gaming process. Explain yourself on what you like about your hobby and what you don’t, and if you could, what would change or do differently, etc.

Beo…

[Wlad]

Hey why gotta call me out like that bro?

I think this is a cool idea though and I’m definitely interested in seeing more on the topic.

I think the reason why I jump from game to game so much is my fluctuating attention span. Sometimes I can play one game for 5 hours straight and sometimes I start a game and put it off within 10 minutes. Sometimes I’ll boot up a random game just because I’m bored and then I’ll play it for hours for that one session and not touch again for weeks or even months. Other times I’ll be actively busy trying to play through a specific game, but I’ll launch it and close it very quickly and then not touch it for a while but the next time I’ll play it for hours again. I’m just weird like that.

There is one exception to this rule and that is that Sunday is my Soulslike game days. It started out as RPG Sundays when I was working at BT. We closed at 15:00 on a Sunday so I decided to play RPG’s on Sundays since I have more time available on those days and RPG’s can be pretty time consuming. Then it turned into Dark Souls Sundays and eventually Bloodborne Sundays and right now I’ll play any Soulslike on a Sunday. At this point I kind of see it as my religion even. I will still play other games, but mostly Sundays are reserved for Souslike games.

I also used to dedicate Saturdays to whatever I was playing on PC at that time and for a while I played Witcher 3 exclusively on Saturdays. I am actually thinking of going back to that since I showed my nephews Witcher 3 the other day and now everytime they are here they want to see Geralt because “Geralt is die beste” (super proud uncle moment) according to the 5 year old, the other one is 2 so he doesn’t really know but he does point at my statue and then at the TV I’m using as a monitor. This has made me want to carry on with my NG+ run I never finished.

That came out a lot longer than I thought it would…

[Hiro]

Given my obscene backlog across multiple platforms, I am sometimes ruthless when it comes to cutting games off. Zelda, for example. It just was not clicking for me, so I ditched it.

I generally try and play one or two games to completion before moving on. The main reason for this, is that my muscle memory is rubbish and I get confused with control schemes if I try to play too many different games at once. So i’m patiently waiting to play Just Cause 4 and AC Odyssey, but first need to compete Dark Souls Remaster.

As far as times go, I only really get to play once the wife and kids are in bed. So probably 2 hours of gaming, 3-4 times per week. and on Friday nights, i get roped into marathon FIFA sessions with some buddies. I just wish there were more hours in the day!

[Beo]

I just wish there were more hours in the day!

And THAT is one of the ideas behind doing this. There can be time, but then it comes down you making time and/or your priorities.

[Solitude]

Good thread!

*** Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time?**
I generally schedule which games I will play before I play them. Like on XBox One I’m currently playing RDR 2 and then I’ll play Divinity Original Sin and then I’ll play Monster Hunter World. I sometimes make changes to the schedules however.

*** Do you play one single game to completion?**
Most of the time yes. However sometimes like now with Resident Evil 6 I stop because it’s just so bad. Or with Pillars of Eternity I took a break and then um never got back to it.

*** Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting?**
I mostly play on normal. There are some games that I’ve played on Easy like The Evil Within. If a game is known to be crazy difficult then I’ll play it on easy.

*** Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games?**
I used to be. I subscribe to Humble Monthly Bundle and XBox Live Gold so I get tons of games like that already. Occasionally i’ll buy games like I bought AC Origins for myself over Christmas.

*** Do you have multiple games going on any given time?**
Normally one on pc and one on XBox.

*** Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials?**
I wait for specials. RDR2 I scheduled to get for Christmas hehe.

*** Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one?**
I buy when there’s a pricing glitch (Metro Exodus), it’s a special occasion (Christmas, birthday, Superhero day) or if it’s an amazing special on a game that I can’t resist. Like the Torment Collectors Edition that I got for super cheap.

*** Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game?**
Yes I do. In theory I shouldn’t buy games at all because the backlog is so big.

*** Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game?**
Yes! I track my games list in Trello and when I see that baby move to a different list then it makes me feel good.

*** Are you an achievement/trophy hunter?**
Not at all. I’m a bit of a competitionist in many games though so I tend to take longer to complete games that the average time to beat.

*** What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style?**
I like most kind of games except platformers and anime style games.

*** Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games?**
I play an hour an evening and then over weekends I tend to play in the mornings.

[Wyvern]

• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time? Some days yes others I just keep going with whatever is the flavour of the month - unless the flavour is something that I am not enjoying, then I will find something else

• Do you play one single game to completion? Since most of my games are mmo/rpgs - I just play for the fun and as far as I can. I do finish some games completely if they have a full story line.

• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting? Yep - easy mode - If that is to easy then I change to normal - but I don’t like to struggle for ages on puzzles or certain parts of a game.

• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games? I used to be, but not anymore. Now I am very fussy. To many games have let me down.

• Do you have multiple games going on any given time? yes - but I tend to fixate on one at a time, but others are always there incase I feel like something different.

• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials? These days I cannot afford new games so I wait for specials.

• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one? Not always, but I try and finish something first before starting something new

• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game? Not at all, all my games have been played at some time or another - even if it was 30 years ago.

• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game? Depending on the story yes.

• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter? Im a shinies hunter - I tend to not go for achievements but have a bad habit of being easily distracted by silly things.

• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style? I play something of everything, but prefer multiplayer games since it forces me to be social.

• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games? nope, I play when I feel like it - normally from about 8 or 8:30 till 11pm at night. And some weekends

[Shrike]

It all depends on workload and time availability. I am a dedicated family guy, my wife and kids come first. There was a time when gaming ruled my life and I thankfully extricated myself from that potentially disastrous situation.

Now I play a little bit in the day, about an hour or so sometimes on lunch break.

I have 2 hours available at night, depending on the needs of my family, since I go to sleep at 10pm and start work at 4am.

All these variables constrain my gaming so that I get about 8 hours a week in games. This means that my choice of games are also prescribed by my time. I love playing MMOs but they are massive time sinks that forces a certain level of commitment for the “end game”, which leads me to end up playing them for questing rather than progression, which, in turn, means I run out of things I can viably do in them.

Inevitably I end up thrashing around for something cheap, that can be paused and that has an end.

Nothing screams “bad father” to me more than when I catch myself saying things like: “Just hold on a little, I just want to get into a safe place to log off, then I will come help you”.

[Hiro]

• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time?
  Nah, I will generally play whatever game I am trying to complete at the time

• Do you play one single game to completion?
  Generally, yup

• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting?
  I will give it a go on NORMAL, but if i find its wasting time replaying sections, I have no qualms about dropping down

• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games?
  NO COMMENT!

• Do you have multiple games going on any given time?
  I try to avoid this, but given that I have multiple platforms, it happens

• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials?
  NO COMMENT!

• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one?
  NO COMMENT!

• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game?
  yes, I feel guilty to shelve games. I have FO76 installed and intend to play it, just to justify the expense

• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game?
  This is my jam! love the feeling of clocking a SP game. Which is why i sometmes get put off “infinite” games like Destiny

• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter?
  I used to be, but no longer

• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style?
  I hate fighting games and have recently gone off racing games. Favourite genre is probably “Soulsborn”, but i’m easy

• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games?
  Not really, i take it where i can get it

[DohcWP]

• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time? yes that’s the only way i play

• Do you play one single game to completion? i try but that rarely happens.

• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting? yes, racing games i normally play on a higher difficulty but adventure or shooters on a lower difficulty in order to complete the story as fast as possible.

• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games? sadly yes but only games on special i don’t buy games at launch anymore no matter how badly i want it.

• Do you have multiple games going on any given time? Yes

• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials? i tend to wait for specials

• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one? not really since i would still buy it on special to play and complete at a later time.

• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game? sometimes

• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game? it really depends on the game and how much i was into it.

• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter? normally only when I’m in the top three

• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style? i prefer racing, Sports titles like Golf and tennis, Adventure and Fps titles, occasionally a puzzle title, I’m not into multiplayer type of games as i only play when i usually get a gap.

• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games? no, i wish i could, if only there were more hours in a day.

[Beo]

Thanks everyone for their responses thus far, I’m actually really enjoying reading all this. Please don’t think of this as a survey, the questions were merely a starting to point to get you thinking and spur your creative thought process. Allow yourself to open up, elaborate, explain or even be give your journey of your gaming process. Explain yourself on what you like about your hobby and what you don’t, and if you could, what would change or do differently, etc.

[Wyvern]

Im terribad at that - rather send me a list of questions

[Flex]

I tend to stick to 2 or 3 games at most.
They are 99% competitive games where interacting and working towards a goal with or against other people. I am sitting with 350+ games in my library and have been playing 2 of for the past few months.

I also tend to play too seriously. I am a very competitive person and enjoy the thrill of winning or attempting to win.

[Deadlypinecone]

I tend to have a few games on the go at time as I game depending on mood and time availability.

I play casually so not hard difficulties or highly competitive stuff. I don’t need the extra stress in my life.

I don’t feel guilty about backlogs or not playing a game much. I see it as a collection.

[Talentloos]

Do you play one single game to completion?
Generally, yup

BULLSHIT. 10 chars

[Hiro]

BULLSHIT

Hitman
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Darksiders 3
Red Dead “god this is boring” Redemption 2

And that’s just in the past month! What games have you played to completion in the past 30 days ?

[Talentloos]

I was out doing things with friends and living my life. Unlike you that just sits inside and plays games the whole day. Loser.

[PsychoFish]

• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time?
  – What I play mainly depends on my mood and available devices

• Do you play one single game to completion?
  – Mostly, sometimes I get distracted and play 50% through, play something else to completion and then remember I was playing something else.

• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting?
  – 1st playthrough will be “Normal” or whatever the default setting is when I select “New Game”. 2nd playthrough will be at the hardest setting, unless I get frustrated.

• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games?
  –Guilty as charged

• Do you have multiple games going on any given time?
  – Guilty as charged

• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials?
  – I’m stingy, so it’s discounts and specials

• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one?
  – Are you mad, it was 80% off I bought it even if I never intend on playing it

• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game?
  – I sometimes cry in the shower

• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game?
  – Only if it’s not a Ubisoft game

• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter?
  – Do I want all the achievements? No; Do I sometimes want a rare achievement so I can brag about it? Hell yes, BTW, I’ve beaten XCOM and XCOM2 on Impossible Iron Man

• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style?
  – Anything I can replay without getting bored

• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games?
  – When I have free time, thats when I play.

[Talentloos]

• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time?
  • Yes. I go through phases. I play whatever i feel like at any given point. Mostly though i cannot decide so i just sit and watch youtube.
• Do you play one single game to completion?
  • No. I hop around more than the energiser bunny. Every now and then a game grabs me and that is all I do until its finished. (spider-man, god of war) Sometimes the game is too good and i dont want it to finish, so i will delay it. (red dead 2)
• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting?
  • Life is hard. games should be easy.
• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games?
  • Yes i buy all the games.
• Do you have multiple games going on any given time?
  • Yes.
• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials?
  • ALL THE GAMES. i blame @Hiro .
• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one?
  • Nope
• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game?
  • Nope
• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game?
  • Sometimes. Depends on the game.
• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter?
  • Nope. Dont have the time and energy for it.
• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style?
  • I will try almost anything. I prefer action games, rpg’s, platformers, sims, whatever looks interesting. The games i play the most are online games. Mostly Overwatch and Destiny 2.
• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games?
  • I generally do not play in the week. But from 5pm on a friday till 8am monday I game the whole time I can.

[Beo]

BTW, I’ve beaten XCOM and XCOM2 on Impossible Iron Man

Do you have a Trophy/Achievement to prove that?

[qornea]

• Are you the type to play whatever you’re in the mood for at the time?

Yup. It’s almost standard for me to load up my console when I get home (for Netflix or YT) and then play whatever I’m in the mood for.

• Do you play one single game to completion?

I buy a game, and then play the shit out of it until it’s done. Then move on to the next one. I can’t change between games on the fly.

• Do you play games in a specific difficulty setting?

I play on normal, but if it’s a long game (like Assassin’s Creed) or a game where I’m more interested in the story, I will set it to easy. I’m a grown-ass man with limited time. The only time I’ve ramped the difficulty up is playing on Torment X-plus on Diablo 3 - but that’s because the build makes those levels easy. I don’t like difficult or frustrating games. So it’s a no for Bloodborne and the Souls series from me. I don’t find losing, and trial and error grinding fun.

• Are you a compulsive buyer, like me, despite having an accumulated library of unfinished games?

Nope, because I don’t play on PC. I have lots of Steam games on my old gaming laptop that I never played. But when you’re paying R800-R1000 for a game, you damn well make sure it’s a game you really want, and you milk it for all it’s worth.

• Do you have multiple games going on any given time?

No, not really. Unless there’s a pick-up-and-play element to it (like joining friends in Destiny 2).

• Do you buy new games, or only wait for specials?

Both. There are ‘must-have’ games that I get when they launch (eg, Red Dead Redemption 2), and then there are games I’m interested in, but unsure of (eg, Hitman 2) that I get on special.

• Do you restrict yourself to only buying a new game once you have completed one?

No, I will buy multiple games at a time if they’re available and then complete them in succession.

• Do you feel guilty for your massive backlog, or for shelving a game?

The only game in recent memory that I’ve shelved, incomplete, is Monster Hunter World. I like the game, but the grind was way too much for me. Was it a waste of R900? Yeah - but one miss out of 10 hits in 2018 isn’t bad.

• Do you get a sense of accomplishment when finishing a game?

Nah, I mostly play games for the experience (fun gameplay or great story). I don’t particularly feel one way or another about considering it an achievement.

• Are you an achievement/trophy hunter?

As above, no. I’ve only platinumed two games (FFXV and Diablo 3), and that was more a coincidence than anything really. When I checked the trophy list, I saw I was like 3 or 4 trophies out, so I figured, cool, why not? Not something I actively seek out - especially because some requirements are downright stupid.

• What type of games do you play or prefer, and does this impact your play/purchase style?

Story is paramount - continuation from stories I enjoy is awesome (hence I really dig sequels and stuff). But I also really dig addictive gameplay loops and loot rewards. I used to look down on Destiny, Diablo and Borderlands until I actually played them. Because of this, though, I am wary, because I know full-well I am a prime target for microtransactions and aggressive monetisation techniques. I have, do, and probably will continue to spend money on loot boxes. I used to spend all my pocket money on Pokemon trading cards when I was 12, so this is not surprising.

• Do you dedicate certain days or hours to games?

Not really, I play whenever I feel like playing. I might plan ahead to play with my friends online, but it’s basically whenever the whim is there, and I play until I’m done.