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?

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 >.<

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.

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.

Isn't that what happens in Super Excite mode?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm a multiple game player. Rarely do I ever finish them either. I just have a bunch of games on the back burner and haven't touched them in a while.

I need to at least complete one of them, but nothing really holds my interest for too long...

I've decided to choose one and beat it... It's either Zelda: Twilight Princess, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or Sonic and the Secret Rings... T_T

I've presently got over a dozen games on the go. Here's to give a sense of my gaming schedule.

PSP: Lumines II, Loco Roco, Ace Combat X, Killzone Liberation, Death Jr. 2, Metal Slug Anthology, Vagrant Story, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops

PS2: Valkyrie Profile 2, Devil May Cry 3, Kingdom Hearts 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Final Fantasy XII

Gamecube: Zelda Twilight Princess

I purchase new games much faster than I can finish them so I've got quite a log going now. Some of these games get more attention than others and currently most of the time I game it's on the PSP but if I were to just play one game at a time, years would pass without ever playing some of them.

I have nearly completed KH2, FFXII, and Okami so I hope to be able to put those away soon and focus more on VP2 and Zelda and SOTC.

I recently bought a couple of games in one go.
When I make multiple game purchases within a short period of time or simultaneously, I usually play one at a time. Not strictly "finish one before you go on to another" but more like "play a good chunk of one before trying out the other". However, it might as well be one at a time strictly, because whenever I buy multiple games it's almost always because they were both cheap games. There's usually a reason that the games are cheap and they're usually not the most spectacular. Regardless I play through at least an hour of the games even if I end up never touching them again other than to go straight back to EB at a loss incurred from trading.

Right now, I have resolved to not trade any of these (if ever) until at the very least, beating them:
Okami, Valkyrie Profile 2, Final Fantasy XII, Disgaea 2, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Final Fantasy VI Advance.

While that's a small backlog, I still make myself myself play on at a time even now, because I have a really bad habit of rechecking everyone's equipment, skillset, and status whenever I go back to a game I haven't played for a long time, which can take up to 30 minutes.

Gah, I have a horrendous backlog. In fact, I am selling some older titles on Ebay that I never really touched, unloaded about 5 so far... My problem is that I buy new games when I haven't yet beat the old games I have. I've vowed to stop doing that when it comes to console games. PC games are few & far between these days until fall when the big titles like UT2k7 or Bioshock come out, so it's not really an issue on that front.

For me, when I try to play too many games I can never keep the stories straight (RPG's), the moves straight (action/fighting), or the mission objectives straight (adventure). However, when I try to plow through just one game, that can get old. For example, I'm playing through Zelda: TP and even though I feel it is a superb game, I just get tired of it, especially the dungeons that take so long I fall asleep halfway through them.

So, to keep this from happening, what I'm trying to do now is play 2 games at a time, one RPG-ish title and one action-style title. I'm counting Zelda: TP as both, since it's an action/rpg and I hope to finish it soon. After that I'm going to combo games, such as: Jak & Daxter/Shadow Hearts 2, God of War/Resident Evil (GC), MGS3/Disgaea. It's good to have variety in your gaming diet, but I've found too much variety is bad as well. Once I start buying games without beating/playing the ones I already have, there's nothing to stop me from buying more games. I would rather truly appreciate the games I have; otherwise I end up appreciating nothing...

it kinda varies with me but at the moment i try to play Albatross18 as well as trying to play my recently bought Sonic Riders for PC but yes if i am playing RPG games i like to play them 1 at a time and i don't buy a new one till i finish it

So far, my unplayed ones (and those I've played but never reached the end) is about 8 or so. I've returned titles that I haven't finished too.

Multiple games is alright for me - though at the most I can handle is two until I can finish one. If the number goes to three, I'll find myself not finishing one game and returning/selling it.

when i buy a few games at once or the same week the way i play them if there are an rpg when i die i switch to anthoer rpg game i just got, or if there sports and stuff is when i get bored after awhile ill switch games

I tend to LIKE playing one game continously but at the rate I'm pushed play all games at once. So the games that appeal/addicting to me most get to be played most and most likely beaten in few weeks. Then I'll pick up the next runner up. At times I'll juggle 3-7 games, slowly beating them all.

My main problems at the moment are the "never endning" games, cause they tend to suck me in and never let me go. I'd LOVE to move on, but I can't.

I have 50+ games on list that needs to be either 100% (damn you achivements!) or atleast beaten or atleast played for once. I'm slowly marking off one by one, but more new games are being added on. I'm trying not to play older titles that I've played alot unless I have a extreme URGE to play.

actually I should start playing some games now.

Albatross18!? My friend works for the company that runs it, they're actually releasing a new fighting style game from Korea. They're editing it for the US right now. I makes me kinda happy to see people play it. =] cause it's not so popular around where I live.

I am always playing an RPG because it is my favorite genre. But I only play one RPG at a time and then move on to a new one. I usually beat over 10 RPGs per year.

Secondly, although I'm playing one RPG at a time, I usually play 1 or 2 things from another genre. Any genre. Right now it is Sonic & the Secret Rings for the Wii.

I play one game at a time. I can't skip around. When I start one,I have to finish it even if I don't like the game. Right now I have so many games to finish it's going to take forever. But doing it this way I can just take one game at a time and get into it.

I always play one game at a time, do everything there is to do, and then finish it. NEXT!

I'm glad that I play like this way, because a certain MMORPG gave me a backlog of about 25 games. I'd go insane if i play as some of you play. Most of these games I have are RPGs. Can you imagine playing 10 RPGs at the same time? I don't wanna think about it.

Yeah, I'm trying to do my best not to buy anything new for quite awhile. My backlog is absurd. It's gotten to the point where I'm dropping the idea of keeping count of how many singular games I need to finish or start, and instead I'm going by series. I buy sequels before I finish the original sometimes.

It's not that I juggle playing games at the same time, instead, I play one until it just cools off for me. At that point where my desire to play it is no longer there, I usually don't touch any game for weeks for the exact reason that I don't want more than one thing on my plate at a time. Once it gets the point that I'm not playing whatever I'm currently halfway through but I start to miss gaming, I'll take a look at my collection and pick up on something else. Even if I've made headway on that game, I usually start from the beginning.

Once I got my Wii, I began to plow through Zelda. I took a brake from it and am now determined to finish FFXII before anything, and then play Twilight Princess through to the end and I'm not going to even think about going into a game shop between now and then, otherwise I will be walking out with God of War 2 and Super Paper Mario, it's a given. And no, I haven't finished the first God of War or any previous Paper Mario games yet either.

I'm a narrative freak, so I ALWAYS finish a game if I've progressed more than 2 hours into one. I even slogged through Dragon Quest/Warrior VIII before taking on the waiting ICO, Panel De Pon, or Shining Force I.

I get bored easily, and usually I buy 2 or 3 games at a time. So I tend to jump from game to game. But sometimes I just sit on one game and finish it before going to another game, these are the times when I get really attached to the story and gameplay (Silent Hill 2 & 3, FFXII, Fatal Frame 2, etc..) I usually play the "short" games first, then the RPGs next. And I still have to finish Suiko V, Shadow Hearts 3, Dragon Quest VIII, Tales of the Abyss, Okami, etc.. go figure.

I tend to have a main game (usually for a current gen console) that I focus on, for example at the moment I'm playing God of War II. However, I'll also keep a number of other games on stand-by in case I don't feel like playing it that day. To contrast, I'll play any number of games at once on the PC.