How do you choose your next game to play?

I have usually 3 different games downloaded at the same time.
1) A game from good games my list. Mostly AAA games. I choose that i feel like to play atm at random order among Turn-Based Tactics, RPG, FPS, Open World etc. Sport, dark-soul likes, fear games are less chosen.
2) A game from SG monthly event. I choose it due to monthly requirements. Also i priority choose the games i won from the group like Playing Appreciated
3) A multiplayer game to play with my friends which i dont choose by myself

Until around 2020 played just a few games randomly while my backlog kept growing too much.

Since last year, I'm tackling it by release date to try to experience the progress of the industry through time. Currently playing '98 games.

I prioritize playing games I win on SG, or games a friend gifted me. Among those, I priorities games with achievements that can be 100% in ~10 hours.

I have a mix. Every month I try to knock 2-3 of my SG Wins. Having succeeded at that, I usually look at my curated backlog, which is a shortlist of ~80 games from the 1000+ I have. Sometimes I pick randomly from the curated backlog, sometimes I just pick a game by length -- like, if it's near the end of the month, I might try to knock a 2 hour game, but if it's the middle of the month, I might go for something on the 8-12 hour mark.

Besides that, there are some games that are always installed and I'm always playing a little. Either long open-world games (Elden Ring right now) or roguelikes (Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, FTL)

I don't have any specific pattern. Sometimes I'll guiltrip myself in finally playing some of the big milestones, like Witcher 3 or Fallout 4. Another time I'll pick one of those "just good" games from my library, like Bravely Default 2 recently.
But mostly I'm just rotating genres.

I'm reading comments and mother of owl, what happened to us. Even our hobbies feel like projects or work now. I think that's why I don't enjoy gaming as I used to – I make myself obligated to play my ridiculously huge library of games. Answering your question, I used to pick sg wins and gifts from friends. Nowadays I can't get myself into gaming. In rare occasions I just have an urge to play something specific, and then I install or even buy it at the actual price. Last time I've bought Cuphead this way and I've had actual fun with it – it was a refreshing feeling.

This is really various and changes each once in a while. First of all I almost never play 1 game at once, usually comes down to 2 or 3 and switching depending on mood. Lot of picks are influenced by SG events like PoP, MiaM, PaGyWoSG etc. which helps a lot with narrowing down the choices. Sometimes I just have my own idea for specific period, like games releassed prior 2005 which played 5-6 couple of weeks ago. Sometimes I just buy sth and play stright away.

I've been playing just short to medium lenght games, wich means I am having to decide more frequently for a game to play.
I like to do it in an easy semi-random way.
First, I have an order that says from wich library the game will be (Steam, Gamepass, GOG, Epic, itch and so on...).
Than, I use Playnite to filter only games from that library and use the tool for picking games randomly (except from gamepass, for that one I use the random tool from gamepass itself). If the game it choose have a playtime that I consider short or medium and if it fits my mood at the moment, that will be the next game I will play.
Of course, in some of this libraries I have games I dont intend to play (like some given by Epic that I took just because it's free), so I just ignore those.

My wife chooses my next game

On impulse. If I get something in a bundle, get nostalgic about something or just outright have sudden craving - I start playing something.
That does leave a lot of downloaded games and a lot of unfinished ones.

So when I have some more time I try to go through everything I have on hand at the moment and try to work through it. But lately having free time is a luxury, so any free time I get I start up the steamdeck and play in sessions.

For example I got all crysis games in a bundle, wanted to finish them, throughout second game I bought Mass Effect legendayr edition, then I bought Forza and then I bought Far Cry. Thus I have games on standby spanning back a year or so. From what I see I have Borderlines and some other games half finished. When I get my nostalgic hype of Far Cry 3 our of my system, I will try to finish Crysis and then slowly creep back to Borderlines and other games sitting downloaded.

When I don't have a specific desire I use a script I've made that suggests 3 random games from my list of games to play... I force myself to choose one of the 3.
It's much easier to choose from 3 than from 50 and I find it works well. Since I've been using this technique, I'm less frustrated when it comes to choosing a game ;)

View attached image.

I pick four games minimum every month to complete. Criteria involves a mix of whatever the PAGYWOSG theme is and if possible, I add POP games which are chosen randomly by other users based on what they want me to play.

By doing this, things usually stay interesting and while I can't predict the games I play every month, since POP sorts by times, I'm always able to consistently have a solid gaming month.

For February it was:
Psychedelia of the Ashen Hawk (40 hours)
Boxes (SG win - 4 hours)
Imposter Factory (4 hours)
One Shot (6 hours)

March:
Togainu No Chi (29 hours)
Horizon Zero Dawn: Forbidden West (50+ - ????)
Blind (2-3 hours)
Death End Re;quest (20+ - ???)

Usually, I choose 10 games from my library as must play and try to finish them first... I just download 3-4 games at once tho because I am a completionist unless the game bores the hell outta me... i recently started playing on steam cause there are so many games i want to play with reshades and mods xD I used to play on PS so currently m focusing on playing titles i didnt have or didnt play on consoles haha

I'm just stalkering all of new games of genres I like separately solo and coop

firstly I'm a member of Playing Appriciated and Taleplay so i usually play my wins from there. secondly i take part in play a game you won on Steamgifts and Monthly in a Month monthly events, so i choose games that fit those events. thirdly i take part in Play or Pay 3-month cycle event, there other members choose 7 games for me based on lists i made for the event here. generally i have a list for Must Play(considered worth playing and that i'd like to play) games in the link above so i try to fit those games in all the events i participate in.