Like many gamers, I’ve always got a “game of the moment” going – something I’m playing in my off-time, sometimes a board game, and sometimes a video game. Games have been the passion of my professional life and my hobby for as long as I can remember, back to when my mom let me drop that first quarter in Space Invaders in the local arcade.
Once I’m done playing something, choosing the next title to play is a struggle. (Yes, this is most definitely a first-world problem!) Sometimes my professional life intrudes on the process; if I’m working on a particular genre, it’s important to play a bunch of similar games to analyze them. But it’s also nice to pick up something different as a break.
Sometimes the process of choosing the next game leads to the dreaded “gamer slump” where I’m not playing anything at all. I wander sadly around the house, a broken man, filling leisure time gaps with less engaging activities like “household chores” and “reading.”
Fortunately, after so many years in the industry, I have a giant backlog of titles I’ve barely played. So getting past the slump is usually as easy as popping open Steam, scrolling through the library, and beginning what I call the “uninstall shuffle” – cycling existing games out, clearing off some space on the old SSD, and downloading something I haven’t played for a while.
to avoid the install shuffle!
Above: John Butterfield’s excellent
Enemy Action Ardennes title.
These days, it’s rare that I hop on the latest and greatest big release. A lot of triple-A games leave me cold, and (like most Steam consumers) I’m often fine waiting for the first sale. I’ll make exceptions for titles I know I’m going to love, like Baldur’s Gate 3, but often when picking the next game to play I’ll revisit an old favorite rather than dive into something new.
While a younger me would be in heaven if presented with the grand buffet of options in my collection, sometimes I’m overwhelmed by my choices. So how do I choose the next thing to play? Because it’s gotta be right, damn it!
The Long and Winding Road
Given my lack of patience, the install size is the first limiting factor in the process of picking the next game to play. Do I want to sit around waiting while some 100-gig monstrosity installs? Oftentimes, the answer is “hell no.” Those tiny indie titles get a leg up when I’m itching to play something right now.
The next choice is the game’s topic – stay in the same space or make a sideways leap? I’ve been asked by friends and family why I need multiple games covering the same topic – for example, wargames covering WW2’s Pacific Theater. The answer is that I don’t need them, of course, but I enjoy seeing different takes on the same topic. Experiencing how different developers handle similar content has taught me a lot over the years.
The previous game’s genre, too, often drives my choices. Maybe I’ve just wrapped up a giant epic role-playing experience, something like a Baldur’s Gate 3. The choice of the next game could go either way.
I might have loved the experience so much, I want to dive back into the role-playing genre – picking up Larian’s previous work, Divinity Original Sin 2, for another run, or maybe dipping wayyyy back to yet another Baldur’s Gate 2 playthrough. Or I might be so exhausted by RPGs that it’s time for something completely different – hopping to an FPS or a wargame.
Topic and genre interrelate. Maybe I’m loving the World War 2 theme in my latest wargame, but I need a break from the mental burn – that’s the perfect time for a few rounds of Hell Let Loose, an excellent team-focused WW2 shooter. Maybe I’m enjoying the spooky scares of Phasmophobia with my friends, but can’t get the gang together; picking up Amnesia or some other single-player scarefest might be the right answer.
Palate Cleansers
So I wander from game to game over the years, one title leading logically to the next. I can usually trace the line of thinking back and understand why I picked up one game after finishing another.
But the decision-making process isn’t always crystal clear, and my attention span is short. That’s why it pays dividends to have that extra SSD space and keep a bunch of games installed at the same time.
A run takes about an hour, making
for the perfect palate cleanser.
Like an alcoholic two-fisting drinks on a Saturday night, sometimes I split my attention. Maybe I’ll play a deep wargame like Graviteam Tactics until I’m tired of the brain burn; that’s the perfect time to pull out the innovative roguelike Path of Achra for a quick run. Maybe I’m finally sick of every World War 2 game, regardless of genre, and the right break is to dip into Farming Simulator for a little fieldwork – creating life for an hour or two, rather than reveling in military destruction.
As a developer, I always try to learn something new even when the game I settle on is a familiar favorite. I love to experience older games through fresh eyes, taking note of an underused mechanic or a bit of content I’d missed while reliving the good times I had when the game was fresh.
And, despite momentary dips over the years into the gray and empty world of a gaming slump, there’s always something to play next.
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