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Gamepass is ruining gaming for me

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...

You're simply realizing how many bad games there are.

"I paid $60 dollars for this so I have to play it" is a gimmick hacky developers use to profit.

The future platform isn't GamePass. It's Ready Player One
 
aroused the office GIF
 

longdi

Banned
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...

nothing to do with GP. you are just getting old and has more things in life to handle. attention span for games dropped.
 

BeardGawd

Banned
I have the same 'issue'.. but I rather like hopping from game to game. I tend to get bored easily so Game Pass suits me perfectly.
 

Ellery

Member
I can understand where you are coming from and it isn't a gamepass problem exclusively (no pun on the lack thereof intended), but it is also a problem you can solve for yourself even though it is a psychological problem that happens quite frequenty to many people. I have had this happen as well after buying a great deal of games because they were on sale. No matter if it was Gamepass, Steam, PSN or physical games.

It feels much easier to buy one game and play it to death and back in the day, before the days of instant gratification, we played SNES games to death because we simply didn't have a choice. Pros and Cons to both and there have been many studies regarding this topic (e.g. Supermarket choice taking consumers longer to find the right product if they have too many choices etc.)

Understand yourself and your desires or try to overcome it. Gamepass is a killer deal. It absolutely is. Just like the 10 free PSN games are or the 500 free games on EGS are that they are giving away every few days, but being honest with yourself is the most important thing. I am not subscribed to Gamepass even though it is dirt cheap and I get 300+ (older) games simply because of how I personally weigh the equation of time, money and enjoyment.

And that is what it should boil down to. Don't look at gamepass and look at the value of game per dollar or hour per dollar. Ask yourself how important your time and enjoyment is to you. This is why I only sub to Gamepass when they release a new giga banger that I genuinely want to play above anything else which will probably happen once Starfield comes out.
 

Perrott

Gold Member
I have a similar problem, not with Game Pass but with PS Plus, PS Now and my Steam backlog. It has gotten out of control to the point that yesterday I had drop (and delete) Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition because it has been nearly two weeks since the last time I played and I didn't remember the characters, what was going on, etc.

That's why I'm not gonna sub to PC Game Pass until Starfield comes out, because hopefully by that time I have already cleared up most of my backlog.
 
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i would say i also have this problem
but it's a great problem since it naturally funnels your time to your most favorite. more competition for your time is a good thing in this market
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
A game has one hour to get anymore of my time. If I bought it and it's not for me by the hours end, I cut my losses and move on something else and don't come back. That's why I love Game Pass. I try until I like and delete the rest.

Also I only have 2 major games I play installed at a time or else I'm all over the place. I especially follow that rule with Steam or else it's a nightmare.
 
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...

Uh...pace yourself and do away with any internal FOMO I guess? xD

Keep in mind a few generations ago you'd be lucky to have so many quality games easily accessible at an affordable price.
 
Gamepass is great but I've been on Xbox since the 360. My library of games is fucking huge and my list of games I like to replay and my backlog are still pretty extensive. I already have so many games I don't personally find GP worth it because I wouldn't have the time to max out my value with it.

If I was someone coming from PS4 though and skipped the Xbone, then GP would be amazing.
 

Roni

Gold Member
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...
what a struggle...
 

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
just download 2-3 games max. I dont have GP so not exactly sure that is how it works but I do this for steam. I just keep a couple games installed at once and pick between those, not my whole library.
 

Spaceman292

Banned
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...
Another day, another fucking thread about gamepass. Either Microsoft is paying someone or these people are just giving them free advertising. Both are sad.
 

Humdinger

Member
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...

Yeah, that's what I expected Gamepass's effect on the experience of gaming to be. It won't change games per se, but it will change the experience of gaming. There will be more hopping around from one game to another, more fragmentary experiences, games aborted after an hour or two, less commitment to any one particular game, more of a distracted shifting around. It's similar to what you get with video streaming apps -- a ton of choices, desire for another thing, something new, the next thing, impatience.

People will play a larger quantity of games, but the experience with any one particular game won't be as deep, because you won't be as committed to and focused on it. When it gets a little dull, you'll jump to another, and the tolerance for boredom will go down, so you'll jump around more.

I understand the cost savings angle, but I prefer the experience of committing to a single game, and just focusing on that game. I'd rather not be distracted by a bunch of different options -- "play me," "no, play me."
 
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Options aren't a bad thing. The problem is your unwillingness to settle on something and put the time in. Cancel GP if it is such a burden to you.
Options do this to pretty much everyone.

I recall spending more time picking a movie at the video rental place than watching it took, especially when you had to choose with friends.

That being said, I have probably access to 10 000 games at all times on my PC (emulators do this) as well as 200+ on Steam, 150 on epic, 60 on ps4/5. And that competes for my attention with Netflix and Amazon Prime video, etc.

I wonder how I ever get to be entertained at all 😅.
 

bender

What time is it?
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

Back when I played on pc only, I used to buy a game and play it until completion because I felt committed to my investment.

Currently playing control, prey, dishonored, doom eternal, cyber shadow, hollow knight, and the list goes on...

I went 2 days without playing doom eternal and now everything seems ultra hard because I lost the muscle memory...

Sell all your systems and invest in an Intellivision Amico.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Switch to games that don't need hour-long attention and can be played casually in short bursts.
Like Hotshot Racing. That's on GP as well.
 

Buki1

Member
There are too many games, I start a game, play it a little, even if I like it, the amount of games available makes me want to try something else... So I keep jumping from a game to another

I call this pirate syndrome. Had this back in the days with PS2 when pirated games were all over torrents - I would just spend free time downloading and burning to cds everything I could get, but barely had any will to finish a single game. I definitely understand what you mean. Gamepass might be even worse than that because games are going out of selection every month, so it adds another layer of FOMO to it.

The way I got into gaming again was to choose and play one single original game from start to finish before I even looked what else is there on the market. Still doing same thing till today.
 
dont worry, because at least with GamePass you have to commit to downloading it.
PSNow's biggest strength is streaming the games. So u just click it and play. 2 mins in you dont like it. Click a different game.
 
I understand where you're coming from, and this is one of the biggest reasons why I myself have no interest in Gamepass. I imagine it would be like having a huge backlog in Steam which has the same effect on me. Or when I was a teen and got a modchip for my PS2 and I could suddenly get any game for free..

The games just lost their value and I wanted to try everything, and always wanted to try something new, chase something else.. so I ended up not playing or enjoying anything. That's when I started to focus on one game at a time, and one game only. And maybe more importantly, from thereon payed for all my games so every game feels like an investment that deserve my time, money and effort.

Everyone's different but me personally wouldn't value the games if I played them on Gamepass, and I probably wouldn't be able to focus either with all the options. I want to feel like every game I play has my full attention.
 

Fredrik

Member
As long as you’re enjoying the games you try, why worry?
I think it’s much worse to feel like I need to play a game I’m not really enjoying just because I’ve invested in it.

Spent $100+ on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla ultimate edition and thought it was plain bad as an AC game, hated the characters and the vikings theme made it feel like I played as a cancer for the country rather than as heroes, and I knew I had to invest 50+ hours into that game even if I just did the main quests.
Sigh.

”Fortunately” I ended up stumbling onto a corrupt save bug, essentially had to start over, and instantly went:
”Nope.”
Uninstalled the game, looked up the ending and is now thanking the corrupt file god that I got help to end that miserable pile of shit play-through that was draining my gaming time and enjoyment to enter this new generation.
 

TwiztidElf

Member
When I was a broke kid I was a pirate during the 16-bit era. At the end of that gen, the only game I could legitimately say I finished was Super Mario World.
The minute something pissed me off in the slightest, off to the next game.

I made a conscious decision when I bought a PS1 to make careful purchasing decisions and play to completion.
What a great decision it was. MGS. RE2. Gran Turismo. FF7.
 
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JimmyRustler

Gold Member
I feel you OP. It‘s the same reason why I cancel my subscription after being impressed of it at first. I mean, I just managed to get rid of my backlog and I‘m not exchanging the problem I struggled with now with game pass. Also, hunting for game deals is way to much fun to me.

I‘m only going to use it in the future when MS releases a new game so I can play it day one for a few bucks instead of full price.
 
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