Multiplayer taking too much time away from SP gaming?

[HangTime]

Not quite sure how to position/explain this thread, but I was thinking how like many people I have a bit of a lethargy towards games, massive backlog and general decision paralysis about what to play, you know the drill. But that thread has been done 100 times.

What I am finding is, I'm tending to spend quite a lot of time on gaming but a big chunk of it is just playing or spectating my preferred multiplayer game (that I've played for many years). I kind of feel this is a bit to the detriment of single player game experience. I mean, I have a ton of games on Steam / Game Pass / uPlay / EA Play / GOG etc. I have a decent PC that can handle modern games. But I still find myself spending more hours on an ancient game than all other games combined. So the backlog just continues to grow because I never get round to playing these games, even though I do still enjoy SP gaming when I get into it.

Clearly, the reason I still play an old multiplayer game is because it's still really good, I enjoy it, each game is unique, I (generally) feel like I am competitive etc etc. So that's not a bad thing, it's more than just playing it out of habit. But equally I feel I miss out on quite a bit, take the Assassin's Creed series for example I'm currently [off and on] working my way through Unity, so am a few titles behind now. I enjoyed the Borderlands games but haven't got onto BL3 yet. I've owned a PS4 for several years but have never actually used it for gaming just playing video.

 

[HangTime]

You make gaming sound like a job. It’s not your duty to get through your backlog, just play what you enjoy playing.

I guess if I consider the analogy, it's a probably a bit more nuanced than that, it's more like Multiplayer is the 'job' that gets in the way of enjoying SP games. So like, SP gaming is blocked by real life during daytime hours, and by MP gaming in night time hours. There's a sort of two-way FOMO going on, whereby I feel I'm missing out on SP experiences by playing MP, but then conversely if I'm playing SP in the evening hours I could be missing out on MP games which will be unique, unlike SP gaming (i.e. if I play a SP game today or in a month's time, it will be the same, unlike MP where every round is different.

 

[HangTime]

Are you playing multiplayer games by yourself or with a group of friends?

Not 'friends' in the traditional sense, more acquaintances I have got to know through playing the game. It's not the people that keep me coming back to the game, it's the game itself. I also spend quite a bit of time on the game not playing but rather writing/talking about it, administering tournaments and the like.