Do you multi-game?

[airdata]

I like to stick with one until the end, but I have the habit of jumping to a new game sometimes.

 

[zinfamous]

steam has given me game ADD. never before that. but on the plus side, for super cheap games, It's not a problem to accept the fact that some of these games are dogshit and not worth playing beyond an hour so (I'm looking at you, SW: Empire at War. ). So, the fact that I spend 7 bucks on Batman, AA, or Just Cause 2, or Sins of a Solar Empire (paid 7 bucks on Impulse), makes up for the fact that I toss away 5 or 7 dollars on a piece of shit software.


Before, I would grind my way through these crappy games--not only because I paid 30-40 dollars for them in the store, when newly released, but b/c they were one of a few games that I currently owned, new. With no demo system and a scattered fan/review base back in the day, you more often found yourself getting skunked on a terrible game that looked good enough in the store (God damn it: SW, Galactic Empire!) only to force yourself through a shitty game that you soon enough realized was shitty.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I typically have two highly contrasting games installed, so if I'm not in the mood for one, I have an entirely different experience waiting for me. At the moment, I am playing Medieval II Total War primarily, but I have been slowly working my may through the Quake 4 single player when I feel for something else.

This is closest to me -- I might be playing 2-3 games like a RPG, a shooter and a turn-based strategy game at once, but I might focus on just one of them for weeks at a time.

 

[crownjules]

I play a couple MP games on a regular basis - TF2 and LoL for the most part. That's the majority of my gaming time. Then there's a few SP games I'll throw in and play for a couple hours each week. Right now that's split between Borderlands, Gothic 3, and Europa Universalis 3. One or two other games might get fired up if I feel the urge to play.

 

[nageov3t]

not counting games that you can't really "beat" (MMO's, Civ, Sims), I tend to play a single game until I beat it or get bored and stop playing it.

 

[OCNewbie]

I was about to make a thread similar to this recently. If I'm actively playing (currently addicted) to a MMO, I usually play only that game. Single player I usually focus on one game too, but I don't necessarily have the tunnel vision I have when playing an MMO.

 

[Fayd]

That is some SERIOUS multi-gaming there!

when i was playing lineage 2, i'd regularly have l2walker take care of my character in L2 and i'd be playing starcraft with the other members of the group, also using l2walker from their ends.

someone i knew had his entire train (9 clients) open, along with a client of EVE, WoW, and whatever else.

and then we found OOG l2walker (out of game... IE it doesn't require you to load the full client.) and multigaming became much easier.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

I created a map in Sins of a Solar Empire that literally takes 6 minutes to travel from player 1 to player 2's systems, I use that time to cram in some Mahjong, Tetris or even a game of golf..

Sadly, not all of the custom maps out there are good or playable. You won't have that problem with any of the standard maps. It might also help to crank the speeds up to all fast or fastest.

 

[KaOTiK]

Multi

I almost always have Eve running. I tend to have easy to jump into game I can play whenever like BC2. Then a more involved game like Dawn of War 2, then some indie/casual games that are good for quickies or playing between other things.

But I only stick to a few at a time, when one is beat another takes its place but I don't remove one from the rotation until it is beaten.

 

[dighn]

13 unfinished games on my list. yep multi gamer.

just reinstalled BG2 ToB to finish it

 

[kamikazekyle]

I usually focus soley on one game for a long while - 20+ hours, but usually not finished it yet. Then, I think "oh, I'll just play a little of this other game I just got on sale." Which, of course, winds up taking another 20+ hours and I forget all about the prior game. For example, I just went from 40 hours in Two Worlds Two (never got past the first chapter -- damn open world games), and now nearly 50 hours in Rift. Before I got to Two Worlds Two, I had probably 20 hours in Neir. I lost count of how many times I re-installed and sunk 30+ hours into Morrowind or Oblivion and never got around to finishing them.

I find that the more my game time is "interrupted", the less chance I have at finishing a game. I'll stick with a single game, but then every two weeks I'll see my girlfriend. Once that happens, I tend to stop playing whatever it was I was playing so I can spend time with her. When we're apart again and I have nothing to do but game, I usually never wind up picking the prior game back up.

 

[Sulaco]

I voted "multitask", but really that isn't very accurate.

Generally, I play around 3 games at a time, and my gaming goes something like this:

Casual Game. This is a quick, easy to get into game that never gets olds. A fighting a game, an old platform hopper, or multiplayer game.

Sports Game. My three big sports are Baseball, Basketball, and Football. And I'm usually playing a game (sometimes two) during the season.

Current obsession. This is the game that I spend MOST of my time with, and that I come back to again and again, until its finished.

So right now, it looks something like this:

Casual Game= Left 4 Dead

Sports Game= NBA 2K11

Current Obsession= Shogun 2 Total War (before Shogun it was Fallout 3)

Oh sure, I'll play around with a game here, or try out something there, but as far as consistency goes, I never really have more than one "Current obsession" at a time.

 

[DeathReborn]

To add to the above, does having 3/4 windows of Lineage 2/RF Online running simultaneously (macros really come in handy for that kind of multitasking).

Sadly, not all of the custom maps out there are good or playable. You won't have that problem with any of the standard maps. It might also help to crank the speeds up to all fast or fastest.

I made these "slow" maps purely so my dad doesn't get overwhelmed by it all, he's more used to Civilizations/Master of Orion paced games... For me it's fine as I can keep up with him while exercising my mind on other tasks.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Great answers guys, cool to see how everyone approaches their gaming...

 

[Via]

Yeah, STEAM has totally changed how I game.

I used to save up my money, go to the gaming store, and buy a game I really wanted to get totally absorbed in. Install it, play with it a bit, read the manual cover-to-cover, and then start for real.

I usually would even finish (or almost finish) games that weren't that compelling for me, like the OC of NWN.

Now, thanks to the sales, I play many games at once. If a game doesn't immediately grab me I move on to the next one quickly. My monthly STEAM bill is usually around $50, sometimes more.

 

[dust]

Usually one RTS and one FPS(single player). If I really like a FPS multiplayer I'll just add it along with the other two.

 

[gophins72]

i'll play one all the way through. i just get waay too into them to switch.

 

[NYHoustonman]

I prefer to stay with a single game as mechanics can somehow slip my mind in between. The one exception was ARMA 2, which at certain points was so broken that I had to give up D:.

 

[Childs]

I mostly stay on target, but with multiplayer games, and weeks at a time.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Taking a break from Borderlands and playing some Homefront...

 

[JoshGuru7]

I usually play one game at a time in a given genre, but switch a lot between genres.

At the moment...
- Trivial: Plants vs. Zombies (M&M VI in future)
- Shooter: Just Cause 2
- Strategy: Civilization 5 (TW: Shogun 2 in future)
- Multiplayer: Rift
- Story driven: None (DA2 in future)

 

[mmntech]

I used to be a single gamer, when I was 9 in the mid 90s and games were $70. Today it depends on the game. If I'm really into it, I'll finish it. Otherwise I float around.

 

[KAZANI]

My tastes are getting much more refined as I grow older. I can tell whether a game can keep me interested enough to play all the way through, usually within the first minutes, up to a couple of hours of playing. I only bother with games with compelling stories and/or immersive gameplay. If a game is not attractive from the beginning, then I invest my precious time in something else.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I don't generally play linear story based games.

That said, I usually play whatever game I'm playing a lot, and then after a few weeks switch to a different game for a while ...

Right now I'm on an X3 Terran Conflict kick, playing with the x-tended for TC.... i'll probably play only this game for a couple of months .... then I'll play something else for a while...

 

[KeithTalent]

It depends; some games, like ME1 or Batman AA, really grab me and I end up playing them constantly until I finish them, but right now I have a bunch of partially played games that are sitting there that I'll play here and there.

I've played some ME2, which I will go back to, and some Borderlands which I will probably never go back to since it gives me a headache, then of course TF2 and L4D2, but those are just MP. I've still never finished HL: Episode 1 (I'm about half-way completed) so one day I'll finish that and move on to Episode 2. I actually have several games I've never completed and probably never will (I'm looking at you Crysis!).

KT