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[COLUMN] Video Game Monogamy Is Overrated | by Marty Sliva
🕑 Added 2024-11-26 15:00:16 +0000 UTC
Okay, first off, I probably need to explain what I mean by that title. I’m not referring to romancing multiple folks in a Persona run, or trying to date as many townsfolk in Stardew as humanly possible. Rather, I’m talking about the act of focusing your attention on one single game at any given time and seeing it through till the end before you move on to the next one. Work aside, that’s the way I went about playing games for a lot of my life. And I think I might be over it, barring a few exceptions.
I used to have a singular focus whenever I was playing a game, which probably stemmed from not having a ton of them growing up as a kid. This meant that I’d set my sights on whatever game I got for a birthday or Christmas, or more often whatever I might have rented on a given weekend. When I started a run of Chrono Trigger, I saw it through to the end before the cartridge left my SNES. When I rented Okage: Shadow King for PS2 because the ghost on the box looked cool, that was all I played that weekend. For the record, I still think that ghost looks pretty damn cool.
And honestly, that mindset stuck with me for a long time. When I started a game, I felt compelled to finish it before I moved on to anything else. Even if I wasn’t really digging a given game, I would still generally see it through until the end.
It wasn’t until recently that I came to the realization that video game monogamy is overrated. And let me tell you, for the past few weeks, I have been out there having the time of my life with so many different games, it would make old me blush.
Of course, the occasional game is still going to come along and capture my undivided attention from start to finish. Just this year, once I started playing the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Animal Well, Astro Bot, Shadow of the Erdtree, and Metaphor Re:Fantazio, I only had eyes for them. But apart from these scattered experiences (which also happen to be some of my favorite games of the year), I’ve found myself more often going with the flow and jumping from game to game, platform to platform, and generation to generation.
Just this past weekend, I spent a bulk of my free time ping-ponging between a ton of different games. On Switch, I was oscillating between making small bits of progress in Mario & Luigi: Brothership, clearing out the final two dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and doing a bit of shiny hunting in a new run of of Pokemon: Let’s Go that I decided to fire up for no particular reason other than heavily associating Pokemon as a whole with the month of November.
This was accompanied by slow progress through my umpteenth run of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, though this time using the 3DS version. Spoilers: the game is still every bit as fantastic as it was in 1998. Also spoilers: I still get stupidly lost inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly, just like in 1998.
I’m still plugging away at Slitterhead’s lovable throwback jank on my PlayStation Portal, and I stand by my thoughts that it’s just a matter of time before this will become a cult classic. Rounding out my handheld gaming has been a revisit of the Nintendo 64 hidden gem Space Station Silicon Valley, which I’m jamming through on my Steam Deck for a possible future episode of The Archive.
On my personal Twitch channel, I haven’t found a big beefy game I’ve wanted to commit several weeks to, so I’ve been revisiting a smattering of random shorter games from over the past few generations. This included getting in the spirit of Gladiator II with the still-gorgeous Xbox One launch title Ryse: Son of Rome, revisiting Gris before diving into the follow-up Neva, prepping for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with MachineGames’ Wolfenstein trilogy, and replaying Batman: Arkham Asylum because it’s a banger and you don’t need a reason to revisit banger.
So why the sudden shift away from focusing on one game? I’m trying to understand that myself. This strange mix of games I happen to be playing all deliver different kinds of dopamine hits, and I can also make a bit of progress in them without being terribly confused when I come back after doing the same in half a dozen other things. This kind of erratic movement between experiences also did a great job of providing snapshots of various moments in gaming history from the past 30 years.
It also helps that unlike many of my pals here at Second Wind, I don’t have part-time jobs in specific ongoing games like Smash, World of Warcraft, Dead by Daylight, or Rainbow Six: Siege. Without that single game racking up hundreds, if not thousands of hours of my time, it’s easier to spread that out across a ton of different games.
Another reason is simply that it’s become easier and easier to bounce from one game to another now that I’m surrounded by portable devices that almost encourage that kind of play. Over the weekend, not only did I spend time playing games on my Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, but also less-obvious devices like the PlayStation Portal and 3DS, and I even charged up my trusty old Vita to fold that into the mix down the road.
And the future is clearly bright for handhelds. We should be getting our hands on the next-generation Nintendo hardware within the coming months, Valve has stated that an upgraded Steam Deck is a few years away, and reports point to both Xbox and PlayStation being in the early stages of development on new handheld devices of their own. And this isn’t even factoring in the explosion of portable emulation machines that are getting cheaper and more powerful every single year (seriously, it’s a problem, I already own several of these, and I’m continually tempted whenever a neat new model comes out). For nomadic players like myself, this is very, very good news.
I tried unpacking this new way of absorbing games to see if it’s the same in other mediums, but I really don’t think it is. I finish 99% of the books I read before moving onto the next. When I sit down with a movie on streaming or in theaters, I sit there till the end of the credits. I generally stick to watching one anime at a time, and only move on once the season has wrapped. But for some reason, my recent gaming habits have been plated like a sampler platter spanning time and space, and I’m perfectly okay with that.
This is that time of year when new releases start to wind down, and if you’re lucky, you finally have room to chip away at your backlog, or just replay something you’ve been meaning to revisit. Or if you’re like me, you’ll have time to do this with a bunch of different games from the past three decades. I’m sure this won’t last forever, as some early 2025 release is bound to solely occupy my attention the way some of my favorites of 2024 did. But until then. I’m going to enjoy my time surrounded by handhelds and just seeing where the wind takes me.
![[COLUMN] Video Game Monogamy Is Overrated | by Marty Sliva](https://img5.leaqio.com/storage/9/by/oy/9e04c0-019e8dff-cd04-7a5d-9005-e1899a0d5383.jpg)
Comments
Pēteris Krišjānis
Steam Deck has done this for me. Really Switch was one leading the pack, but it is very obvious that majority of the gaming is moving to mobile and portable. That doesn't mean PC gaming or console gaming has it's own huge niche - it will stay that way, I am still gonna play Civilization or Halo Infinite or next HL episode when it comes out on my bad ass PC. But being able to play big selection of games on my Steam Deck while on my way to city, traveling or just relaxing in the bed is just a sea change. I suspected it will be that way, but it has made gaming somehow more enjoyable, accessible and thus desire to dip into more experiences than ever before. Also for me fact you can get Steam Deck for 350, or 310 with discounts blows my mind. There it is, accessible PC gaming, at your fingertips. Incredible.
Lil' Cass
If one of those retro machines is a Retron 5, I completely understand why you're loving retro emulation machines Marty
Antiphar
Great article, Marty. Lately I've noticed that there are some experiences that totally captivate me for weeks or months at a time, and then there are others where I just want to smell the flowers for an evening. I'm enjoying things like the Etrian Odyssey, Castlevania and Final Fantasy releases on Switch because I can just have a little snack before bed and not feel compelled to replay the entire game.
Lord Robert
Totally agree with you Marty. It is way more fun when you have some diffrent games over at least the span of a week. There are always games that will hook you so much that you cant do anything else but play them of course and enjoying them is also great. Also by playing multiple games you can make games you like last way longer.
Jared
I appreciate the spirit behind the article, but it's hard for me to identify with. I only get so many hours a week dedicated to gaming, so spending significant time jumping between games would keep me from making progress. I installed a number of games on my Steam deck one afternoon two months ago with the intention of playing multiple games at a time, but I ended up only playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Maybe it's just another instance of a single game captivating my attention, but that's how it's gone my entire video game career.
JR
Ha, curious! My brain somehow went in more or less the right direction - only that I was thinking about more of a long-term commitment to a single game or franchise. Like, say, a Final Fantasy player who always comes back to that series. (In a sense, this would also have been an article by Marty about breaking his own established patterns. Funny that.)
Brian S
The part time job description slayed me. Of course, it’s 100 percent accurate.
Justin Buergi
I definitely felt this one. I'm genuinely upset when a new game comes out that I want to play but I'm still not finished with my current one. I was really hoping to wrap up Echoes of Wisdom before Sonic Generations come out, but then Hades 2 dropped an update and Sonic got lost so I just started playing that. Pretty sure I've only got 2 more areas left in Zelda but I just can't bring myself to go back even after checking out most of the new stuff in Hades. It is funny though because I'm not that way with anything else. I'm currently watching 5-6 different anime and reading three different books (all light novels lol). I've also got at least 2, sometimes 3, idle games running in the background all the time. It's almost like the break I take from one game to start the other kinda breaks the spell it has on me and I just lose interest. Not sure, but thanks for the article
David C
This is basically how I played games for my entire life too, also partly due to ADHD (as another commenter has posted). I think there's more to it too though. I do like to see games through to the end if I do enjoy them, but I think another part of why I bounce so much is because sometimes... I just did not like that game. And as a kid, I remember not really being honest to myself about that. I think as a kid it's hard, because we didn't have many games growing up, and I thought I had to see it through as I got "invested" into it. Does that make sense? Maybe it's a bit of sunk-cost fallacy there, but now I enjoy just playing what I feel like playing. Not forcing myself to play something that I actually don't enjoy that much; I'm content with just giving games a try now
GayBearDaddy2
Also, shoutout to Okage. I loved that game on PS2 and playing it again on PS5 brought back so many memories. Stan instant-killing random encounters with high-power king skills was a vibe.
Tim Wilson
I greatly enjoyed it. Clever, not overly grinding, some clever puzzles using the mechanics and just enough challenge to be enjoyable. It reminded me of Chrono Trigger in a lot of ways and the grid-based battle system was pretty intuitive and fresh. I recommend status effects! I can also recommend the “Bravely” series if you haven’t already, like playing FF V again but with some very fun meta twists on a genuinely gripping story.
GayBearDaddy2
The good news is that you can play most of it solo at this point (you fill your party with NPC's). Even a lot of optional content is now getting solo updates. That said, I know it's not for everyone. I original played it as something to play with my boyfriend and grew to love it despite him (he loved the story and crafting/gathering, but hated the combat gameplay).
Marty Sliva
FF XIV is my white whale. I love FF and a bunch of pals have said I’d dig XIV, but I think I might be actually allergic to MMOs.
Marty Sliva
What did you think of Radiant Historia? I snagged a 3DS copy for a cheap a little while back, and thinking about jumping in…probably once I wrap up a few of those other games…
Andrzej Banaś
Counterpoint: I don't mind. As Marty've said, they have no ulterior motive to use clickbait-y title. No SEO bs, no ad revenue, just Marty being Marty. It costs us a single click and leads to a banger article nonetheless. Plus, it's a catchier title than "Playing one video game at a time is overrated".
GayBearDaddy2
I've lived playing games like this. Currently, I have the mobile port of Dragon Quest/Warrior 2 and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions; Final Fantasy VIII and IX, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and Tears of the Kingdom on Switch; FFXIV (newest raid dropped), FFVII (classic), Rise of the Ronin, and Risk of Rain on PS5. Mine is probably because of my ADD and constant need to system jump. I have the benefit of remembering what I was doing and the story for games, so even if I take months between sessions on a game, I know what I've done and can hop back in as long as there isn't an action game muscle memory requirement (like my platinum run for Sekiro). If you're looking for a long-term game to stream, I could suggest the free trial of Final Fantasy XIV with its award-winning Heavensward and Stormblood expansion included for free.
Tim Wilson
Yeah, the article title is dodgy. But that aside, I think this is an issue with having the luxury of time. With a full time job and other commitments, my wife and I can have a game we can play separately each, and then a game we play together. Any more than that on the go at the same time and we’d literally never finish one (we tried having 3-4 on the go to play together and didn’t even finish one of them that year, whereas focusing on one we can normally finish a few Yakuza-length games a year). It also depends on the game you’re playing. I’m currently on DMC4 after getting through Radiant Historia but if I took any significant time off from either of those games I’d either forget where I was and where I was going in hour 60 of a JRPG, or my actual skill with the game would degrade to the point where I’d have to spend a session just remembering how to combo!
Mike Emrie
Even more reason not to do this kind of headline then. It sucks that I actually really agree with your premise but I started the article irritated that I felt misled about what the article was about. Just something to keep in mind for the future. Keep it up 🫡
Marty Sliva
This only goes out folks who subscribe at our $5 tier or above on Patreon. We get no additional revenue, reach, or reward if 1000 people read it, compared to if literally zero people do. Not sure clickbait is even possible in this form. But thanks for reading/enjoying it, title aside!
Mike Emrie
I agree with the article as a whole but the article title was absolutely meant as clickbait. Second Wind should be above this kind of chicanery
