Are backlogs making replayability less important when choosing to buy a game?

Yeah. I never thought i about that but i remember now i used to play CoD 1-2 at least 4-5 times. Now i don't play CoD at all :D

I still have a Steam folder for the games that i want to play later tho. Some masterpieces deserve that.

I’d honestly say no. There are still plenty of games I would like to revisit/ replay differently but I simply don’t have the time. Between something I’ve played before and something new I’ve wanted to play, I feel I’m likely going to go for the latter, especially if I’ve already bought it.

Don’t get me wrong, replayability is still a good thing and I like seeing it. But it’s just not as big of a draw as it was in the past.

Good point, I never think about that until now. Back in a day, replayability is an important decision for many gamers, including me, for buying a game.

The phrasing in the poll confuses me a bit but I just have a hard time playing games with replayability, which is not due to my backlog but rather that I like to try a new thing, finish it, and start another game pretty much. I get bored doing the same things over and over.

I never decided on games if it had replayability or not I just decided on games if I had the idea I would really enjoy it or not and that's it.

For me it was never important since i dont play games twice except some few cases. For your question, backlog indeed keeps me away from getting more games right now.

Also lately some trend i see among the indie game makers, more and more of them keep making their games "rogue-like" and i don't know if this is cheap or what gamers are demanding from an indie game. Replayability might be related at that issue.

I'm enjoying re-playing the levels in HITMAN for the additional challenges the game suggests. I recently re-played Tomb Raider, but probably didn't really need to (had just picked it up on a different platform).

Other games have infinite play, but I don't think I would consider that replayability.

New game+ modes are still cool to have for the truly ardent fans -- Borderlands comes to mind, but there are plenty of others.

But is replayability really important? No. TR wasn't made to be significantly re-playable, and I did it anyway. I don't often take replayability into account when buying.

And yes, having a backlog probably makes me hesitate to re-play a game.

Edit: noticed you're updating this, disregard! -- (P. S. Your post title and poll title match, but the last question at the end of your post will generate opposite poll responses. Makes answering the poll more confusing than it needs to be.)

I'd say yes, I was never one to consider replayability when purchasing a game tho.
There are a few games I revisit every few years but they're the kind of games that only take some hours to play through. I've been itching to play Mirror's Edge yet again, every time I play it climbs a little higher in my list of favorites, it's head to head with Portal 2 at the top.

I replay a lot of my games all the times, especially when it comes to the stories but I've never once thought to myself I won't get this game because I don't see it being replayable. I also never go into my game thinking I will replay it, it just ends up happening one day where I think you know what lets play this forget the rest. There have even been terrible games which I ended up replaying just for the fact I felt like it, until I remember there was a reason I hated it!

Depends on the game. For strategy, simulator and fighter games, this is a big no. I may always want to play them, mostly for skirmish though but still the same issue. I even have a category on Steam just for that. "Hall of Fame" where I completed a game but may want to replay later.
But I agree with I'm mostly focused on finish a game at least once if I like it. That's why I don't buy games like before unless it's on historical low. Probably I don't even need to buy new games for years but human nature, cannot help it.

Depends on the genre of the game. I don't expect to replay like....a horror game (unless I'm after achieves or hardmodes) because I already spoiled the scares and plot. But something like an RPG or strategy game, replay is still extremely important

It rather matters alot for me how much a game is replayable to its price. Previously I dont have a good machine to play games so I wanted a game I can play and replay it. That became a habit, coming to SG also helped me understand the quality of games more. I try to narrow down the games I am interested.

On steam, because I wasnt able to play most games before, I spent my time on Steam looking through the catalogue. I am currently following around a thousand games, including the games I own for updates. Wishlisted around 300++, ignored 46K+ including DLCs and rising.

I tend to play replayable games for long hours, currently I am on a Conan Exiles run. Although I can complete the achievements now, I am still biding my time in the game. I am a little burnout at doing somethings over again and visual glitches in the game. However I am enjoying the world and exploring the world. When there is a big update, I'll return to it after I am done with my current run.

Before that I am playing 7days2die, I'll go back to it at some point because I was working on a long time achievement before I jumped Conan as there was a chance to play MP. One of my 1st games I play was Dont Starve Together. Together, I've already spent thousands of hours in just a few games.

I feel sorry for the backlog and of course my wins here. I try to 100% the games I play but slowly I'll get to other games. <3

I have never considered replayability when buying a game. I use to replay a lot of games from the NES, SNES, and N64, and still do sometimes, but I don't replay modern games. If I enjoyed a game a lot, I will get more enjoyment watching someone else play it for the first time in a blind let's play than I will playing it again myself. Another reason I don't replay games is because I probably have more games than I will ever be able to play and I only collect games I am interested in playing. This is probably the same reason why I don't rewatch movies as much anymore.

I never play a game more than once. Why would I? There are so many other great games to play...

It's rather the opposite problem for me--playing old favorites again often takes priority over finishing new games. Sometimes they're designed to be replayable, sometimes I just like them that much.

Not only does replayability become less relevant, it also results in generally great games not getting finished if there is a phase that's a too dragging experience.You just move on.

Are backlogs making replayability less important when choosing to buy a game?

no, badly designed games (in some cases it's the type of game, not that it's bad) make replay value low or in some cases impossible.
backlogs are just an excuse for people to not control themselves ("the backlog did it!") and keep spending money on useless things.

For me NO.

If a game is good I want to replay it to see different endings and so I replayed Torment: Tides of Numenera 3 times and Tyranny 4 times. Most of the times I play RPGs many times to see everything :)

My backlog made me realize just how repetitive all this "replayable" content is. Spend hours replaying this game so you can have maybe 10 minutes of content that's different because you chose a different dialog option. Not much difference from the first playthrough. Or I could just grab a different game, probably from a different genre, and have a very different experience.

Now there are some games I do go back and replay occasionally. Games that were fun the first time through. I'm not expecting any difference this time, but I still replay them.

I personally don't like replaying a game if said game took me ~30hrs just to play it once. Much less when the game isn't as good as I expected, or the character I used was my favourite and the others weren't interesting. I never look at replayability when I'm initially looking to buy a game, it's always more about enjoyability.

Replayability has never been important.

Also, when you really like a game, you can replay it even if other people call it not replayable. I think I completed Dune 3 or 4 times. The 2nd time was to find all sietches, but the other ones were purely because I just liked playing it again (although I did them trying to optimize my playthrough)