Trying to avoid Guild Wars 2 since i know it will probably suck as much time out of me as WoW did but..... the tractor beams are....pulling...me...in!!

Well, Diablo 2 isn't THAT long from my point of view :-P

I've just reinstalled the game with the expansion (Lord of Destruction) and I've completed the first 4 Acts (Diablo) in less than a week. Well, it will be another story in Hell mode, of course, but the game itself isn't that long. Not the longest I've tried anyway.....

Yes... I have a friend who keeps telling me to try EVE Online. I won't even give it a chance, because if I enjoy it, it'll eat all my time.

No, one playthrough doesn't take all that long, but you if you want good loot and reach a high level you have to complete it multiple times.

Nope, never.;)

Okay, so apparently I'm not the only one. I don't feel quite the same pull as I did as a younger player so maybe it's time to take a bite of some of those. Absolutely love Operation: Flashpoint so maybe ArmA would be the way to go. The downside is that this sounds like a game that excels when you can get a regular and organized group of players together, and I'm not really that type of player. It's a toss-up between that game and X. Leaning toward X because I really enjoy the space sim genre and it sounds like a solid single-player experience.

I avoid games that force grind. So I avoid most MMOs, most new FPS games, and some RPGs.

I tend ot gravitate to games like that. Not MMO's can't stand them but games like Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins because you can endlessly replay them. However I don't always play them straight away. I guess I kind of need a mental run up at them.

My bro has wow and rift installed on my pc, but I don't play them because I am worried they will take time away from my backlog

This pretty much describes every game I've bought from GOG and others recently, so I'd have to say, no, that's never stopped me from buying a game, but it has stopped me from playing the games (I have such a pile of unplayed games right now).

Not really but I do try to buy all of my longer games on handhelds so I can take them anywhere. Yet I don't. I believe it comes down to when I was a young'un, my parents would buy me a game here and there and I would play said game over and over and... you get the picture. Now with games so cheap (sales, of course), I have more games then I have time for and I am ok with that. As long as I am having fun, that's all that matters. I don't need to finish everything to make it worthwhile. Just like in real life. :o

SWEET!!!!

I just signed up. THIS IS AWESOME!

If you're talking about the trading/exploration games, like X3:Reunion, you have to get it. :) But you are so right... you could spend the rest of the year (or your life) exploring the universe and never see it all. The first time I loaded this game my jaw was constantly on the floor. Totally blow-you-away graphics.

It's not a game, it's a life style...

If you have a fixed schedule for gaming (ex: 2 hours a day tops), the time required to complete a game doesn't matter (if the game is ultra long, you play it while it's interesting and then take a break from it if necessary).

What you want to stay away from are the multiplayer games that are on 24/7 and have some sort of real time commitment.

That's what I'm afraid of, and also want to find out. I'll probably give it a go once the weather turns cold again.