I definitely think pace is part of it. I feel like I'm happiest when I'm sipping a drink and playing something more relaxed and thoughtful. When playing an action game I prefer a Dishonored style "crawl through and strike when ready" kind of vibe.

Looking at recently played...

Resident Evil 4 is a weird one because I love RE1-3, but RE4 is more of a linear action game and I'm not huge on those. I am forcing myself through it anyway though, because I love the franchise.

I got Perish because I supposedly love fast-paced FPS games with cool visuals, but hey I actually don't.

I'm halfway through Heavy Rain despite knowing I don't like interactive movies without real puzzles, and that I hate using controllers for anything 3D.

I actually bailed on Tales of Arise quickly, but I buy a ton of JRPGs and often try and force myself to play them despite knowing I hate anime. I just like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger a ton from my youth and pretend that matters for something like Ni No Kuni. It does not.

Ghostrunner... I love cyberpunk and first-person, so let's keep playing this game I find extremely annoying!

Close to the Sun... the adventure game without puzzles problem again. No more walking sims!

So there's some random examples for ya from scanning my clients.

P.S. I actually enjoyed Forgive Me Father a lot, though I did quit before the end.

Resident Evil - I'm not entirely sure if I tried one of these once. Either way, I quickly wrote them off as not for me. I will say that it looks like they've done a great job with the remakes for this series. They actually remade them instead of just upscaling textures from 25 years ago and calling it a day.

Perish - had it on my wishlist some time ago because it looked good. Immediately removed it after watching about 10 minutes of gameplay. On a related note, I just removed Prodeus from my wishlist as well. It looks amazing but it's probably too fast paced for me and maybe somewhat repetitive.

Heavy Rain - on one hand, I wish all David Cage games were available here. On the other hand, by this point I've watched multiple playthroughs of them. There really isn't anything in them I need to play myself.

Tales of Arise combat looks kind of cool. But I share your distaste for anime tropes. I liked a handful of the older Final Fantasy games and I haven't seen any JRPGs that interest me since.

Ghostrunner - another one you motivated me to remove from my wishlist. It looks great, and I love cyberpunk and synthwave. But again, probably too fast paced for me.

Close to the Sun - I watched a bit of gameplay some time ago and I found it very boring. You're probably not going to enjoy Shardlight then. I remember just one actual puzzle in that game.

Forgive Me Father - gave this one a pass. It helped that I can't stand 2D sprites in a 3D environment. Looks like a great game for other people.

Since I realized your list of owned games is public, I noticed some overlap in our collections. You never touched a lot of the adventures games I finished, and a few of my favorites. It made me a little bit sad somehow.

psych 101 by dummies ......

make a list of games you bought but never play.

place this list somewhere near your pc visible

learn to watch the list every time you want to make a purchase into another genre

realise what you have and why you have it

search your feelings

understand this new purchase will actually be useless

**repeat**

and to make this really really real. Accept your humanity and that your bound to fail multiple times before overcoming your obstacle(s). don;t be mad, accept with your loving self your shortcomings... you

Don't forget to write the prices (cost) of each game you paid for them next to the title of each game. Just to rub salt into the wounds of already knowing you had purchased said games you never really wanted...

Here are some titles that caught my attention out of what you own but seemingly haven't played:

Favorites
The Banner Saga trilogy
Blade Runner (original release)
Limbo
Prince of Persia series
Sacrifice
Sanitarium
Unavowed - if I had to suggest just one adventure game, this would be the one

Honorable mentions
Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love
Primordia
Technobabylon
VirtuaVerse - if you want an old school adventure game with more challenging puzzles, this is it
The Curse of Monkey Island is my favorite out of the first 3. I guess the closest to Monkey Island would be the Deponia series. One key difference is the protagonist is an anti-hero who is outright morally reprehensible, whereas Guybrush is a well-intentioned goofball. I didn't find anything funny about "something bad" happening to baby dolphins for instance. If you enjoy that type of humor, you'll have a much better time with it.

These are all great mentions, but if you were to mix those two games together you would end up with Strangeland that SV already owns. I would try that game for sure, it's made by Primordia's devs. But with these adventure games you gotta be in the right mood for the setting/theme/story. Gemini rue has that Bladerunner vibe, while I would vouch for cinematic classic Full Throttle, or Grim Fandango with tank controls ;) And speaking of the devil, where is Discworld Noir at anyway?

My genre that I keep buying but never play are rpgs of various kind. Usually I don't start a game unless I'm confident I can finish it before starting another. RPGs tend to have so much side content that I get lost in them exploring all the dialogues, possible outcomes, explore everything, packrat all that shiny loot, etc and burning out eventually down the line.

BTW Resident Evils I really do like. RE4 (classic) was the last one I've kinda enjoyed despite being such a departure from the original trilogy and code veronica. Remakes of 1 and 2 are epic imo, haven't played 3rd and 4th, though I know that content-wise the r3make is shorter than Jill's skirt. That MP-only sidegame it came packed with that nobody asked for won't help things either.

I guess the only solution that I can give you is to first try the demos for the games you have a plan on buying. If no such demo exists, try playing any free games that belong to that genre of games you're interested in delving into. Try your hands on these games for some time and if you end up not liking them, then maybe that game genre is just not for you. Another tip that I think is worth mentioning (although may not be related to what you're asking) is to focus more on game replay value and less on its genre (although you also should never ignore this). Doing so will help you narrow down the list of games available for you play, and also save you from overspending on games that you'll stop playing soon after you've finished it.

It's not an old game, but I think I'd recommend Horace, that is if you're also fine with platforming game. The game can be pretty hard at times, but it's never punishing. By that, I mean your character has infinite lives that allow you to respawn at the invisible checkpoints that you pass through, with every progress saved. Meaning, if you had collected many items along the way before you died, you'll respawn with those items remaining in your inventory. Anyway, what I love the most about the game is the humor. Don't worry, they never feel forced.

Pillars of Eternity series is cruelly teasing me with newsletter discount but I'm really not sure if I want or should add slow paced, text-heavy rpg's for many dozens of hours to my backlog...
Nowadays I much prefer my games brief and concise (and besides still postponing Baldur's Gate evil playthrough which waits years already for "when I'll finish with all other games I have and didn't play before" - which is seemingly never :D).

Having an offline library of games saved is something to do in case of an apocalyptic event or if you wanna go off the grid.
Make a cabin in the woods and play video games! Doesn't that just sound grand?

So don't be sad if you're buying single player games that can be played without an internet connection. Be very, very sad, shamed and regretful if you're buying single-player games that require an active internet connection in order to play them. You deserve that kind of pain if you do this!

pfooo, if i would do such a thing i guess i could feel depressed for some moments..... even with a library of almost 900 titles i'm sure i can reach for a couple of thousands wrongly spent all in all....

I was actually more thinking of adding some type of disclaimer....

I'm sure there are people who would already depress at attempting to write a list about all their shortcomings... this being all those 'never or rarely used' games

Imagine someone attempts suicide O.O <<because of what you write down

Oh noooooes!!! I would feel soooo responsible

Is it a waste of time trying something, expanding your horizons?
As they say, variety is the spice of life.

Sometimes a change of genre takes a while to compute or truly adapt to. Which is not surprising when you consider it is often a different mindset required.

I personally would not describe it as a trap, just a kind of thirst, and I'm not sure it can be combated. Life involves growth and change. We humans are endlessly curious and desire to try new things in most cases.

One could ask - What is the point of existence?
And really I don't have an answer to that, so I guess I will just carry on and do what I need to plus entertain myself wherever I can, being thoughtful of others at the same time.

There is also the notion, that trying something different can make you appreciate even more what you truly like ... gives you a better or greater perspective.

Play and buy what you like until...

... you don't.

Age, time (changing interests), and exhaustion with a genre can push you outside of it's boundaries. If that happens, heed the call. If that doesn't, sobeit. Just because others consider certain games in genres you dislike (now) "must plays," doesn't mean you have to either buy them, play them, or even like them.

But as a collector...

... it can be hard to forego highly rated games in genres you tend to dislike. Of this I know well... although in my case my monthly gaming budget keeps tight reins on my choices. ;)

Lastly, as I said above, time can change things. For a number of years I solely played military shooters... then I added a few action-based fantasy games... then after a freak joint issue (that thankfully passed) which limited my ability to move my arm... I started playing -- and grew to love -- turn-based games.

So again...

Play and buy what you like until...

... you don't.

Some you mentioned I played elsewhere but yeah I need to try the Deponia stuff. I'll put it on the soon-list.



If you liked the IE games then I absolutely think Pillars is worth playing, but the two Pathfinder games are probably the better IE-like games. Especially the second one.

If you do play Pillars make sure to ignore the gold name characters. Those are back NPCs with stupidly long stories written by backers. A lot of people clicked those thinking they were a normal part of the game and then yelled at the game for being too verbose.