Being a freedom-loving American is starting to come with a price with the continual bombardment of content, media and attractive choices.  We either have to be very precise with what we like or spend hours and hours of time dedicated to our passions.  This is the story of a gamer’s dilemma, one that maybe some of you relate to and is based on a single principal that is becoming more and more prevalent to consumers, and hopefully to publishers.

The Theory of the Paradox of Choice is not a new one, and if you like to read I hope you go purchase the book that this article is based off, written by Barry Schwartz.  The theory is that more choices are not always a good thing; essentially more is less.

I remember when I picked up my PlayStation 2 on launch day, all I wanted and all I could afford was Tekken Tag Tournament.  It’s all I played, and I loved it.  I played all day with my friends and mastered every 10 hit combo I could without breaking my fingers.  For a solid 18 months this was the staple in my college domicile.  Choices were limited so I was very satisfied with what I had.  As my passion grew and my wallet increased, I began the journey to see what other games I would like to buy.  With more choices I found that I really had to weigh my options, buy/rent/borrow as many games as I could, rely on critics’ reviews, or just stick with what I had.  As the years went by I decided that I couldn’t rely on critics, I sucked at late fees, and I developed a nasty habit of “having to catch them all”.  So my only choice was to buy all the games that piqued my interest.  I later realized that this was a cop-out for not being able to adequately decide what I really wanted to play, and gave myself all the possible options when I got to go home to spend some quality time with my controller.

Now that I have every game I have ever wanted to play and kind of wanted to try, I’m again stuck with another harrowing decision…  What do I play?  With so many choices and so little time, I scrutinized every choice of disc/cartridge that I finally decided to plug into my system.  This limited my pleasure in what I chose because there were so many others that I was missing out on and not playing.  I’ve caught myself staring at my 360 collection, wondering what to play rather than actually playing and enjoying what I’ve spend my hard-earned money on.  There have even been times where I was ready to play a game, but because I could not make a decision, I played nothing and watched some re-runs of Frasier instead.  The phrase for this is called Analysis Paralysis – a situation where the opportunity cost of decision analysis exceeds the benefits that could be gained by enacting some decision.  In essence, I spent more time choosing than playing.

Some psychologists have found that an over-abundance of desirable choices leads to depression and feelings of loneliness.  Studies found that giving test subjects a large amount of choices in chocolates VS a smaller number of chocolates left them more satisfied while they scored the smaller array of chocolates higher than the larger.  This could either mean that the disparity between must-haves and no-ways has really closed.  There’s either a bigger abundance of games on the market these days, or the market’s been doing a great job pushing its product to its audiences.

So does this mean that we don’t really need more playable characters in a fighting game to be more satisfied?  Do I need 100 different types of costume changes for my Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball contestants?  And the toughest question of all, one that I have been fighting for a while now is:

Has my need to HAVE games debilitated my WANT to play games?

I really feel that it has.  Gears of War 2 – unopened.  Persona 3 – never played.  Dirt 2 – unopened.  God of War 3 – unopened.  Uncharted 2 – unfinished.  Darksiders – unopened.  World of Goo – never played.

This could mean that the disparity between must-haves and no-ways has really closed, there is a larger abundance of games on the market these days, the market has really being doing a great job pushing its product to its audiences, or a combination of all three.  Any way you slice it, if you love games, it’s a great time to be alive.  Just try not to fall victim to the Paradox of Choice.

Well, I won’t leave you lost and confused.  If any of this resonates with you, there are some principals that you can use to help you make these decisions quicker and be more satisfied with your choices:

• Seek to satisfy rather than maximize – Looking for the perfect game may be tough, but find something that would satisfy your needs rather than leave you chasing the rainbow.

• Look to feed your psychological needs – Belonging, connecting, love, power, significance, competence, freedom, responsibility, fun, learning.  If you can fulfill as many as you possibly can at the same time, you’ll be satisfied.  How do you think World of Warcraft made all that money?  Farmville anyone?

• Reduce your collection – It may be tough, but let go of some of those that you can do without; it’s a cathartic experience.