The Unexpected Reason You Don't Play The Games That You Buy
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- Опубліковано 13 жов 2022
- Diving into why it's hard to find games to play from your big Steam library of unplayed games.
Here's the games that I played in the video:
Pyre by Supergiant Games
Lovely Planet by QuickTequila
FTL by Subset Games
Hollow Knight by Team Cherry - Ігри
![How to Deal with your Overwhelming Backlog - [SuperSamBams]](/img/n.gif)
I always thought it was funny when you look at a game's achievements and there's one called like "first beginnings, open the main menu" and stream is all proud like "only 40% of players have this achievement!"
In subnautica, there is an achievement for when you enter the water (which is the first thing you do after the cutscene when you make a new save file) and only like 70% of people had it (i dont know if it has changed though)
@@PearoIGuess People with aquaphobia and every water-related fear dipped their toes and ditched the game.
@@Soliye. For me, it was the dark. From the time I was a small child, I've been scared of the dark. And while it's a billion times better now, _Advanced Darkness_ can still trigger it.
So I'm fine in the shallows and middle depths, but once it's time to start really going down I just kind of stop.
I got this indie game recently and I played through the first chapter in one night. When I exited the game and looked at my feed, I was shocked to find only 9.7% of players got through the first chapter
@@xXGeth270Xx I'm one of those people that didn't get past the first ME Legendary Edition mission, I was told the game's story is some type of foundation in gaming storytelling or something and found out everyone lied.
This has to be why I’m usually so excited to get off work and chill out and play some games but when I sit down and look at my library I usually just end up watching shorts for 2hrs and go to bed lol
You mean UA-cam shorts?
@@reezlaw no? Man’s shorts
Old
Same...
@@30Salt lmao
The thought of your dad telling your mom it’s a DVD player just to smugglers it in so, you can have it makes me so happy you have a loving father!
Reminds me of this video I ran across the other day
ua-cam.com/video/oAXnpH1StEA/v-deo.html
he was probably actually getting it as a dvd player bc at the time it was one of the cheapest “dvd players”
That's such a dad move, too, haha.
@@ayden246that's true
One thing I've done to help alleviate the problem of overchoice is make a sublist of 10 or so games I'd like to play next and then select from that group instead of my entire library. It's much easier to choose multiple games you would maybe like to play next since it doesn't feel like you're making as large of a commitment.
This is what I'm currently using! Helped me reduce my steam games from 122 unplayed to 92 (currently 89) and still going. It also helps to promise yourself not to buy anything unless you complete your library.
I tend to go, "What type of game am I in the mood for?" and use steam's now-pretty-good library searching system to look at possible titles. Or I go "I want to play X but not actually X, what games are like X"
I like this idea
-mount and blade
-mount and blade warband
-mount and blade with fire and sword
-mount and blade 2 bannerlord
-Kingdom come deliverance
Bet you can't guess what kind of games I like 😈
@@billdecompsa4705 Historically accurate ARPGs?
I also feel like the main reason is lack of time. I buy i game, i play it and even when i like it, at some point, i have to stop playing to focus on other things in my life. When i finally get more time to return to the game, i may not be in the mood for it. Maybe i want a different games. Plus, i probably forgot where i was, what was happening and maybe even the mechanics.
At this point, it's much easier to just play a new game.
Weirdly, I think this is one of the strengths that laptops, handhelds, and consoles have over a desktop setup. I find that I can usually muster the energy to at least mess around in a game if I can do it while comfortably reclined on a couch or in bed at the end of a long day.
I've been trying to jerry rig up a good way to locally stream my games from my office to my bedroom for exactly that reason.
@@Bustermachine true of all the games that I've finished this year are either short indies that i can jump in whenever i have time or playable on portable devices
So true. When I was a child I had all the time and mental capacity to just immerse myself completely and binge-play games, but as an adult I cant and dont want to
I think this is exactly why roguelikes have become so appealing to me in recent years. Starting over is an inherent part of them.
@@ChrisCypher yeah after a hiatus, we just forget our progress and it suddenly become a chore to pick it up again, this is why I haven't been able to finish a single metroidvania game for years now and I a fan of the genre
This hit home so hard for me. As someone who just quit playing Lost Ark, and ONLY played that since it released, there were many nights when I wanted to start playing something else, but couldn't decide and ultimately just opened Lost Ark again because I could easily jump in and start playing something I knew well. The amount of energy we spend to learn a new game's systems and storyline often seems daunting. Your solution seems very effective and I'll have to try it!
Same here, I have a huge itch for competitive games and I often end up just choosing to open Valorant or Overwatch, even though I know that I might have more fun playing something else
Why did you quit? Was gear progression too hardcore? I leveled up and it was fun but then i realized how predatory the refining system is. I hate it tbh i would spend tons of time to grind mats and fail even at tier 2 and end up so disappointed i close the game and open another lol the refining system is evil. I heard the top-tier gear has like a 10% chance to refine if you dont use irl $$$ to get an item that prevente DOWNGRADING. fuck that game man 😅
@@cwcpants140 lol top tier end is like 1%, success rate base, and increases to 6% with full juice. I quit because while I was having a lot of fun, the FOMO mechanics were all over and I had a hard time willingly missing out on dailies / weeklies to play other games. I was playing 6 characters. 1 was 1485, 1 was 1445, the rest were 1430 and 1415. I really enjoyed the gameplay, but was caught in the gameplay loop and it started to feel like chores rather than fun. 6 sets of weeklies and dailies is a lot, and in the late game, you're not going to progress much unless you're maximizing your output on all 6 characters. I was making 45k gold a week, and needing at least 150k to gear my next alt. It all just became overwhelming and not fun. Sekiro has been a lot more enjoyable 😉
Same situation with me just replace Lost Ark with Rimworld
You’ll be back
About 20 years ago, researchers decided to study how we react to having too much choice. They set up a table full of jams in a grocery store, some with 24 samples, and some with just six.
Although shoppers were more likely to stop and peruse when there was a larger selection, they were also less likely to buy anything.
Do grocery stores realise that? They seem to be the ones who put up a lot of choice, thinking that it'll profit them, but does it?
@@gamermapper Costco definitely does. That's the reason why they usually only have two choices for items. They learned fewer choices equals more sales.
interesting!
The fridge analogy at the beginning is so spot on. I thought I'm the only person in this world who felt this way when opening my fridge. Stockpiled full of food yet nothing to eat. It's cynical when comparing it to countries in Africa but still.
That always happens. People often buy fruit an vegetables, dont eat them then toss them out. It is a big waste.
@@EatMyShortsAU My brother and I, both divorced and retired, has moved in with me to save money. We make pretty good money together, but one thing we don't do is waste food. Right now there are some stir-fried peppers and onions from last night in the pan. It will be used tonight in something.
I don't do most of my grocery, feels like this might be a huge part
@@trog69 That's good to hear.
@@EatMyShortsAU This is why I often shy away from fresh produce. I hate wasting food so if it's something I'm not sure I'll be able to prepare/eat before it goes bad I'll avoid it. And I'm usually depressed so that's more often the case than not
A phenomenon called "laziness" happens to me. While there is a part of my brain that wants to play a game, there is another part that feels lazy to play.
Same here. I wantto play but as soon as i start im falling asleep/bored
Laziness is when you do something you want to do instead of something you should be doing.
Doing nothing instead of doing something you want to do sounds more like an ADHD moment.
most people would consider playing video games all the time lazy so the fact you're too lazy to even do something that's considered as lazy is seriously worrisome man. we didn't evolve from monkeys for you to be this complacent.
I didn't mean for this to sound like an attack btw I hope you don't feel like I'm being a jerk
@@DahistheDah interesting point might have to get that checked.
@@DahistheDah I always thought laziness was putting as little effort as possible into doing anything, including just doing nothing
I always come back to a study I remember reading about Decision Fatigue. They have 2 groups, one that had to pick 1 jelly from a list of 3 jellys, and a second group that had to pick 1 jelly out of 30 jellys. There was a 100% pick rate from the 3 jelly group, and a 30% pick rate from the 30 jelly group. People hate having too many choices, it freezes them!
Yeah ive come to that conclusion too. I dont like the gamepass or the playstation plus for that matter. Too many choices overwhelm me and I end up not wanting to play anything or narrow down 3 or 4 games that catch my attention.
Yeah same that is why I like shopping at Aldi. If I want to buy white sliced bread, I got 1 choice that is cheap, I don't have a choice of 30 different types at difference price ranges, ones that are 2 for $5, was $7 now $4 etc. I don't really want to do a cost vs value analyst on everything I buy and have a choice of 30 types of bread or pasta sauces..
While I love emulation, it poses a similar issue to a large Steam library: it opens up the floodgates and give you access to too many games at once. I find that it’s easier to separate the ones I really want to play at the moment into a bracket, and then focus on them. Because if not, I end up just jumping from game to game, not finishing them. And for me, there’s nothing worse than not being able to finish a game.
Yeah, that's why I never just download a ton of games for an emulator all up front. I only actually play them if I do that for one at a time, even if that means I can't play a game I thought of when I don't have internet access (I have an xperia play which is super nice for emulators on the go)
Same thing for homebrew and hacking your console, I feel absolutely the same way as this guy on my DS with an R4.
It's sorta weird, but what I do is I buy the games on eBay or in-stores before I actually download them. (yes I know, at that point I can just rip the games to my PC, but I'm not paying $100 for a USB BD/DVD drive in 2023 lol) Downloading any game you want from the internet for free is just so fast and easy so you get caught up in it pretty easily; when you force yourself to buy the game for real and only then you can download it, then it prevents the floodgates from opening lol
Thing is with emulators at least you can afford to get rid of some games or not feel too guilty because when you buy games that's money you'll never get back and probably wasted forever
Of course i'm not trying to diminish the free games problem mainly cuz I got the same issue, just that one is kind of worse
I regret not downloading more switch games now the websites I use don't work anymore. any recommendations
I think that in addition to overchoice, as we mature we also become much more wired to find "meaning" in our actions. When I was a kid I'd just play those Flood vs Covenant fights in Halo 1 over and over again to mess around and use my imagination to tell a story as the battle played out. Nowadays I just don't do that; it would feel like I haven't achieved anything after the first two or three times. For kids as long as it's fun they don't care about the wider implications of meaning and efficient use of time, so they can just pick up and play something. Adults seek to find meaning in order to justify what they're doing. That's probably the biggest put-off for me with games these days if they don't manage to hook me in with a great story or with gameplay I want to get good at.
this is 100% me. i cannot have maybe more than 4 or 5 games installed because spreading out to too many at once ss just a bit overwhelming and i can feel like im wasting time on certain games when i could be making more meaningful progress on another
That's kinda what I feel killed my interest for open world sandboxes and fooling around. I used to explore every nook and cranny, nowadays I beeline to the side activities that give overpowered bonuses and meta my way to the finish line
@@OfficialDJSoru Yup. As I get older, most open world sandboxes just feel so unappealing. While they contain hundreds of hours of gameplay, most of that gameplay is just stale and uninteresting padding to make it longer.
Well said
The biggest thing that I appreciate here is that, when you covered your experiences with FTL, you pointed out a lot of good things that the game takes pride in and recognizing those before respectfully saying that it didn't personally interest you. A lot of people let personal bias shroud their reviews of games, but you gave the game a lot of respect even though it wasn't your speed. I might be a simp for FTL so I might just be biased too, but damn, massive respect to ya for giving respect to things even if they aren't your thing.
FTL is so good. I dream of an Android port.
You've hit the nail on what everyone should be saying. Pretty much all "This game is bad!!" comments boil down to "This game wasn't for me", and its completely valid to have that opinion. Technically there is no "bad" or "good" game, because ultimately its all subjective in the end.
You guys check out the "new" early access release of cosmoteer yet? Not exactly a new game since there was an alpha or something years ago but it's like an open world sandbox build your own FTL ships on steroids XD
Yea there's a lot of games where I recognise how well some things were done and/or why it's so popular, but just isn't for me. Fortnite is one of those games. Tried it out and it clicked why it's so popular and it really clicked that battle royales aren't for me haha. Great for what it offers and what it does but just doesnt interest me. The Last of Us is another big game that I REALLY tried to get into but just nope. But I can definitely tell it's a high quality game with the story, gameplay, music, etc. I just couldn't care for it.
@@edattacks Witcher 3 is a game i dont care about all yet people rave how great its supposed to be xdd.
If you need to hear this here it goes: if you're not having fun it's okay to move on. You don't have to force yourself to finish media that's boring you.
Well said. It's easy to forget. It's a feeling I battle with sometimes when I think of the money I spent and all that, but that feeling makes me less likely to play. I think its OK to move on if you've had a go with it but don't like it.
@@proximacentaur1654 exactly! And it does suck to spend money on games to find out you don't like it but that's life. You never know until you try.
@@proximacentaur1654 exactly! And it does suck to spend money on games to find out you don't like it but that's life. You never know until you try.
Thank you! This is the conclusion I've been making lately. I've been so focused on trying to play my 100 steam, but the progress isn't big. Recently I just decided to begin doing whatever I want and quit something if it doesn't make me satisfied. I won't watch anime if I'm not feeling like it, I'll do it when I have the mood, even if it means never. I stopped forcing myself into games and now I have discovered how fun it is playing modded minecraft. No pressure, no trail to follow, I just do what I feel like. I think it's the most useless but yet the most fun way to live.
@@lapkrit yep! I couldn't agree more. I've been watching The Simpsons. I may take a month or two off but when I'm in the mood it's hilarious. With TV I really think binging is more adverse than people give it any notice.
I'm going through my steam backlog too. I'm just playing through stuff on easy and not worrying about achievements. If something doesn't mesh I just move on.
I have what I like to call anticipation anxiety. I want to do things but when I think about them and the more I think about them then the more anxiety that I have. This eventually leads to the nevermind phase.
Something that has helped me a lot is making sure I only have 3-5 games installed at a time, then showing only ready-to-play games. If there is something else I'm in the mood to play I gotta remove something in its place. This has the added benefit of motivating me to actually finish games instead of leaving them half started
Me but small hard drive
I do this as well!
For a while now, I've intentionally avoided buying games on my wishlist if I know won't be playing them for a while, even if they are on sale. As such my backlog is only 10 games long and getting through them doesn't really feel overwhelming.
It's a perfect amount of games that I can make a choice what I want to play depending on my mood without it feeling overwhelming. And due to to the small amount of games it's satisfying to see the backlog noticeably shrink every time I complete a game
That is an impressive level of self control to only have a backlog of 10. I've also started not buying a game I don't want to play RIGHT NOW even if it's on sale, but my backlog is endless (partially because I have things like bundle choice so I get a bunch every month)
@@ChrisCypher The secret is to never have big backlog in the first place 😉
It was around 30 at it's highest
True say I think that's it. Simple but a revelation at the same time lol. For me focusing on playing one (maybe two) game at a time until you either finish them or are pretty certain you're not going to enjoy them. Maybe a one-in and one out approach too. If I know my backlog is hundreds of hours of gameplay over months then it makes less sense to buy. Plus the Steam sales always come round again.
I only have like 5 games on my backlog, since I exclusively buy games I know i'll play for sure after finishing the one i'm playing.
So I just have a carefully planed queue of games.
Same. I canceled my sonic pre order. I need to play god of war. Then pokemon. I still have like 8-10 I need to beat on my shelf too. A lot of souls like games.
I have adhd so I am literally naturally overwhelmed by most choices I have to make, but I also deal with impulsive spending because of it. fear of missing out or a game seeming really appealing to me for a few hours until I buy it and it loses all its luster soon after.
I basically play the same multiplayer games for extended periods of time and switch them up (I'll have an OW period, then an Apex period etc.) When I play single player ones I won't stick with them for very long unless something really hooks me, so I have a lot of started games but not a lot of finished ones
This actually scares me since everything you said word for word, literally describes me. I feel like I have ADHD, but I've never been diagnosed with it lol.
games turned out to be just like homework, theres a lot and you dont really feel like doing any
I have ADHD, but normally MP are the worst for me, I feel like I am wasting my time if I play one
That's basically me, I mostly switch around different sandbox or shooter games tbh.
I also have ADHD and this works for me:
1. Make a list what types of games you want to play in order
2. Select a few from the first ones (5 for example). There are two main types, completable and not completable. Choose from both types. If you want to play multiplayer and single player, include games from both. Keep those games installed.
3. Now select the ones you want to play the most right now. One that is completable, for example a story game or even an MMO where you can finish the game, and one that you can play forever, just for fun.
Play only these two games until you get bored, then switch to another from the installed ones. It's hard to finish a story game, but if you keep them rotating you'll be more likely to finish one.
If you've completed one, uninstall that and choose another similar game from your long list. If you think you're done with your "not completable" game e.g. a battle royale, replace it with another similar game.
This way you may not play more games but you won't get overwhelmed.
If you see a new game you've just discovered and really want to play it, move it to the top of your list. Once you finished something that'll be the next.
This can also solve the overbuying problem, since you only buy a game when you actually start playing it, and probably finish it too.
I went through the same thing. Uninstall every game you have except one you decide to play. And stick with it until you beat it. Trust me, it makes it a lot more fun
I once watched a TV report on a local ice cream shop that faced exactly this problem: previously, with over 20 ice cream flavors to choose from, many customers would have a hard time picking one, and some would even leave without consuming anything. After going through a renovation, they reduced the amount of flavors to about five -- then, customers made their choice much more quickly and, oddly, the satisfaction level seems to have gone up as well!
this was a very pleasant viewing expirience! well edited video with good commentary and an interesting topic. with this level of qiality i bet youll reach 10k subs in a couple years maybe, it might seem like a crazy huge number now but i assure you that it wont seem like it soon. keep up the good work man, youve earned a sub from me
Thank you!
A couple years? Bruh it doesn't take that long when he's making good content
@@weneedgoodhumanz8594 That very much depends. The dread god Al-Gore-Rhythm is a capricious being and making good content is not inherently a road to wild success.
@@Bustermachine you're right but 10k seems like a pretty achievable feat I think. I haven't posted videos here so idk
Originally I thought this was a joke reply but then I realized he was under 1k subs. Good video!
A small detail that you mention near the beginning of the video really resonated with me. You mentioned that you went over to someone else's house to play games as a kid. I remember doing that was awesome as a kid, my neighbor who was a couple years older than me ended up getting me into age of empires and that really sparked my love of strategy games. But gaming is a far less social experience now. And when it is, it's mostly thru stuff like discord rather than face to face. I think having a social aspect to gaming could help with the issue of overchoice. If you're hanging out with friends, the important thing isn't so much the game as just hanging out, so there isn't as much pressure to pick something specifc. And it could also help introduce people to games that they wouldn't otherwise consider playing because friends can introduce games to each other directly instead of recommending them to someone who will forget about them 10 mins later.
Also, I love the idea for your experiment. Even when you don't like the game as in the case of FTL for you, knowing that is good. One of the aspects of overchoice that you mention is that the decision maker can't have a clear preference for one choice or the other. So knowing that you don't like a specific game or type of game can narrow your options and reduce overchoice.
You know what, that’s a really good point. Sometimes it’s hard for me to try out a new game. But every few weeks I head to my old pal’s house and I usually play something new that I haven’t played before. And I’ve found some awesome games like that. Matter of fact, looking back, some of my favorite games of all time were introduced to me by friends having me play them. Like SC2 and F:NV
If you prefer gaming to be a social experience, have you considered arranging a LAN party instead of hanging out in a vc? Unless you have a number of friends living in different states/countries, I'm sure you find a place nearby and rent it for a LAN.
This is a good point! Without my buddies to play with, it feels like there's no point anymore 😢
i spent 7000+ hours in tf2 and once i quit the game, i decided to try to branch out and play other games. sometimes its very hard for me to play something in my library because it doesnt seem like the kind of game i would like, but a lot of the times i try to make an effort to play them and most of the time i dont regret it. i think this concept of too many choices is also why i have a hard time reading books anymore, theres so many but its hard to choose just one to read.
I got like 9 k hours in tf2, and probably about the same in every cod since 2009, I honestly can’t bring myself to play many other games, I’m stuck playing these two, and thankfully I’m not burnt out yet.
@ahahahahahaa2841 medical condition, probably.
Legit need to get it checked out.
"The themes of Final Fantasy 10 flew right over my head, I was just vibing to the music and looking at the cool monsters," -- This is how I play literally every game. I'm in my 20s and English is my first language.
You have to switch from a gathering instinct to an sorting mindset. It's daunting because we think we collected everything we need but we still have to put in more work. It's similar to taking photographs, I take twenty photos and usually one of them stands out.
This
Sorting mindset?
@@duckalotl yup, to organize things into tiers by some criteria. Gathering involves finding, sorting requires categories. In my experience 'overchoice' occurs when we have so many options that our gathering instinct kicks in but we should be sorting (if we like something or not and why).
You can use Playnite to organize your entire library, it will automatically keep track of which games you haven't played and it's very easy to separate them by categories or tag them by how long it takes to beat them on average with the howlongtobeat plugin.
It also has a random choice button and many other stuff such as tracking down the playtime and other stuff useful for spreadsheet nerds such as myself.
Basically it would be the same purpose as a Excel spreadsheet but automatic, the problem with excel spreadsheets is that they usually come from impulse (the act of making it in the first place) but the issue is that they need maintenance and chances are that 3 years from now when you have more games and skipped updating the spreadsheet you won't feel like updating it again and might actually prefer to make the spreadsheet from scratch.
You can also do this using HowLongToBeat itself. That's what I use. It also has an amazing community on the forums. The downside compared to Playnite is that it isn't automatic, but you can use it to keep track of games across multiple platforms, not only pc games.
Playnite is awesome, been using it for a while and it really helped me keep track of all the games I haven't played yet
Personally I've been using Trello to keep track of my games. I've created a card for each game I want to play, then I have columns for 'Backlog', 'Playing', and 'Complete' (as well as some others like 'Incomplete' and 'On Hold'). I normally look the game up on howlongtobeat and add the average length to the card too. I populated it with games in my library that I wanted to play, and games that I heard were really good. I ignored games that I wasn't really interested in, that I'd just picked up from humble bundles or whatever.
I find this to work great for me - after adding a game it's literally just drag and drop. I can reorder columns easily, so the top of my backlog is always what I want to play next. I can easily keep track of what I've currently got ongoing and what I didn't get around to finishing. It feels great adding to the growing 'complete' column. I've tagged each card based on what launcher/console I own the game on, and I've got tags for 100% completion, second playthrough etc. if I enjoyed a game and want to play more at some point. And I can look at the list of 35+ games in my complete column and feel great about my progress on cutting down my backlog :)
This video changed my life, hear me out.
Hearing you talk about ratchet and clank on the ps2 brought back memories. And I too played those games over and over as a child. Nowadays I'm so impulsive when there's a sale, and my library is filling up of games I need to play. This also applies to buying things in general. However, I learned from this video that this is something psychological, and that my brain is messing with me. I should enjoy the little moments and be happy with what I have.
You got me into ps2 emulation to play those amazing games again, you got me into just enjoying the games I currently have installed, and you got me into a whole different mindset in general.
I don't usually write comments, and I know my word choice isn't the best, because English isn't my main language, but I'm truly grateful for you making this video
Over choice is definitely an issue for me - I keep getting games that I think I will like and will "play eventually". My steam library has swelled to over 1400 games and I keep playing the same few games or just keep playing old school runescape. Before watching this video I'd already exported my whole library list to excel so I could use RNG to pick which game I would play next and this seems to have worked well for me too. Great vid, you've got yourself a new subscriber :)
holy shit thats a lot if games
I’ve found a few ways to overcome “overchoice”.
1. Becoming a completionist or trophy hunter. This helps avoid the common situation where you play a game for 15 min, then get bored. If you put your mind to actually 100%ing the game, even if you don’t fully finish it, you’ll get much more playtime and actually experience more that the game has to offer.
2. Spend a few minutes making a numbered list of the games you’d most like to play, and start working through that list. This forces your brain to focus on one game at a time, rather than the whole collection, which I’ve noticed will help improve your average playtime as well.
I know everyone is different, but these methods worked wonders for me.
I never got that though 100%-ing a game is often a boring chore, like why should I spend hours looking around to find all the hidden McGuffins or shoot a 100 pigeons just to get some arbitrary achievement and see some % increase a tiny bit?
Lot of the time you just end up using a walk trough defeating the whole point of any achievement really
I play games for fun and that doesn't sound fun at all, just seems pointless and boring if you ask me...
Also when you need to make lists in order to relax you're kind of doing it wrong XD
@@zwenkwiel816 that makes sense. It doesn’t work for everyone. I guess just the way my brain works I like to have structure to the games, even ones that don’t traditionally have any, like RPGs and open world games. I get overwhelmed with the idea of so many things to do so I like to add structure to my gameplay, even if those achievements are arbitrary.
@@zwenkwiel816 I agree that 100% -ing a game that has it's achievements based on collecting all of the various types of items or whatever are boring and a massive chore; but for me personally, I enjoy setting goals of getting something in a game, like getting a new ship in FTL or a new character unlocked or some such thing.
Maybe that's stretching what you'd define as "achievements" but idk.
Also having a list to organise yourself more is probably more relaxing for a bunch of people so they don't get overwhelmed by the feeling of choice in the moment, but get to simmer on it while making the list.
@@TheOppaiLord lol FTL is another good example of what I don't really like about achievements/unlocks . like I love the game and unlocking ships by playing the game is cool and everything. but some of these ships have such obscure requirements you won't really find them without a guide.
like you have to get this one specific random encounter and then you have to make the right choices to unlock some of these ships and none of it's really explained in the game.
like maybe it's just too hardcore for me but, without a guide, that just seems like trial and error more than anything XD
This has to be my top 1 video i've seen in 2022. Extremely authentic and entertaining at the same time. The direction and pace of the narrative was top tier as well!
Great video! A lot of people, including me, have a bunch of games on our backlog / library, and I really liked your analysis of overchoice and how this impacts what we choose to play! :)
Love the nostalgia of your retelling of your gaming history of gaming as a kid. So fun
I've had this happen to me so often, it's interesting to see this be looked into in detail. Looking forward to more like this.
I feel very inspired to do the same thing you did after watching your video. I've already selected three games from my combined PC games library and I'm excited to try them all out!
By the way, I wanted to say your script writing skills are very strong! The way you approached the topic felt very thought out, and fair. Great video all around!
This was a very well put together and concise video, kudos to you!
I can relate, even though I don't have a gigantic library of games.
My first console was a DS Lite, and I was 8 years old. I only had 2 games: Mario Kart and Pokemon Pearl. My dad would only buy me a new game each year, so I got to play a lot of the same games. The same happened when I got the Wii. I had a DBZ game and Mario Kart Wii. The hours I put in those games (along with my brothers) is enormous haha. I feel that I really got to know the ins and outs of each game I played.
Now I don't "master" the games I play, I just play them for a while and move on.
I appreciate the effort you put into this. Also, it strikes me that choosing 3 random games and reviewing them would actually make a great format for a whole series. Dont feel obliged to do it tho.
Tbh if he did that I'd totally be down to watch too!
Some other UA-camrs have done similar videos where they reviewed the most expensive games on Steam, lowest player counts on steam, worst reviewed games etc. I find them interesting because there are so many games out there and to see what these small devs come up with(good and bad).
Damn bro that was honestly great, i learned so much. i love your video style its so comforting
Exceptional video. This has inspired me to do something similar with my library. There's games in there I think I would enjoy but I just keep putting off playing them.
You should make this a series, this was so cool
I would really love watching a series of you testing 3 games of your steam library per episode. This video was really informative and I enjoyed it a lot. Your voice is really soothing and I loved hearing it.
I'd watch that
same
This is an excellent video. I have also found myself paralyzed with over choice as well. Not just with games but with movies as well with streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ even youtube videos to some extent.
My way of dealing with the over choice is to play shorter games (being limited with my time) that reduces the risk of feeling like I might waste too much time playing a game I don't enjoy. Or simply play something and if I don't like it just simply move on to the next thing. I have discovered a lot of games that I do like and also ones that didn't resonate with me.
I feel what adds to the analysis paralysis is how so many games now are designed to be played forever. You feel that before even trying a game that you might be taking on like a responsibility to it. So now I mostly play short and sweet arcade style games like shmups, beat em' ups and run n' guns etc.
This was a great videos and I can relate to it a lot. I remember as a child visiting a friends house and playing on his Commodore 64, my mind was blown when he said he hadn't played some of the games he owned. I had played every game I owned on my humble Spectrum 128 many, many times.
Now, as an adult, I have hundreds of games in my Steam and Epic libraries that I have never played. I scroll through them trying to find something to play and end up going back to an old favourite.
I actually started up a youtube channel just to give me a reason to force myself to play new games and to attempt to work my way through all these unplayed games. It's still really hard to choose which games to play though, maybe I should randomise them too.
Thanks for this video, it was really great.
My biggest hurdle lately has been actually downloading the games in my steam library and dealing with the massive file sizes. I’m sure even after I download them, I’ll still not play them though 😅
same, and i had 1 new game that i actually enjoyed, but it took up most of my storage and i wanted to do other things that required storage space so i had to uninstall it
This is so true.. That moment literally every game takes up 50+ gigabytes, and you can only have a few installed at a time lol. It's a major reason why so many games remain untouched after purchase.
Like you buy a game you've had your eyes on for a while during a sale and never download or play it because you'd first have to uninstall something else you're still somewhat interested in playing every once in a while.
I download a couple of games, play them for a while unistall them then repeat the process lol.
That’s my problem as well
@@luka188 "Literally" not all games are 50gb, most are much smaller. Also a 2TB SSD is cheap these days. This is a "I'm a poor child gaming on an old toshiba laptop but I insist on only playing the latest AAA games" problem you created for yourself.
That is such a relatable situation lol that aside, what a good video! Super enjoyable and I'm sure I'll be take a thing or two when overthinking and playing games moving forward. Keep it up Chief!
Awesome video, I think I'll try randomly choosing some games and seeing what they're like! My steam library is way too big lol
One important thing we had as kids that we have now lost in my opinion is mindfulness.
I've tried to be mindful once, to put myself into the game (Grim Dawn btw) and it worked very well. Ususally my mind wanders around: I'm playing UA-cam on my phone as a background, I'm thinking about other stuff, I'm thinking about in-game stuff but not at-the-moment-stuff (plannig etc.)... Alas I've done that only once in many years.
This was an interesting video with good pacing and editing. Glad I found out your channel by chance.
why does this have only 100 views wtf
Great video - next you have to dive into why we never finish any games anymore, even the ones we love! I have literally walked away from nearly all of my favorite games over the last 4 years shortly before completing them, even after spending upwards of 20,50, 100 hours on them
Congrats on winning the algorithm lottery! This was a joy to watch, and I felt very in sync with most of your analysis regarding too many games.
my solution for that for a while was just picking up short games (1-6 hours) cause they are so short i could quickly play, judge them and finish them, but it made me constantly avoid the longer games that obviously cost more that i got. i'll give this a try
Agreed. For longer games you might get more to play but the quality is so bad you don't enjoy them as much. Games should rather leave you hungering for more than being overwhelmed with what you have. That is something I noticed when comparing AC2 (nice, short game) wirh the more modern ACOdyssey (bloated, long, boring). It is the former I could imagine replaying some day. Skyrim is an exception though, despite its length it is always awesome
I fell into this trap for a while now. Although I played them all, I've bought too many games that just didn't end up being my thing and now they just sit there, never to be touched again.
And similar to you, when I was a kid, I was completely satisfied with the much fewer games because I had no choice, those were all I had, it was really simple.
Now I'm trying to limit myself to the ones that I know for sure I'm gonna get into. At least my careless spending helped me discover which types of games are, or are not my thing. I've experimented all types of genres and franchises, I think I can narrow it down from now on.
Basically having no choice is bad, but having too many choices is overwhelming. What is needed is having fewer and simpler choices, which you should narrow yourself.
watched because yt algo. stayed because lol, i just realized im on the same page. your points are very relatable and your words all well put and befitting. this one resonates with me and i am going to find the will to try out some games i have never touched and hope this invokes the enthusiasm ive been wanting to have but wouldn't come and stay.
Thank you for this video, honestly! I suffer with this kind of "analysis paralysis" in many areas of life, mostly as you mentioned when all options look equally good and there's no way to weigh the pros and cons of each one. When the choice isn't time-bound, what usually ends up happening is that I delay the choice infinitely and end up not picking anything - probably the reason why I haven't played a new game from my Steam library in about four years.
I didn't know this phenomenon had a name until now - "overchoice" - but it's really useful to know! I really think that the strategy of removing choice can be helpful, not only for games but other things as well =)
Great video! I'd also like to add on an additional thing that may be unique to me though: you mention the outlier being that some games may be a higher value for whatever reason, but for me this actually makes me *less* likely to play them for some reason. I guess it's a subconscious thing where I go "well, I know I'll enjoy that so I'll hold off on it until a special moment." That's why I still haven't played CrossCode or Sekiro, despite being games that I am extremely excited to eventually play. Or the fact that I feel like getting The Chant right now instead of God of War Ragnarok. It's completely stupid, but one of those things that can be hard to overcome.
Cross code makes me very sad and nostalgic for the old social MMO's
I'm having this exact problem for a while now then this video shows up, what good timing!
I'm kind of cursing myself right now, because in hindsight the solution presented in this video should have been obvious to me. I've actually been doing this exact same method with my anime list for about a couple of months now where I take my "want to watch" list on MAL and put it through a random number generator and watch whatever it picks. It comes from experience when I say that your solution/idea very much works! It's removed my tendency to freeze up when trying to find a good anime to watch and to just jump in without thinking too much about it.
I don't know if you have this problem too, but I imagine it comes from the same place. But I deliberately put the remote/keyboard/mouse far away from me when I start watching something. Otherwise I get this impulse to skip ahead for no other reason than because I can.
Great video, "Overchoice" is a new addition to my vocab! I often feel guilty adding new games to my shopping cart when I have a multitude of unplayed masterpieces in my backlog, like buying fast food when my fridge is full of food lol. Fortunately the games don't expire like my food so im' going to duplicate your experiment here!
Hi Ghost, I really enjoyed this video. I would love to see more, maybe you could turn this into a series? Picking 3 random games you own and then playing them and giving some conclusions in the end? I would sure watch it, subbed!
This was a great video! I'll do this from now on as I've started to get a bunch of random games (Thanks Epic Games and having income). Anyways, great video. It was very cozy
As someone with over 1000 games I haven't played in my stream library. This was really reaffirming
How the fuck do you afford 1000 games?!?
@@SnoFitzroy I've built my library through sales and humble bundle for like 15 years
Thank you, this video was really helpful. I remember being a kid and getting a Wii for Christmas. The only two games I had for a while were Wii Sports and World of Zoo, and I played them both for tons of hours. Getting a new game was always a momentous occasion, and I would play it either right away or the next day. Now as an adult, I have over a hundred unplayed games across multiple platforms. I get stressed over the idea of choosing a game, playing it, and not liking it, because whenever that happens, it makes me less likely to play new games. When I consider starting a new game, a lot of times I end up replaying an old game or just not playing any games. I'm going to try your method.
Great video, I really liked it. I'm in a similar situation with a big difference, and that is that I'm basically really bad at videogames, so I have the added preoccupation that I won't be able to succeed at the game. I usually circumvent this limitation by setting the easiest difficulty level when possible, or even cheating when that is not enough, so that I can enjoy the experience, the story and the graphics anyway.
I totally feel you, I have like 400 games on my Xbox that I haven't played because I accumulated so many when they were on sale. I'm now trying to grind through the games I have before buying new ones, but with less free time, I only get to finish like 1 game a month (depending on the game's length)
Haven't watched the entire video yet, but I feel like wanting the game is more exciting than having the game
Great video, speeks to a feeling i've also had for a while. I have a list of games in my library that i finally want to try out, and when trying to decide which - i can fell overchoice just blocking me from actually making a decision.
Quite interesting and useful take on this problem many of us have. Thanks for the video. I was just considering deleting games from my Steam account forever just to reduce the choices
Oh, yes. I've felt this.
Steam's lists help a lot. Unless you want to group all our RPGs (the tag is seriously misused).
Having a list for installed games, is a must to me. It helps reducing the options to what I can really play without waiting for an install.
And a small selection of up yo 12 favorites is keen.
But divin into the lists and installing thigs that catch your eye while uninstalling things ou have not touched helps cycle the games and give them "visibility" so that you can try them.
Neat video, I know for me a stumbling block can be I am reluctant to learn new skills out of a fear of failure. Now this is dumb, learning how to play these games is often fun and I generally don't care that much in the moment if I fail at a game, that is part of the game. I love figuring things out but still I can have this dread of going in and trying something new and being lost if that is not the intended experience.
This is my struggle, alongside just not sticking with stuff I like for reasons I can't pin down. I love learning about new games and all the intricate systems they have, but with multi-player games and games with harsh loss conditions, I have the same anxiety. I know if I could just push through it and deal with the complications, I'd enjoy it, but that takes more effort than learning about mechanics for me.
I think I can understand that. I have a similar feeling that can block my engagement with a new game. I'm trying to make sense of it and work through it when I play a new game. Teaching myself the difference between a game that I might like if I push on with them, and the games that I'm not going to like regardless.
That make sense. I spent over 2000 hours on CS Source and CS GO, I am pretty average at CS go but I stuck with it because I enjoyed them. However, now I don't feel like sinking hundreds of dollars in to a new game/series.
Cool channel man. Look forward to more of your content.
Pyre is one of my favorite games of all time, so I'm glad you got to play it. I can understand the gameplay is a bit repetitive, but it's story is so good.
I have done something like this in my channel as well, except instead of randomly choosing the games, I put all the games that I got for free or really cheap and never played into a list and let the viewers vote on which one I play every two weeks or so. I play them until I can decide whether I like them or not or until I think the comedic potential for the game is used up.
At some point I realized that I just enjoyed playing a huge variety of games, and some I was never going to have the time to fully complete. And then Isaac: Repentance got released. And I fell so in love with the entirety of the game I can't really stop playing it. I always feel an urge to play another run. It always feels fresh, yet familiar at the same time cause I start to know it so well. But I can't feel bored. For now, the main completion marks keeps me playing. And at some point I'm going to want to do all the secrets. It feels so different from any other game I've ever played because almost every achievement I get unlocks something new for me to play around with when I find it. Some achievements unlock new normal items. Some unlock fairly important items, like mom's knife. Some unlock new bosses, floors and paths to take, giving each run more diversity the deeper you go down the rabbit hole. Maybe you've heard of a good item in the game and know how to unlock it? Now you got a new challenge with a really exciting reward.
The entire game is so good at triggering your intrinsic motivation you can't really stop playing it unless you want to. But there is no time limit for anything particular in the game, making you don't feel like you "have" to play the game to not miss out on anything. Well, there are achievements related to daily runs, but those are mostly for 5 runs in a row and 30-ish runs in total (can do those 30 over 6 years if you want to). The game never actually feels like a chore, because you play it out of your own free will. And if you play it all the way through because you think the real game only starts once everything is unlocked, then you are probably going to feel like it's all a chore, cause the achievements are not called "secrets" in game for no reason. You are supposed to come back, do a run, maybe unlock something new, then next time maybe find it and use it. And then you find out the new item is garbage, lose the run and say you never want to play the game again. Until one hour later when you come back to see what more crazy stuff the game has for you.
Isaac is such an addicting game omf
after 200+ hours I got tired of it :(
but it's a good game and has given me good memories.
I sunk at least 200 hours into FTL when my grandma was sick. But it is very random and difficult. I enjoyed the music and story beats but I never actually beat it. It was a perfect game for me at the time. I still love it but I barely ever play it anymore.
Came across this video and I just wanted to say that, I’m glad I was able to see this, it really shows the true nature of video games and how it can impact the choices we make, and yet we are bombarded by so many things that it’s hard to choose just one to go off of, again I love how this video speaks to me and I bet all of us who have to deal with the overchoice phenomenon.
Looking forward to the next set of random games you choose to play. Given that for a proper experiment it needs to be repeatable, you'll need to run this exercise a few more times at least.
I think for me, it's that games are a commitment.
When you have 20 or so games. It's not even a problem, you - WANT - to play those games. You don't feel obligated to work on them, as you'll actually get to it in some reasonable amount of time.
But when you have hundreds. You end up in an incredibly uncomfortable position where gaming doesn't feel fun anymore. It feels like a chore. You don't know when and how to meet a game half way anymore.
Every game has its own vision and thing going on. Maybe the experience doesn't just - click - and come together until the very end. But at this point the game has to be really be offering something to keep you around. Which I feel like is just unfair towards the game.
You start getting upset and angry at how long it takes to beat the game. Even if it's a really fun one, i've still caught myself wishing the game would just get itself over with so I can move onto the next one.
For instance I constantly find myself rolling my eyes at the concept of continuing to play Witcher 3. Witcher 3 is so chock full of amazing content, I haven't even found Ciri yet (which to my understanding happens a third into the game) and I have over 200 hours clocked in that game. I've hardly ever had a moment I wasn't enjoying my time in the game. But yet I still dread. I dread touching it, I dread its existence. I dread it because it is a - commitment -. I just can't find it in me to delete it. Because I enjoy every minute of the game but I just see how it's only going to be one notch off a list of hundreds of games I need to play and beat.
Every game stops feeling special. Just another coat of paint, characters stop being unique. You see them for the empty text husks they are. Experiences rarely become memorable.
I ended up taking the hard stance of seriously asking myself. How much do I want this game, and how much do I genuinely care about the setting, gameplay, music, etc.
You start hiding everything in your steam list, you delete your wishlist/keep it to a tight budget (mines is 10-15). You start finding it really hard to make cuts, you start finding what really matters to you. You make cuts that months later resurface and you cut again and resurface again. Realizing that they're meant to be because you actually care about that experience.
You keep your installed games to a minimum of 5-10. And you're NOT allowed to play ANYTHING else until you beat those games.
You don't think, you just click on a game and start playing it.
It's a difficult relationship and a difficult situation. But I think what made games special before is that you actually got to connect meaningfully with the characters. You wanted to be there, maybe it was the only place you could be due to ability to actually acquire games. You realize that you aren't meant to experience everything. I have seen hundreds of games I want to play, from triple A to ramshackle indie games I want to play.
But not everything in life was meant for you, even things you obtain. Perhaps are better off in someone elses hands (though thats hard with games these days, ha ha)
I don't know if this will help anyone. But it helped me. Even if you cut 841 games down to 114 games. You may still not play them all. Or even if you're someone who's tight on time, 43 can be an overwhelming amount. Even if you can get it down to 18, maybe you won't play them all.
It doesn't matter. What's in your hands right now, what you're playing. Is the only game that matters. Immerse yourself in it, be with it. Don't care about the other games, care about what you're actually engaging with. Stay with something for as long as it feels important to you or you feel some calling to it.
I totally agree with many points you're making. Interestingly I myself am about 70 hours into The Witcher 3 and it is so much fun, but I too have hundreds of unplayed games on my shelf calling out to me in their tiny voices: When are you going to play me? The answer is someday maybe. But I can take a break from The Witcher every 40 hours and play a 5-10 hour game like: Inside or Summertime Madness or Stray or Submerged or Horror Tales the Wine or The Gardens Between. It helps keep the main games fresh. Reviewers complain when a game is 5-10 hours. But I get excited when I hear that it's that length thinking: Wow, I'll actually be able to play this one!
I also talked about The Witcher 3 in one of comments on this post.
@@eyeoftheosprey6678 it's funny because I deeply appreciate short experiences now.
Breaks from long games are nice, but it's really easy to get sidetracked and just have your focus spread too thin and you're not really making progress on anything, just a lot of unfinished experiences.
As a kid, I would play a few games on my PlayStation, DS, or Game Boy Advance over and over, usually with cheat codes on to have chaotic fun. It never got old because I didn’t have much to pick from and I enjoyed what I had.
Destroy All Humans!, Sly 2/3, and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames come to mind as my old “comfort” games.
Looks like I am a prime example and when I've seen the title of this video on my homepage, I chuckled. There's 1379 games in my Steam library and I never played 980 of them. With that said, I am trying to make some steps into at least trying some of them now, because it's getting quite silly, every sale I buy something. "I might play this one day" but then I never do and it just gets lost in the sea of other games in my library. This sometimes leads into funny situations where I see a game in the store and I am thinking "I'd really like to play this" so I go to the game's page and wouldn't you know it, it's already in my library lmao.
Great video!
i loved this video, thats something i've been thinking a while ago, i was looking my backlog and realized that most of it are free games i redeeemed once but for some reason tehre are so much of it that i normally play something i've bought before,
to deal with the overchoice i try to install 1 or max 2 games that are in my backlog, separing it with tags in gog galaxy and is cool, i can enjoy games this way without having to think in my backlog, again great video lvoed it
For someone who learned English as a second language I’ve got to say
You either have EXCELLENT editing skills (and you do)
Or you’re extremely well spoken. This was an excellent video ^w^
I have this same issue but I've actually solved it somewhat by creating a system for myself. I am playing all the single player games in my library, alphabetically A-Z before I buy any more games (not counting multiplayer stuff). I have like 300 games, and since starting at Amnesia like 2 years ago, I am now at M, playing Manifold Garden. Instead of agonizing over what to play next and feeling bad for not playing some really cool games I have, I just move one down the list, knowing I'll get to it all eventually.
that is dedication, managing you games library through a spreadsheet to randomize choice! :)
Dude what. How did you describe my experience with Jak & Daxter perfectly? I love the first area of that game so much, but never continued after that FOR YEARS lol
Great video!
I recently went through my steam backlog of ~590 games or so and put them into collections: Family Fun, Try Out.
I ended up putting like 85 on the Family Fun and like 130 in the Try Out lol...still a LOT to go through but I basically tried to do the same thing you did by reducing the amount of choice.
In the past, I've also tried to focus on the smaller games (30 year olds with families.
Yeah as an adult, I always find myself buying games with the intention of playing them, and rarely find myself with the required time. I love gaming and I love to collect physical games, but the lack of time is always getting in my way. Also I completely related to your Jak and Daxter 1 scenario, I would do the exact same thing lol
Something I started doing a little while ago was limit my visible game library to my favourites list and maybe 1 or two other games that I have installed and want to play, makes it much easier to focus when the list isn't hundreds of games. I play through those 1 or two other games until I beat them and once they're done I uninstall and hide them to make room for another 1 or two games to play next, and I keep my favourites list visible at all times even they're uninstalled because it makes me feel good to look at games that I've loved and have made an impact on me. Who knows, maybe those games I'm currently playing through will be added to my favourites list after too!
I've been wanting to make a video on this topic nice job!
I was kinda expecting this video to have a bunch of views the quality is insanely good
A friend of mine once told me that we reached gaming singularity where we have a ton of games but no desire to play them.
I still have fond memories of older games that I played in the past like Killer 7 and Etrian Odyssey 4 I still go back and play them every now and then but I now do more things other than gaming.
The steam deck helped with this a lot. I think because you choose a game and put it to sleep when you’re done. When you turn it back on, you go right back into that game instead of choosing what to play again.
It’s like having a cartridge in your gameboy. That’s the game you play because that’s the game that’s already queued up.
UA-cam recommended your video to me, and I enjoyed it. I'm subscribing.
FTL is one of the best games I've ever played. I love it so much that it felt weird hearing you mention it would be your first time playing it, especially by random chance. I do hope you give it another shot someday.
Humble Bundle is in fact a good reason for about 50% of my steam library. I buy a bundle for one game, and get 10, sometimes I might try one and sometimes I just register and ignore it, maybe find it later, maybe not.
Ah, you noticed that. One of the reasons key swapping is a thing.
@@brodriguez11000 yea I have given a friend a key before if I already own a game that was with it, but in general I just add to the ever growing collection.
I think you can prove the third condition for games fitting into your overchoice category can be easily proven by thinking about the opposite scenario, which is that if you happen to know a game more than the others, you'll pick it far more often (which holds true, as you stated at the start of the video with mostly playing overhyped games).
You can know more about a game's popularity or reputation without having preferences over it, which is what you described in the video.
Overall, I enjoyed the video a lot! Thank you for the content and I hope fortune comes to you and your channel :)
Great video man. Funny you said about about your dad getting the PS2 "dvd player". My ma did the same thing. Well, it wasn't a "dvd player" anymore after GTA3 came out! 🙏
I found that limiting my game storage to a single 1tb SSD and only showing installed games on steam really helped cut down on choice.
Every time your interest gets pulled away to some new game, you have to delete one, maybe a few, to jam it in. Games that you've finished, burned out on, or just didn't like should naturally get filtered out.
Since you seemed to enjoy Lovely Planet, I would highly recommend Neon White to you (in case you haven't played it yet). Very similar, but with a nice twist. Plus the respawn time after dying is almost instantaneous.
Same though , I'd love to watch another episode of this
Thank you for this video m8 it put another perspective in me.