I’m curious about how people decide what games to play, and once you decide what games to play, how do you decide what to work on especially if you’re prone to alts.
For myself? I tend to decide what game I want to play based on my mood. Nothing very fancy about it, I’ll lean this way or that about a game. I’m pretty easily influenced, and if a large portion of my friends seem to be having fun in one game I’ll gravitate over there to check things out. If I’m in a quiet mood I tend to stick to sandbox games where I can just do my own thing, or single player games. That’s how I prefer to relax.
As for what I decide to do in game, it really depends on the game. I tend to do my dailies, or “chores” when it comes to sandbox games like Wurm Online (tending to my fields, my animals, etc). Once that’s done I’ll decide whether I want to craft or explore, or maybe do dungeons or raids. Again it depends on the game and just how much there is to ‘do’ in it. Single player are a bit easier, at least the game has a progression to follow to ‘complete’ it, but there’s still decisions to be made.
Do you find yourself sticking to games that you’re paying for via subscription or do you constantly wander? Are you personally swayed by what others are playing or do you march to your own tune? Are alts constantly vying for your attention? Let me know in comments!
I tend to go through phases with games. I’ll play one consistently for a few weeks or a few months maybe and then I get a bit bored and move onto something else. Though one game I always seem to play is Wurm but for me it’s a TV game. I will always be watching something whilst playing Wurm so yeah it depends what I’m in the mood for. Right now I am also playing a lot of The Sims 4 :-)
Since I have to organise a lot of projects for my day job I need my hobbies to provide some balance – meaning lots of spontaneous, fun and anything but organised. So I tend to play two games in one evening to mix things up and I’ll usually just go with whatever I feel like at the time. It makes for slow process but that’s ok with me.
Very much a mood player here, though I tend to wander along to the beat of my own drum.
Between Steam sales and bundles and free-to-play MMOs, I have a plentiful list of games that sound interesting to me. Then depending on if I’m in the mood for action or strategy or discovery/exploration or whatever, I’ll pick something that seems to fit.
This style has pretty much knocked me out of the running for subscription titles, as I can no longer deal with the lingering guilt that I “should” be playing something to get my money’s worth. I pick up games at a price point I’m comfortable with, and play them as and when I feel like.
If I’m in the midst of playing it and decide it’s worth dropping an additional $5-10 for some a la carte option that gives my account additional stuff, then fair enough. As long as there’s no rental time limit.
Like you I’m mainly mood-based although I am also influenced by what Mrs Bhagpuss is playing. I like to play multiple MMOs while she tends to stick to one at a time so I generally end up spiraling around the one she’s concentrating on, spending time there then wandering off to other MMOs for a while then coming back.
Following that format I might play anything up to half a dozen MMOs in a single evening although two or three would be more likely. That usually breaks down to one long session of several hours in what I think of as my “focus” MMO (currently GW2) and shorter sessions of 30-60 minutes in the others. Often the shorter sessions will mostly be taken up with dailies or checking what I’ve sold on the broker.
Other times I might have an idea for a blog post and log into a specific game to take screenshots or refresh my memory about something and I often log into MMOs I haven’t played for a while on a whim just to get the feel of them and see if anything’s changed. I’d quite like to be a bit more organized about the MMOs I play and thereby make a bit more progress here and there but it’s not really in my personality to follow a schedule for long.
I’m terrible at playing multiple games. I tend to stick to one and rarely two. Currently it’s Eve Online and Kerbal Space Program. The reasons are similar, both are space which is tranquil and pretty. And with Eve, being a multi-player game the friends in it is something that draws me back.
I have many many games I want to get back to, or finish. Like Dragon Age (no, the FIRST one), Skyrim, and a slew of other games. And I really want to. I love some of those games. Excellent games.
Thanks for making me think about this. I’ll make a reall effort over X-Mas to finish… Dragon Age. Yeah.