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Can’t Decide What To Play So I Play Nothing Syndrome

Do you guys suffer from this disorder? I call it the ‘I have plenty of games to play but lots of games are coming out in a month that I really want to play, so I can’t get into what I have to play right now syndrome’.

It usually hits me when I have lots of free time (like a Saturday) and I’m sitting at my computer thinking, “Okay. I have lots of time. What do I play?”

Like right now I could boot up Epic Tavern, EverQuest, PUBG, Fortnite BR, Path of Exile, Kingdom Hearts 2, Pokemon Sun, Citadel, Slime Rancher, or a ton of other games yet I’m sitting here thinking, “Maybe I want to get Divinity 2 and I know Mario Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed come out next month..”

It feels like a gaming drought when there clearly isn’t one. Not even close. It’s like dying of thirst surrounded by fresh water.

I’ve struggled with it for years. Maybe my whole life. Do you feel my pain?

  • Sometimes, its common it seems, too much choice so people give up and go without.
    Always seems silly to me, people come into the shop wanting to buy something specific, but end up leaving with nothing because they cant make up their mind, makes no sense, lol.

    I do occasionally with games although that’s more because I don’t play solo often so tend to sit around waiting for someone else to decide to play something.

    The problem I do have is buying a game I like the look of and only playing it for a few hours and then never having the urge to go back to it. I don’t mind the cost or anything, a few hours of entertainment is good value for most the prices I pay, but I feel like I should make an effort to ‘complete’ more of them, since I enjoy most of them but always just go back to whatever games my friends are in

    • I used to really suffer from starting games and not finishing them. Eventually I think I solved it by only purchasing games I knew I would like. That definitely narrowed how many games I bought.

      I still don’t finish games that I lose interest in, though. Like Shadow of Mordor just didn’t click for me (which Graev gives me crap about) so I stopped playing a few hours in.

  • This is a problem I suffer from all the time, even without new games on the horizon.

    When I acquire a game on Steam, the first thing I do is add it to my favorites list to remind me to play it. This hasn’t worked up until I recently decided to install 50 games from that list, giving me no reason not to launch one if I’m in the mood for it.

    I rarely complete a game, but this method seems to be encouraging me to do so since I can cross it off my list once it’s done (i.e. remove it from favorites and uninstall it). I’ve gotten through at least 3 games so far using this method. I find the bane of this method are games that have no definable end or are massive time sinks (e.g. Online games, RPGs, 4x games).

    • The games that have no definable end can either be the best games, or the dumbest and most frustrating experiences. I can’t remember what I was playing a while ago, but it was a game where I had put in like 15 hours and I was like “okay when does this end?” and I Google’d it just to find out it had technically ended but continues on forever. Huh.

  • If you have a lot of games to possibly play but can’t decide one to play… maybe is because you don’t really want to play games for the time being?

    Sometimes our brain just needs a break from what it likes to do, to prevent burn out and boredom.

    • Maybe! Although I really did sit down on Saturday wanting to play a game. And on Sunday (yesterday) when I DIDN’T have free time, I really, REALLY wanted to play one. 😛

  • I get this at times too, but it usually comes from looking at what friends are playing or what game is currently being hyped instead of what I really feel like playing. Just clear your mind and go with your gut, even if it isnt the latest hotness.

    • I’m definitely impacted by the latest hyped hotness. I tend to play games for a while, and consume them slower than I used to (and even slower than a larger portion of the gamers I know) so I’ll be playing a game that the rest of the media consumed weeks or months ago, and I see them all hyping this next game and I think… should I just go play that?

  • Frankly I’m just happy you aren’t going all political with my restful pastimes. Like the nfl.

    • Life is too short. I’ve unfollowed or muted dozens of people/sites/organizations that used to talk about their niche but instead focus more on drama and politics now. Sad.

    • Ah yes, the old jar of jams study. I know that I do struggle sometimes when I have too many choices. It’s like sensory overload and my brain says, “Too many choices? Fine! I choose none! Hah!”

  • Because none of thw choices really excites you.. we always had many options of games, at least from 2000 and onward, but the options were exciting back then.

    The mmos didnt revolve around “endgme” and “lootboxes” and single player games were not just “more of the same with improved graphics”

    Options alone mean nothing…

    • Well I really do want to play the games I have. I think it has a lot to do with what Coppertopper said above with other people hyping the next big thing, and I tend to want to be apart of the next big thing rather than feel left behind. This is deep stuff.

    • My only fear with Divinity 2 is that it’ll be such an engrossing, long, complicated, immersive game that I’ll feel like I can’t pull away from it to play what’s coming out in October. 😛

  • I try to play one game at a time as much as possible (DOS2 right now, only playing PUBG with friends, and just maintaining my EVE pilots), because I’ve always felt like if you split your attention too much, you never get into the ‘flow’ of a game. Momentum is very much real, and I find it plays a huge factor in how much I end up enjoying a game.

    • Too true. I was devoted hardcore to EverQuest recently and had no reason to stop playing. Then I diverted some attention to other games to ‘try them out’ and suddenly I lost my momentum in EQ. Nothing to do with EQ, but entirely to do with me.

      I’m worried that would happen with DOS2 and all the games coming out in October like Mario Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed, etc. Might be looking at a game I pick up after the huge wave of games in October/November … unless I get bored halfway through October (highly likely).

  • This happens to me sometimes, I won’t be able to decide between 2-3 current games, then I’ll go look at my wall of old games that I want to play (literally for physical but also steam), and I’ll just say screw it and go for a walk with my dogs or something.

    One thing I have going for me is raiding in WoW. That’s a very set schedule of Tues-Thurs nights. After that I just got a Switch and I’m very into BotW, I can tell this game is going to take a lot of hours but I’m really into it and there’s no question I’ll see it through to the end. Then I also have EQ (when are we gonna group!). EQ has been an oddball schedule where I’m not logging in often, but when I do I can’t log off and wind up playing for 6 hours straight. I started the XCOM2 expac but realized it hasn’t been long enough since I beat the game, so that’s going to wait until things die down.

    • Sounds like we suffer from the same things. 😀

      EQ is hit or miss for me. I get on, and then it’s like “okay, I need to spend 3 hours to get somethign done.” Then I look away and BAM “Oh look a squirrel” and I’m distracted.

  • I get hit by the same thing as well. I will sit down to play a game and be like “Well I still need to beat this game, but that game just came out and I want to play it, but I am halfway through this game, and I saw someone playing this other game the other day so I want to go back to it” and end up being unable to decide what to play and end up sitting there for like 45 minutes trying to figure out what to play before playing nothing.

  • I have been enjoying Destiny 2. I do not have a lot of time to play so I have been slowly going through the campaign. We will see what happens when I get to max level.