How do you choose your next game to play?

Well, I'm concentrating on playing my SG wins at the moment.
I setup all the games in my SG Win Backlog into a collection on Steam, then created a Shelf in the main Library linking to that collection.
That way I can easily see them at a glance, and I'm less likely to get distracted by other things.

Playtracker's backlog dungeon (You build a list of every game you own that you want to play, and you let it randomly pick a few games, which you can always skip)
Play or Pay picks
PAGYWOSG relevant games
Whimsy and wonder
Wherever Im at in certain franchise runs

I also have a yearly goal where I try to beat a game from every year from some arbitrary year to the current year, so at the end of the year, I scroll through Wikipedia's games released in year x lists and pick games from years I need to fill out.

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Oh, you are SO going to regret asking me this.

First: priority to games I won here from the Playing Matters and Playing Appreciated groups, games I have to review for the SG Monthly Magazine, or selected by the Play or Pay folks.

Then: Discrete Heat Equation on the % of owned unplayed games per each release year. :O :O :O :O

Jargon aside: for each release year, figure out the percentage of owned unplayed games for that year. Then see which year is most above the average of the adjacent years (call this "year discrepancy"); THAT is the year for the next game to play. Then I just look at all games I have from that year and pick one that I feel like playing.

(Excel, of course, is essential -- I have this sheet with all games I own, and many others I don't own, with all their data.)

If you are still reading this: check the picture. I have yet to play 43.2% of the games I own released in 2009, 50% of 2010, 52.8% of 2011. So year 2010 is 50-(52.8+43.2)/2 = 2 percent points above its neighbors, which is the highest discrepancy, hence the year I will pick next.

Once I play a game from 2010, that 50% will go down about 0.8%, which means the 2010 discrepancy will go down from 2.00 to 1.20 or so. But the discrepancies for 2009 and 2011 will go UP by 0.4% each, so these adjacent years now become more likely to be the next picked one. I like this "ripple effect" of the algorithm.

Anyway, no one will read this whole thing, so.... Just play what you feel like, really. :D

View attached image.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/265690/NaissanceE/

if you aren't looking to prioritize anything in particular (like SG wins, franchises you are into lately, etc.), you can always use the SteamDB randomizer when you access the section of "Your profile". Just keep spamming "I don't wanna play this" until you see something that catches your eye.

You've won 287 games on Steamgifts, and have achievements in less than 5% - you have playtime in more, but it looks like that may have often been to earn cards rather than actually playing them. If you join Play or Pay SG and categorise your SG wins by length on BLAEO, you'll get a selection of 7 games chosen by other group members -- the next cycle will be beginning shortly. To create lists on BLAEO, use the "My Games" dropdown and hit the cog icon next to "Filter by tag or list". To add games to a list, use the "rearrange" icon and go down to the bottom (to remove, drag games in rearrange mode to the garbage can). To work out whether a game is Short (2-8h), Medium (8-15), Long (15-25), or Very Long (25+) use https://howlongtobeat.com

I don't. That's the problem :x

I primarily use PAGYWOSG to choose, it shrinks my possible choices down alot so I don't get choice overloaded and play nothing.

As others have said, I've been playing through my games recently in the PAGYWOSG events. Sometimes I'll also go with a game I just recently got in a bundle or sale that I've been dying to play for a long time. If I'm really stumped though, I'll go on my Backloggery account and use its randomizer to list of a few games I have, and then I'll choose something from the generated list.

Usually, if there's a game that's been on my mind for a bit, I'll start that even if it isn't specifically what I'm in the mood for at the moment.

I always keep a slate of 30-40 games downloaded as well that I've prioritized, and I'll just randomly pick one if nothing really catches my eye.

And when really in doubt, I'll go back through the older titles in my library that I haven't already hidden and pick something from there. Like a Spiderweb Software game, for example.

Outside of all that, I maintain a strict four-month policy to play SG wins, and sometimes that can creep up on ya', so that's my real default if nothing else is really calling my name. I always keep those downloaded until I've actually given them a go. or come back to them if I started them but took a break and want to get back to them.

One thing I did to help streamline the selection process is marked most of my library as hidden. There are still not quite 900 games to choose from that aren't hidden, but basically what I did is sift through all the games I will likely never play and separated them. And I also put games I've finished or retired in the hidden folder as well. A few days investment in game library bookkeeping really makes looking for the next game to play much easier.

tastedive
steampeek
youtube recommendations
sometimes I ask ChatGPT for similar games I liked :)

If i don't have a special game or general genre or sg wins in my mind, I open my steam library, let it show the installed games, scroll down to the unsorted ones (with no HOG, shooter or a other tag) and pick one by random. If i really dislike the genre (if it is possible to guess from the name or the things that i know when i read the name), then i jump to the next.

Fast, easy, should bring the number of ~600 installed games down, free a bit of harddrive space in the end and i can sort the games on top step by step :-D

I usually just ask myself what I'm in the mood for, and then use that rough mental image of what I want to play to select tags to filter my library, that tends to reduce the possible games from thousands to a couple of hundred or so. And then comes the hard part, scrolling through those remaining tittles and checking whatever catches my attention until I feel confident enough to pick one.
Other times I just remember one particular game that I happen to own and go with that, or just scroll through my list of wins here and check a few trailers at semi random until picking one.
In general I make an effort to go with the flow and not force myself into something, because if I start playing a game because I feel like I must it can negatively impact my experience enough to ruin it for me.

The biggest drawback of this method is that sometimes I don't feel like playing anything for several days in a row, this is particularly common after finishing a particularly long or difficult game or being done with a whole series of shorter games.

My Wishlist If I am wanting something fresh, but usually scrolling on steal GGdealz and looking around in my library!

Unless I buy something highly wishlisted on sale, I look at my category called top (or to play), which consists of games I'd like to play and some AAAs/franchises which were highly recommended, check first those I already have installed and if none of them makes me go for it, check the uninstalled ones. Depends on mood and what kind of game I like at that time (genre, setting, length).

I am in Play a Game You Won On Steamgifts, and Tale Play (play the win within 3 months). So monthly I pick a short win that fits pagywosg, and a TalePlay if I have one (ideally this is one game that fits both). Then I try to pick a longer win that fits the theme, or my oldest backlog that fits the theme.

On the side, or after those are finished, I play whatever console game is midway thru. Or look for an enticing free Epic or Gog game in my backlog. I usually need a game that's kinda mellow for evenings, if I'm tired, so one of the aforementioned games usually fits that.

Then for holidays breaks, I try to have something fun to look forward to. Usually a console game on physical media.

Last year I decided to reduce my backlog so I started thinking about the most 'pleasant' way to reduce the number of available games, and since big goals should be divided into smaller ones to avoid feeling overwhelmed...

I decided to put all the games in my library into a database and ordered them by the number of hours I need to finish them. Additionally, I filtered them by games that only had more than 90% positive reviews (plus some other games that I don't care about their reviews, I still want to play).

So I started playing many games of a few minutes up to an hour, I was creating the habit and the games in my backlog were reduced!
After a few months I felt 'hungry' for longer games, so I started adding some of 10-20 hours

This year I haven't been able to continue, I've had some medical emergencies that haven't allowed me much time for leisure, I left Okami unfinished :(

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Unless I have something specific in mind, I usually pick with the help of PAGYWOSG's monthly theme. I pick one or more wins + one or more backlog games to play every month. It varies depending on how busy I am. No specific goals, schedules, or requirements. I just look at the theme, see what fits to narrow my choices down, and pick what feels like something I'd enjoy this month. If I don't enjoy something, I drop it for something else.

I also play a few quickies from itch.io every month whenever I feel like it with the help of the 'random game' function in playnite.

I tend to be in the mood for specific things, often very specific ones. Say I'm in the mood for a classic "Blobber" RPG (think Legend of Grimrock, Eye of the Beholder and so on) and so I look through my library to see if I have any unplay blobbers. If any catches my fancy I'll install and play that one. Then I'll play it until I get in the mood for something else. It's not uncommon for me to have a couple of games going at any one time and with longer games I usually take breaks. (If I'm not in the mood for a game I'll just do something else, like paint or read).

Honestly? I just play whatever I feel like playing XDD If it's not a specific game, then I look through my games in whatever genre/aesthetic/theme/etc. I'm in the mood for and pick the one that appeals the most... No system, just vibes XDD

Pretty easy for me: I play what I feel like.
This has a downside: as a completionist, I always end up having 40+ games installed all the time, but I never can say that I don't know/have what to play.

It's pretty random, there is not much logic to it.

I usually just go with how I feel at the moment and pick one I feel like playing but I tend to lean towards games I've received as gifts (giveaway wins and gifts from friends) over games I've bought myself cause I want to appreciate what I've received from gifts, although sometimes I get the urge to play a game I've gotten for myself and that's okay too.
Sometimes though I can be a bit indecisive and feel like playing several games next and then I like to look at Fanatical's discord server's backlog group challenges to help me decide which one to play, there's not really any rewards for doing the challenges but helping me decide what to play next is reward enough for me.

My backlog and wishlist are so big so its almost impossible to chose anything. So most time I just don't choose and don't play. But sometimes I see my wishlisted game on a big sale or find a new game from my steam friends activity or on store personal recommendations, then buy it and play immediately like I did yesterday, for example.
Common adult problem - no enough time to play games

I have a spreadsheet of all my games. I filter it to games I really want to play, games I've won and not played and games that have cards I've not collected. I get my wife to pick 3, and I choose one of those 3 to play. Then I get her to do the same thing but just with games I've won, then lastly I pick one myself. Those are the 3 games I play until I'm finished and ready to move on, wash rise repeat ^_^