What is Gamer’s Choice Paralysis? Well, it is simply a term I have invented to put into words the feeling all gamer’s experience on a near consistent basis: how in the hell am I supposed to play, and afford, all these games?!

As a married adult with a full-time job and responsibilities (kill me), it is hard to keep up with the frantic release schedule of the current-gen and the ever-expanding, all-consuming hell-spawn that is my backlog.

In the past 6 months I also started this site, which resulted in additional pressure to play and complete games. Born from this necessity, I conceived a novel strategy to slowly advance through my backlog and complete games, while still actually having fun.

To start, I only ever play two games simultaneously. This is to minimize the amount of options I have at any given time, while still providing enough variety to prevent my gaming from becoming stagnant.

The games I choose are chosen very deliberately; one long game, to satisfy my taste for an epic adventure and one shorter game to be played in enjoyable quick-bursts.

For example, I have been playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild since early February. During this time I have completed 5 shorter games, written reviews for them, and am currently hunting down the last 20 shrines in the game before proceeding to the ultimate battle with Calamity Ganon. This is all with only playing Zelda before bed at night, due to time constraints. This is very impressive output for my otherwise crammed life schedule, though it is obviously dwarfed by my gaming when I was younger and didn’t have real responsibilities.

This strategy also helps control those impulsive buys that further bury me in a sea of games. By waiting to complete a game before purchasing more, I ensure maximum enjoyment of the games I already own. Unless a game is very significantly marked down, I rather wait it out and buy the game later after completing what I am currently playing. Even if I buy now to save $3.99 on a $60 game, in the end it will cost me more money. Having the discipline to hold off, despite the incentive of saving that $3.99, would probably prevent me from panicking and buying even more games.

Despite all the positive there are some issues with my approach. It is HARD to resist the sirens that are the gaming media, when they are showing me everything I want to see and playing games that I yearn for. It definitely takes some serious discipline to keep up with gaming news and be able to follow my method. The options are to cultivate the will power to resist, or to completely isolate yourself from the gaming media until finishing one of your two games, and catching up on the news later. I stick with the former, despite the latter probably being easier in the long-term.

It also may be hard to not be one of the “cool kids” on the gaming scene, with a shallow knowledge of a large breadth of games. It will however, allow for a depth of knowledge on the games that are being played, which allows for an expertise on those titles; which I believe provides much more value to the community.

My approach may not be ideal for all people, though I think it can benefit even those with unlimited time to game, by focusing their efforts and allowing them to sweep through games efficiently when necessary. I would suggest trying it out and seeing if it works in different phases of life.

Tips to Make It Work

Long Game Selection

Long RPGs, Open World games and other time consuming games fit here

Online multiplayer games should be positioned here for people, who like me, aren’t satisfied by a few quick matchmaking sessions

Expect the long game to fill its slot for a while. Have appropriate expectations on how long it may take to make it through

I usually make the lower limit for the playtime be around 30 hours, with no upper limit on the game’s length

Use How Long To Beat’s website to help establish game length.

Short Game Selection

This is where beat ’em ups, shmups, platformers, and many other genres fit.

Online multiplayer games can be positioned here for people who don’t mind playing in short bursts

You should aim to beat at least one of these games every 1-2 weeks

one of these games every 1-2 weeks I usually make the upper limit for game length 30 hours, but really try to cap it at 20 hours.

What About Games With No End

Puzzle games, online multiplayer, and other games with no end should be cycled through after feeling satisfied and being ready to move on

Just use some discipline and don’t buy a bunch of these games at a time to overload the back log

Emulation is a Valuable Tool

Using emulation on your phone can really help whittle away at games on the go. Android allows emulator downloads from the Google Play store. I cannot understate how useful this is to me especially for RPGs that do not require a controller to enjoy fully. Emulation up to the 16-bit era is nearly flawless. The 32-bit era can also be emulated pretty accurately. Saturn emulation is sketchy at times, but it is playable Post 32-bit emulation: experience may vary Emulation saves money. You are no longer supporting the devs by dropping 100s on SNES games. Only buy these older games if you are a serious collector or hardware purist. Don’t let the internet pressure you into having a wall of retro games if you really aren’t passionate about the collection aspect of gaming. USB or Bluetooth controllers are a must-have for anything except RPGs when using emulation I purchased a mini controller for on-the-go called the 8Bitdo Zero; I reviewed it as well. Purchase below.







Modifications to the Protocol

If finding time to game is not an issue, I would suggest either sticking to the above strategy and mowing through games, or at most adding one more game in a separate category that is online multiplayer.

If you have very little time to game, I would suggest focusing on shorter games and only dabbling with long games when you NEED to play a certain game. Also you could stick with the strategy and just sacrifice some sleep a few days a week like I do.

Sample Schedule to Avoid Gamer’s Choice Paralysis

Week 1:

Long: Super Mario Odyssey

Short: The G.G. Shinobi II: Silent Fury

Week 2

Long: Super Mario Odyssey

Short: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Week 3 [Not a usual week]

Long: BOTW (barely)

Short: Wrote a Top Ten Japan-Only Sega Genesis games list, so sacrificed BOTW time to play through what was left of the games I had played at the end of last year

Week 4

Long: BOTW

Short: Mutant League Football

Week 5

Long: BOTW

Short: Phantasy Star

Week 6

Long: BOTW

Short: Goof Troop

Comment and Let Me Know Your Strategies to Combat Gamer’s Choice Paralysis.

Please follow and like us:

Like this: Like Loading...