[General Discussion] One game at a time or multiple games at once?

When you are in a situation where you buy a few games in one day or in a week or so, do you take turns with each of them or play one game at a time? I just hate taking turns playing each game for some reason. I like taking one game at a time, because as I'm getting to the end of each game I start to get really excited to pop in that new game that I haven't played yet.

But a lot of people like to rotate between games until they beat them all. I just can't do that. Also I get the different story lines mixed up too.

Which way are you in this regard?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm absolutely useless with storylines so that never matters but I prefer to focus on one game at a time. I do sometimes find myself working through one game on each console, or at least one on the PC and another on the consoles.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Electric eye, looks like you're not the only one. With me and FFXII, I really put the story on the backburner, and just went from point A to point B, killing whatever was in my way. Perhaps this is why I'm really into FPS type games right now.

I can see where this will be a problem, when I do get a 360 again, I'm going to have a hell of a time deciding what games I want right off the bat - will I just be happy with one game for now, or should I buy like 5 games and have a ball? Many of them will be FPS for sure. You've got your Ghost Recons, Rainbow Six, Gears of War, Call of Duty, amongst other action titles like Dead Rising
Heck, I might throw in a fighting or racing game just for some variety, as RPGS are something that really isn't a huge thing on the 360 as of yet.

As of now, I just try to get through one game and stick through it right to the end credits, unless I'm REALLY bored of that game. It's rare that I play different games, but I stick with the same FF title or Disgaea or Metal Gear game until the end, then I finally take the game out of the console.

How ya doing, buddy?

I usually play one game at a time if I have a stack of games. I tend to confuse storylines as well especially if I haven't played one in a long time. I also don't like picking up a game and forgetting what the next objective was simply because I had stopped playing it and picked up another one.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I like to mix up my games. I get bored easily so I like to juggle games to keep things interesting. Granted I get confused with the story and like sometimes but I can usually sort it all out.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I really shouldn't, but I try to play multiple games at once. This usually ends with me not finishing any of them, but I feel like I bought a game for nothing if I don't touch it occasionally.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Strange, I was just thinking about this today. I usually don't like to play more than one RPG at a time, as the (sometimes intricate) storylines require a lot of attention; I can play multiple games, but among these games only one RPG would be included, usually. Other genres, while they may have complex gameplay, certainly don't exercise memory as much as RPGs do, in most cases depending on the RPG.

Something to note for me is that if I have not played a game (specifically an RPG) in a long, long time and I pick it up again from a save point, more times than not I will remember the storyline and the games' mechanics very well. This still doesn't make me confident enough to juggle more than one RPG at a time, though.

FELIPE NO

For me, I have the wonderful tendancy to do the following:

Buy an older system near the end of it's lifeline.
Buy many of the classic games for 20 bucks or less.
Play those, each one at a time for a little while.
Buy some sort of newer portable gaming system. Get one game with it.
Play that.
Go back to the old games.
Go back to the older games from a past system.
Get a few (cheap) games for the newer portable system and one expensive, new game. Start on all of those.
Beat a few games, but not all of them.
Repeat process.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I am HORRIBLE about flitting from game to game. It's possibly/probably why I have such a huge backlog of unfinished games.

Example: It's been 5 years since I bought Ephemeral Fant...

Okay, better example: I've had "Kuon" for about 3 years now, ever since I was on a horror kick. All sources point to this being a 20-hour game tops. I still have yet to finish it.

Part of it is my school and work schedule, part of it is a tendency to get frustrated very easily combined with a COMPLETE inability on my part to deal with frustration (seriously, jealousy, rage, indignation, depression, rejection, all fine. I chew them up and spit them out. Frustration? Fucking debilitating.) that leads to me being turned off to a game for, sometimes, months on end.

I suppose I could blame the A.D.D. I was diagnosed with as a kid. Oh, wait, who WASN'T diagnosed with the bullshit disease as a kid? No excuse there.

I probably have about 20-30 games I'm in the midst of playing. That's on set-top consoles alone, not counting:
--My DS
--My GP2X loaded with classic emulators
--My PC
--Newer emulators/ISOs on my PC

It's not just games, either. I do the same thing with anime series. Revolutionary Girl Utena? Yeah, torrented the whole thing 3 years ago, watched 2 episodes, shelved it when I got Xenosaga or something. RahXephon. Tried 3 times to start it, got maybe 4 episodes in, shelved. Even Ergo Proxy, which I love to death, has failed to hold my attention from start to finish.

Books, too. Took me a year to read "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman. We're talking maybe 300 pages, and not a difficult read in terms of complexity, vocabulary, linguistics, etc. A YEAR. You can imagine the chill that goes up my spine when I look at my copy of "Applied Cryptography."

Sometimes I hate my life.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

If I'm playing a game that actually has a storyline worth following (haha), and I have something else shiny and new sitting around, that'll play the waiting game. There's nothing worse than getting started on say, two RPG's, juggling them, playing one only to keep thinking about what's going to happen next in the OTHER one instead.

Actually right now I'm flipping in between about six games, but none of them even have a storyline to begin with. Unless the big damn trucks are going to turn evil and stab a breadroll or something.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Muzza

Strange, I was just thinking about this today. I usually don't like to play more than one RPG at a time, as the (sometimes intricate) storylines require a lot of attention; I can play multiple games, but among these games only one RPG would be included, usually. Other genres, while they may have complex gameplay, certainly don't exercise memory as much as RPGs do, in most cases depending on the RPG.

Exacly.

In my case i play multiple games, but only ONE has a storyline to follow. I usually play an RPG as my main game and since i get bored no matter what, i like to have a fighting game, shooter or action game as a backup. So it's easy for me not "forget" the storyline of the game.

For example, I started playing Xenosaga Episode II this week, and I have Djmax (a Beatmania clone) and Espagluda (shooter) as backups games when I get bored of Xenosaga.

How ya doing, buddy?

I've been taking turns with...a LOT of games lately...and as a result I have many games that I really need to finally finish and am too burned out to even think about it. I don't get hung up on storylines, I'm just too anal about being a completionist. If I find out about a side quest of some sort in game, I won't want to move on until I finish it, and that just slows down the flow very quickly. And it has happened in so many of the games I've played between September and now that I haven't really played anything in nearly a month. So I need to just take each game one at a time and play straight through without thinking about collecting or 100% or such things. I've got 2 games on 360 I need to finish, 2 on PS2, 1 on GameCube, and 2 on Wii. Not to mention I have 10+ games or so that I still need to OPEN and play at all. Yeah I really gotta slow down with the buying and game hopping...after I buy GTA:VCS and Tomb Raider Anniversary and start those up >.<

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I almost always have an array of games to play which I hop to and from. There's an endless backlog of games I need to complete in my room, but compared to some people's, I ain't got nothin'.

Usually I jump from genre to genre. One minute it'll be shooting, next it's music, next it's fps, back to shooting, back to music, on to an RPG, etc.

I'm never satisfied with just playing one game at a time. It's rare that I'll find a game which I'll just ditch all other games over, sit down, and play constantly. I'm either in the mood for playing x game or I'm not.

I was speaking idiomatically.

There's plenty of games from a few years ago that I sort of abandoned, but I have plans to get back to them soon.

But now, I'm pretty managed when it comes to playing games. I'll play several at the same time, usually two or three for my various platforms: DS, Wii, PS2 mainly... sometimes SNES or DC. And I keep sort of a flowchart in my mind of games to move onto upon completion of certain other games.

How ya doing, buddy?

If we're talking RPGs, then one game at a time. I want to be able to enjoy the storyline, music, etc from each game, and if I don't finish (or at least get stuck in) one before starting another, I'll end up focusing on my favorite anyway.

For other types of games, I play lots of them at one time. I've got a short attention span, so I'll spend 15-30 minutes with a racing game, then 10 minutes with Tetris, then 15 minutes with Kirby, etc. Otherwise, I'd never make it through all the games I've got.

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

Unless the big damn trucks are going to turn evil and stab a breadroll or something.

Isn't that what happens in Super Excite mode?

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Only one RPG on the go at a time, because otherwise I'll forget where I am. Otherwise it tends to be the case that I'll play multiple games at once. I tend to focus on a game exclusively for a while, then switch it out for another one if there's a point at which I get stuck. When I return to the game, I tend to get unstuck again, because I'm coming to it fresh.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, I've currently got both FFXII and Dragon Quest VIII on the go, and find that playing the both them is beginning to get a little confusing.

On the whole though I generally play through one game at a time so that I don't get myself confused at what is going on, and what I have to do.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I prefer one at a time, but since Christmas I've been juggling between 4 Xbox 360 games without too much difficulty.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I usually focus on two to three games at once. If I'm serious about finishing an RPG, then it'll be that and a couple platformers or anything else that doesn't involve much thought. Occassionally I'll start two RPGs at once and focus on whichever gets good first. I'm good at keeping storylines and such straight; it's more a matter of time commitment.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm notorious for not finishing games because i try to juggle them with other titles. Recently i've been doing the list thing, but it hasn't really worked out. I was on item two of a 10 item list, until i got side tracked with Starcraft campaigns again.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Actually now that I think about it, I do juggle games sometimes, but not games with ANY type of story. That means not even a FPS. Unless it is online. Like right now I'm playing Resistance for PS3 online and I also play NCAA 07 for 360 too.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hmm, great topic. ^_^

I used to be the type to mercilessly rush through games, so I would have the tendency to play them one at a time. Though since the New Year, I can't explain why, but I've been playing several at once, not really finishing anything.

I remember when Okami came out, I rushed to pick my copy up and played it for three days straight until it was finished. And it was only to get an RPG I was already playing back into full view (FFXII-J).

I think that one game without moving back and forth is better, because you tend to appreciate the game for what it is without too many distractions. Also, I find that I replay games more often when I stick to one at a time.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I normally buy games right around Gamestop's Buy 2, Get 1 free sale, so I tend to (literally) buy in stacks. My problem is that games nowadays take much more of a time commitment, so I can't spend 3-4 hours on a variety of games like I could with the NES/SNES effectively. As a result, I have quite a massive backlog and I'm probably going to end up just getting rid of some of the ones I've accumulated.

I've tried balancing several at once, but outside of arcadey-type games which require next-to-no time commitment, I either lose interest in all at once or I just stay on a single one. I probably need to commit to one at a time more to get more out of what I have.

By my count, I have 11 PS2 RPG's I need to either finish or start...That's not counting 3 I'm putting on ebay (started them and didn't care for them) or Phantasy Star IV (Sega Genesis Collection). And that's JUST RPG's...I'm really careful about buying now, just so I make sure I actually get to playing what I buy.

I think games would benefit from shorter playtimes...Many NES games could be beaten in 1-2 hours of straight play (stretched out due to the challenge level in a number of them), whereas that's a small fraction of what it takes to get anywhere in a lot games nowadays, whether you're making good progress or not.

FELIPE NO

Depends. If its a game which has a deep enthraling storyline (Typically RPGs), then I'll stick to that game and ignore anything else (Perhaps an occasional very lite arcade game like Pac-Man or Tetris for mindless 5 minute amusements), while on the otherhand, If I get frustrated with a game (Typically fighting games do this to me) I'll switch over to a different game for a bit, then back to the game I was playing originally. I was most recently doing this for Shadow of the Colossus, Resident Evil 4, and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones for the multiple game switching, and the single game for when I was going through Final Fantasy XII.

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I have an insane backlog too, speaking of backlogs. I have about 30 games I need to beat dating back to PS1 all the way to Xbox 360. Mostly RPGs that I just couldn't get into once I just grew tired of random battles.

Jam it back in, in the dark.