Game Paralysis

Hello, Destructoid. Long time, no write.

There is an issue that has been frustrating me for a while: There are so many games these days. Ten years ago, I would have wanted to punch myself for saying that I had too many games, but things are different, now. I have a job, and I'm in my last semester of school. I don't have a ton of free time to play games anymore, and when I do, I often can't force myself to sit and play any one game.

And this is weird, because when I am busy with non-fun things, I fantasize about how exciting it will be to have a few hours to work through my backlog. I have 200ish games on Steam, most of which are completely untouched. I have another 30ish console games (current gen) that I haven't really played, plus all the hundreds of retro games I owe it to myself to play.

But when I sit down to play any of these games, I find myself paralyzed by the sheer number of options available to me. Even if I can settle on a genre to play, I have so many options that I end up staring at them and not playing anything.

This was never the case when I was younger. Back then, I would just play whatever was the newest game I had, until it was beaten. Then I would beat it, or some other game, again, until I had a newer diversion. I thus went through 10-12 games a year. Yes, I had parents that bought me (or allowed me to buy) a lot of games. We were poor, but it was usually an investment that both my brother and I could enjoy for a few weeks.

So, I pose this question to all of you: Do you experience this sort of paralysis, and if so, how do you remedy it? I have found that playing only on handhelds and carrying only one game tends to narrow my focus, but of course that is not a valid method for when I am at home.

Thanks for any input!