My thing is I only play games for homework if there’s a good reason too. Like I need to see how it compares to what I’m working on, someone on the podcast recommended it, or I’m judging it for a competition. There’s no other good reason to play a game if I’m not enjoying it, so I simply stop when it’s not fun. The key is realizing when I’m “doing homework” vs doing something for fun, and I’ve gotten better at recognizing that more quickly.
I played these games til I “get it” and then move along. I’m a person who feels he needs to have literacy in a variety of games which makes me keep diving in to stuff I’m not inherently interested in, which probably helped kick me into this “quit homework when you can” mindset.
I also have what Chopemon has - every game I own is right next to the console that plays it, and I also play on real hardware, but even with that I won’t play a bad game for too long unless there’s really something neat about how it looks or sounds or whatever - in those cases I focus on visuals and enjoy that til I feel I’ve gotten enough out of it.
Steam backlogs seem like the worse problem but as listeners of the podcast will note, I don’t have this problem because I don’t play games on steam very often! This also makes it much easier to quit a game from my office chair though.
Not every game has something interesting or cool or special about it, that’s what I’ll say ultimately. If you aren’t enjoying it, or it isn’t calling out to you to play it, just give it up! Unless you have actual reasons you need to play a game, move along until you find something that hooks you. For me it’s always a nice surprise when I suddenly realize I’m playing something for fun instead of homework, and then I stick with that game. Or something that doesn’t consume my brain and doesn’t annoy me, that’s also good.
I tend to have a genre, platform, or vibe of game I want to play, and I load something up in that vein and if it isn’t working for me I grab something else or watch a movie instead. Anyone who doesn’t have a room full of garbage can do this with roms or whatever too.
But don’t feel like you have to play everything you got in a massive bundle or everything on game pass or whatever - who would you be doing it for? If it’s not for yourself, for your enjoyment, and it’s not your job, don’t make it a job. Nobody is gonna pay you for it!!
