As you all are very well aware, I am a very young gamer (relative to the users on this site, at least… 23yo really isn’t super young by internet standards). Only having started this hobby in 2017—though having remained almost strictly on Nintendo Switch between the years 2017 and 2022—it goes without saying that I’ve got a lot of catching up to do... in fact, I have so much catching up to do that I feel overwhelmed. And with the flood of high quality releases dropping literally every *week* (Rubato, Crimson Desert, Escape from Ever After, Resident Evil Requiem, Pokopia, Darwin’s Paradox, Mario Wonder DLC, Mewgenics, Mario Tennis Fever, Xenoblade X NS2 Edition… FFS it’s only been three months!!), I genuinely feel as though I am drowning.

And with so many more games to come and so many I long to play for the first time (Kirby ATFL, Zelda OoT/LTTP/TP/SS/GBA/DS, Mario Sunshine Eclipse, DKBananza, DKCountry 2+3, Banjo Tooie, literally ANY PlayStation game other than Astro or TLOU, etc.), how on earth do you all cope with this?

I genuinely wish I could just sink all my gaming time into a small handful of open world, comfort games like BotW/TotK, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Pokopia, etc., but I feel like I’d be missing out on so much.

This is the eternal problem with video game fandom. A movie buff, over the course of a long weekend, can watch all the Oscar contenders; a video game enthusiast, meanwhile, needs a whole month to finish a single RPG.

I would advise sticking with a certain platform, or perhaps with several genres and franchises. Or find a game critic whose tastes align with yours and use their recommendations to guide your purchases. You simply cannot play them all. There are not enough hours in the day.

Now, I am being fully hypocritical right now, because I still aspire to play all the great games — past, present, and future. But I know, deep down, it is a doomed endeavor.

Im kinda having the opposite problem, theres a lot of games out there and I have a lot of games in my backlog, but i feel "i have nothing to play now" everytime I finish one, cause i dont wanna start any of the ones i already bought. Suddenly i lost interest.

I think how my brain processes it is as curiosity. Like I feel like I’m really missing out on something at every moment. Like “Oh man! All this glaze for Zelda Ocarina of Time… I wonder what all the hype is about?” It’s also a mixture of wanting to be able to say “yeah, I’ve played that game, and I absolutely agree that this game is incredible” about everything lol.

Unless you want to be a developer or a gaming scholar, just focus on few key games and you're good to go

Many games are all about zeitgeist, GTA comes to mind. If you have played GTA V there is few reason to look for older entries

Came to terms that I will miss out on quality games, just part of being an adult. I will not buy a game until I have beaten what I have bought already. And how do I select what game to buy next? Price.

Started gaming in 2017? Man …. This is my I feel old moment lol. I generally don’t move to the next game until I 100% the current one even if a backlog slowly grows coz of it. Those games don’t lose anything being played weeks, months, years after launch. You don’t need to play everything as it comes out.

“ I genuinely wish I could just sink all my gaming time into a small handful of open world, comfort games like BotW/TotK, Elden Ring, The Witcher 3, Pokopia, etc., but I feel like I’d be missing out on so much.”

At the end of the day as long as you’re having fun ignore the FOMO and just play what you want.

I don't think I have a particular strategy. I own something like 1,800 games I've never even started and ~130 games I've started but not finished, and I don't really need a coping strategy. I play whatever interests me the most, be it something new or something I've already played for hundreds of hours. Admittedly sometimes I prioritize new games, but even then it's something I'm interested in. I try to vary things up a bit though, be it in length or the type of game I'll play next. I'll never be able to play all the games I own or even want to play, so I just need to pick my battles and prioritize (and be ready to reprioritize).

I get being overwhelmed. I've got a backlog that might not be the longest, but there are several longer games along with so many upcoming games. I stream casually on Twitch playing whatever I want to and some games I'm waiting to beat before I start streaming them. I subscribe to Game Pass and like checking out a variety of games that causes some games to be pushed back. 

1. Realize you'll most likely never get to play or complete every game you'll ever want to. There are a lot of factors. You might not have the time, money, skill, health, and so on.
2. I don't think you have this issue, but don't spend a ton of money (namely on a modest sale or full retail price) for games you probably won't get to for months, if not years. Even if you have the money, you probably shouldn't drop money on a Nintendo game (even if it probably won't go on a good sale) if you're going to have it sit there for a long time.
3. While some will argue you should focus on one game at a time, I don't see it that way. If the game is really challenging and discouraging you, you're now stuck with it until you barrel through or quit it. Now, I wouldn't start tons of games that you have an interest on getting through. I wouldn't start say 8 or more single-player games to have to juggle.