Games @sh.itjust.works tal @lemmy.today 3mo ago

You're stuck on a desert island for five years. You can have three video games. What three games do you take?

Curious as to what people think has the most replay potential.

Rules:

The "desert island" aspect here is just to create an isolated environment. You don't have to worry about survival or anything along those lines, where playing the game would be problematic. This isn't about min-maxing your situation on the island outside of the game, or the time after leaving.
No live service games unless the live service aspect is complete and it can be played offline -- that is, you can't just rely on the developer churning out new material during your time on the island. The game you get has to be in its complete form when you go to the island.
No multiplayer games -- can't rely on the outside world in the form of people out there being a source of new material. The island is isolated from the rest of the world.
You get existing DLC/mods/etc for a game. You don't get multiple games in a series, though.
Cost isn't a factor. If you want The Sims 4 and all its DLC (currently looks like it's $1,300 on Steam, and I would guess that there's probably a lot more stuff on EA's store or whatever), DCS World and all DLC ($3,900), or something like that, you can have it as readily as a free game.
No platform restrictions (within reason; you're limited to something that would be fairly mainstream). PC, console, phone, etc games are all fine. No "I want a game that can only run on a 10,000 node parallel compute cluster", though, even if you can find something like that.
Accessories that would be reasonably within the mainstream are provided. If you're playing a light gun game, you can have a light gun. You can have a game controller, a VR headset and controllers, something like that. No "I want a $20 million 4DOF suspended flight sim cockpit to play my flight sim properly".
You have available to you the tools to extend the game that an ordinary member of the public would have access to. If there are modding tools that exist, you have access to those, can spend time learning them. If it's an open-source game and you want to learn how to modify the game at a source level, you can do that. You don't have access to a video game studio's internal-only tools, though.
You have available to you existing documentation and material related to the game that is generally publicly-available. Fandom wikis, howtos and guides, etc.
You get the game in its present-day form. No updates to the game or new DLC being made available to you while you're on the island.

What three games do you choose to take with you?

144

144 comments

I'm staying on dry land until the Factorio DLC is out.
Factorio
Dwarf Fortress
Rollercoaster Tycoon
It's time to learn Dwarf Fortress.
Civilization 6

Baldurs Gate 3

Stellaris
I think the goal is probably to not get bored by the only 3 games available, so with that in mind :

Skyrim would last long enough to provide entertainment within those 5 years, there's tons of replayability with mods. Witcher 3, RDR2, BG3, are good options as well.

Then something lighter to come back to, to unwind, like Trackmania (probably United for the multi environment, or 2020 for the latest features), because the editor mode allows for potentially infinite tracks to be made and played offline on top of the official campaign tracks. Kerbal Space Program could fit those criterias too.

And lastly, probably a rogue like that feels fresh every new run, I'm not a fan of Hades, so I'll pick Dead Cells, or Balatro, or Pyre, or... there's so many choices in that category!
- Those are not only some solid choices but I like and agree with your reasoning. One deep immersive game, one pure fun game and one endless replay ability game.
  
  Personaly I would add a creative game like Planet Coaster or Cities skylines 2 to the list as well but I'm jot sure with game category it should replace
  
  Thanks ! Yeah, I've seen a lot of people mentioning Factorio, which I have not played yet, but I think it's an excellent choice as well considering the requirements!
Factorio

Minecraft (how am I the only one to say this so far?)

For the third I'm not sure, but I'm thinking something more mindlessly endless like Tetris (though I'm not a big Tetris fan)
- Was gonna say Minecraft.
  
  Hell if you get bored you can start modding it and make a new game. (Loophole!)
- You only have 5 years
Civ VI

Factorio

Rimworld

I might need an extra 5 years when they come to get me lol
- Factorio with mods.
  
  Other than that. Good choices!
  
  Those and Bannerlord are the games I've got the most hours with on Steam so that was my basis lol. I thought about including Bannerlord cause its a bit different but less of a time sink I think. Maybe with mods though!
Minecraft

Stardew Valley

Baldurs Gate 3
DCSS[1] would alone probably take five years to master.

Dwarf Fortress (although I haven't really played it myself yet).

And, of course, Factorio, that with existing mods has probably enough content for the rest of my life.

[1] https://crawl.develz.org/
Skyrim with a ton of mods

Stellar is with a ton of mods

Minecraft with a ton of mods

I would pick Baldur's Gate 3 if I can bring my wife to play with me, then we may actually get to act 3 by the 5th year and not even need another game.
Factorio
Cataclysm DDA
AC:Odyssey
I'm not getting on that island till the Factorio expansion is out next month.
I didn't go into this with anything in mind, and while I often comment on my posts, wanted to avoid doing so until other people had taken a shot.

I think I'd probably go with at least one game that can be drastically modded or otherwise extended, because I am pretty sure that no matter the game, with only three games for five years, I'm going to run dry on gameplay prior to the term on the island expiring.

So I think my three would be:

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. On its own, it's a roguelike with a procedurally-generated world that I have kept coming back to for years, so there's already a lot of replayability there. It has very complex mechanics compared to most roguelikes, has been extended a lot. There aren't actually all that many mods, but that's because most people just add their mods into the core game -- the only reason something becomes a mod is if the devs feel that it'd drastically alter the balance or structure of the game (no total remakes), make it too large (e.g. there's only one small soundpack included with the base game), or if they have some other kind of issue (e.g. the modder hasn't been following copyright). So the base game has...a lot of stuff. I've done work on the code before, have the knowledge to do so, and I feel like that'd be a game that I'd be willing to add features to over five years, has a fair bit of potential there. [email protected], though it's pretty inactive.

Skyrim, for the existing mod content. Of people who have responded so far, this was a popular choice. I think that of Bethesda's games, in 2024, this is probably the game with the most-extensive collection of mods, though maybe down the line Starfield or something else will become bigger. There are very few games that have such an extensive library of mods and can be played in as many ways. I don't, in 2024, have a lot of the expertise necessary to do most of the interesting modding of it (e.g. texturing, audio, and animation), though I suppose I could pick it up. I regret not having in-game building that Bethesda's later games support -- I feel like having a sandbox-style game really would help longevity of play -- but as of 2024, all of Bethesda's later titles range from being somewhat-more-limited in mods (Fallout 4) to vastly-more-limited (Fallout 76). Skyrim also isn't the prettiest of the bunch -- or, even, my favorite to play not-on-a-desert-island -- but I feel like the importance of graphics and audio quality falls off a lot over time if you keep playing a game. The extent of the mods let the game fill multiple genres: the game can be played as an RPG (with modders drastically extending or even remaking that aspect) , a survival game with difficulty that can be ramped way up, a sexy adult game, a territorial conquest game, you name it. I think that the sheer amount of hand-crafted content that modders have put out will probably last for a long, long time. [email protected] and [email protected].

Minetest. I wanted a sandbox game that has few limits on how far a given run can expand, think that that probably has the most potential to remain interesting. Minecraft has far more mod content created by others, would be better to play, but I can patch the core Minetest game (and have in the past), and I think that for me, that tradeoff would give Minetest the edge. I also think that it'd be possible to, without adding a lot of complexity from a mod standpoint, make something that would be fun to play oneself -- I think that most Skyrim mods aren't really fun to play for their creators, because they're about experiencing handcrafted content, and if you've created it, I think that it's hard to enjoy yourself. But games with a procedurally-generated or evolving world...you can create the levers and still have fun pulling them.

Some things I considered but didn't do, or things that other people have suggested and, upon consideration, I don't think that I would do

Some sort of conventional (non-video) game that it's demonstrated that people can spend many years on becoming expert in, like chess or Go, and taking one of the video games that implements it, has an AI to play against. I can believe that it's possible to become deeply immersed in those games for many years because, well, there's an established track record of people doing so. They probably aren't the worst choice, but I don't, as things stand, really enjoy any of those enough to want to be doing them for that period of time.

Factorio was a very-popular choice, and someone mentioned Satisfactory. I've played it, like it, and I agree that you can spend a lot of time building out on a given run; there aren't a lot of limits on what you can do. But my thinking is that the core gameplay loop just isn't that complicated. And I feel like Minecraft-type games have more potential for very large and sophisticated creations.

Games with a lot of fancy DLC. Of the responses so far, these were not a popular choice, even though I totally removed cost from the equation, which I'd kind of expected might favor them. I suppose that the real story here is that the DLC that any one developer has put out, even if it's a lot, kind of pales in comparison to what modders have produced...especially in terms of gameplay. Most developers don't radically expand how a game plays in DLC, but a lot of modders have in their mods.

A solitaire engine that has the rules of many games implemented, something like PySol; I don't feel like that breaks the "only one game" rule, as I think that most people consider a solitaire engine to be a single game and probably the majority of solitaire engines out there implement multiple solitaire games. I've spent a lot of time playing solitaire games, even if I don't get wildly excited about them, and particularly like Eight Off, which is a bit like an easier Freecell. But it doesn't tick a lot of the other boxes that I feel would be important, like being interesting to mod -- I don't really want to create new solitaire games -- or being a sandbox game.

Kerbal Space Program. I thought about this one. That was picked by some other folks here, and I think that it's a good choice, as it's got a sandbox aspect, a lot of mods, has a lot of long, hard stuff to accomplish in-game, has successfully held my interest for long periods in the past. Just didn't edge out the ones that I did pick.

Terraria or Starbound. A lot of mod content, and they benefit from the sandbox aspect. And I think that they're good games; I personally favor Starbound, as Terraria is a bit more story-oriented and I think that that aspect would lose value when the game is played a great deal. I also think that there's more mod content for Starbound out there. But they lack the ability to create much by way of automated environments, the sort of way the Minecraft genre has, and I think that that limits a lot of what one can do to creating large projects that are cosmetically-interesting. That's okay too, but the ability to create large projects that do things, I think, has more potential.

City-builders like Cities: Skylines. That was chosen by some people here, and I certainly don't think that it's the worst choice. Problem is that I think that a lot of those are about experiencing the content, and that you're gonna run out of that before all that long, and that the core gameplay doesn't get wildly extended via mods or DLC. I think that there's a point where one's pretty resoundingly beaten the game and that it's less-amenable to pure-sandbox stuff, like creating fantasy cities, than something like a Minecraft-type game is.

Dwarf Fortress. A few respondents so far have chosen it. It's not a bad choice. But Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead ticks a lot of the same boxes and for me, edges it out (even if Dwarf Fortress is mostly about simulating a colony of dwarves with some limited single-character-oriented content that was added and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is mostly about single-character-oriented-content that added some limited colony-oriented stuff). And I really want at least one game that I can personally hack on, because that opens up a lot of potential to be interesting, and DF isn't open-source.

Oxygen Not Included and Rimworld. I love both these games. Also popular choices, and a lot of gameplay potential. Not the worst choice. The mechanics are simpler than something like Dwarf Fortress, though, which I think would be a drawback if one commits a lot of time to them, and I don't know how easy it'd be to extend them in interesting ways. From memory, the existing mod libraries mostly don't radically change the way that the game is played. Like, they'll add more animals, more factions with different appearance and slightly different stats, something like that. I think that having large mod libraries that make the game playable in significantly-different ways would tend to add more to replayability.

[continued in child]
- [continued from parent]
  
  A pinball game. There are some pinball games that implement many tables, and "all DLC and mods" will buy a lot here. Many people have shown that they can happily come back and keep enjoying a pinball table for many decades -- it's an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master game. And I've been able to come back over a long period of time and enjoy pinball games, especially some of my favorite tables, like Medieval Madness or Tales of the Arabian Nights. And some pinball engines, like Visual Pinball, let you create your own pinball boards. But I still feel like the fact that the gameplay mechanics don't change that much is going to fundamentally limit this one.
  
  Mount and Blade: Warband. Suggested by a respondent. I think that this isn't the worst choice out there -- it's got a lot of replayability, and I've spent a lot of time playing it. And there are some extensive mods. I also like the core gameplay loop that the game has. But I don't feel like the mods change the core gameplay much. Take Prophecy of Pendor, which is a large, popular mod that I've played, adds a lot of additional stuff to work on, like building up your own knighthood order. You can spend a lot of hours completing the new tasks that it creates. But it and similar mods really alter the parts of the game outside of the core gameplay loop, and I feel like I'd really burn out on that core gameplay loop.
  
  Tetris or similar. These are games that have a good core gameplay loop and which you can come back to and play over and over. In a different contest -- one where mods weren't available, say, and only the base game is -- I might rate these higher. But for me, the lack of mod content and DLC and such is a major limitation -- I really want to take advantage of stuff that other people have created.
  
  Popular action roguelites, like The Binding of Isaac, Hades, Risk of Rain, Vampire Survivors, Cult of the Lamb, or Noita. These are all good games that enjoy the roguelite/roguelike high degree of replayability, and usually have a wide range of goals that would take a long time to complete. They aren't, I think, bad choices. But my thinking is that learning to play "action" games, teaching your muscle memory, tends to have less-replayability than teaching your high-level thinking, which is where turn-based games tend to focus; for my roguelite/roguelike pick, I went with a turn-based one. Much as I love The Binding of Isaac, and much as I've played the game, I've gotten to the point where I can basically play the muscle-memory part of the game on autopilot, without paying a lot of attention to what's going on, and then start to zone out during the game. I'm pretty sure that if it were one of a tiny handful of games that I had for a very long time, that I'd go way, way past that point.
  
  I still haven't played Baldur's Gate 3, which was another popular choice, finally got around to installing it this week. I had not considered it as a competitive choice here, though a number of people here chose it. So I'm hoping that it'll be fun, given all the folks endorsing it here!
- Ah man this really is tough, your post details a lot of what's on my mind, but I think ultimately these three win out;
  
  Minecraft - especially given the fact that we have access to the entire modding sphere, it's just plain silly how much creativity has been poured into this, and the game is pure nostalgia for me. I could get lost in it for aeons.
  
  Dwarf fortress - wins out to CDDA because I'm a strategy nerd. What has ended up killing me in the past with this game is how much time it takes, but on a deserted Island? Well, time isn't an issue.
  
  The last one is perhaps the most difficult, but assuming that I have access to a sufficiently high-end pc, I'd want KoboldAI (United) with all currently available local models downloaded. This is only borderline a "game", but I am able to modify the software, and the possibilities are simply endless for creativity. It'd definitely ease up the loneliness a fair bit.
  
  This is only borderline a “game”,
  
  I think that you can probably count KoboldAI as a game. Well, maybe more the "toy" category than "game" -- stuff like SimEarth, Conway's Game of Life or such might fall into that category. They don't have any real goals, are pretty much a pure sandbox, but "toys" like that are often-enough described as "games" to count.
  
  The other day, I picked up something on Steam that was basically a spirograph, Zen Trails. That really falls into the "toy" category, but it's classified as a game on Steam, and I don't think that that'd be terribly-controversial for someone to call it a game.
  
  I'll allow "toys".
  
  Though I'm sure that there's some kind of line there. Like, thinking of the spirograph immediately brings to mind a class of software packages that are designed to let one play around with L-systems and suchlike, to make pretty pictures, stuff like that. Is Context Free a toy? Maaaybe. But I don't think I'd call Asymptote or Logo a toy, though both are certainly useful for making spirograph-like images and one can happily play around with them doing that. Somewhere a "toy" crosses the line from a "toy" to a "tool".
Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead

Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup

This is a hard one... Minetest, maybe? Would be the most interesting one to hack.
- Arguably Minecraft may be better/subjectively more interesting to hack, considering you'd have access to an insane amount of modding tools and libraries, as well as that the entire game has been so pulled apart that its may even surpass the documentation for mine test (can't say for sure though cause I've never looked at mine test's source code personally)
search thread

Nobody said noita

Elden Ring, AC6 duh
- I would totally take notia. I still haven't beaten it, let alone done any of the "special runs"
  
  All I need is five years in a highly specified fantasy realm.
Monster Hunter World GTA V Ocarina of Time

Then I’d paint cave walls with my stories for future generations to discover.
- Just because I'm seeing this quite a bit with out explanation, and I'm super curious, I will once again copy my question from another comment
  
  Genuine question. Do the Legend of Zelda 64 games give you replay value, or do you feel you have enough with the other 2 and want to bring a favorite?
  
  It’s just a favorite that I replay at least once a year. It came out when I was the just the right age for it, and even today it’s like chicken soup for my soul.
Three copies of Dwarf Fortress
Mount and Blade: Warband Europa Universalis 4 and dlc ofc Total War: Empire

Warband mods and Eu4 could probably carry me the entire 5 years, Empire is just a wild card
Heroes of Might & Magic 3

Red Dead Redemption 2

either The Witcher 3 or Skyrim

All 10/10, all with a lot to do.

After 5 years a rescue ship appears and they find me playing Heroes 3. They want to take me aboard and I'm like "can I have just one more turn?".
Fallout 4

Skyrim or The Witcher 3 (it's hard to decide, because they are both good af)

Spore (nostalgia)
Baldur's Gate 3 (including the Trials of Tav mod)

Minecraft (if I get all existing mods that's almost endless content)

And the third one is hard to say. Likely something with a world that feels alive and filled with content. Maybe Skyrim, which also has a lot of mods, but maybe also a simulation-type game.
I would take:

Dwarf Fortress

Rimworld

Minecraft
Minecraft, Satisfactory and not sure if I have time for a third one, but I'd pick Terraria.
Valheim

All the mods I currently use

modding tools to make more mods
- What mods do you currently use?
Final Fantasy (torn between 6 and 12)

Deus Ex (probably Mankind Divided)

Forza Motorsport 4 (the non-Horizon, Xbox 360 version)
Damn, no multiplayer hurts like hell.

Slay the Spire - I could grind Packmaster forever. And everything else on the Workshop. And vanilla.

Stepmania - You said I have access to all existing mods and content, so I've basically got a trillion charts to play. Maybe I'll even have time to actually get good at a rhythm game?

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Had to think long and hard about a third game. Been a long time since my Cadence speedrunning days, but I guess five years on a desert island might give me time to try and shoot for Coda.
- Damn, no multiplayer hurts like hell.
  
  Yeah, I know. There's a library of good, replayable multiplayer games out there. I was originally going to have "you can bring a few people, and can play multiplayer games locally with them".
  
  The fundamental problem that I hit is that people are interesting, bring a lot of content with them in their heads. I think that it's really easy for someone to play out a game's content, and then basically use the game as a path to just hang out with other people; the extreme case is something like a MUSH or any number of subsequent systems primarily aimed at just letting people chat with each other, where people can use the thing regularly for years. I'm pretty sure that that's what I'd personally wind up doing with a lot of games, if I had access to other people -- just using it to communicate with them. And I'm looking for something where the game itself has content that's so compelling that it could stand on its own, and trying to draw a reasonable line to be more inclusive was difficult.
  
  Maybe someone can figure out a set of rules that work to permit trying to pick the most-replayable multiplayer game and can do their own post.
  
  I primarily play competitive fighting games, so I'd just be looking for a steady stream of opponents to challenge myself against. That's something I can grind for five years.
Fallout - Tale of two wastelands.....hopefully that counts as one game, if not then Skyrim. For the endless mods.

Hades or Binding of Issac - for the infinite replayability.

Minecraft - for the creative aspect of building and lots of content.
Minecraft

OpenTTD

Oxygen not included
I'm gonna say

one of the Elder Scrolls games, perhaps Morrowind or Oblivion

stellaris or europa universalis

Zelda3/Super Metroid Randomizer.
Satisfactory

Star Sector

Nintendo game and watch collection (so I can save the high score but the original Donkey Kong hardware would be fine too)
Easy:

Minecraft

openTTD

Terraria
Elden ring

Tetris

NFL quarterback club 98
- NFL quarterback club 98
  
  So, I haven't played the series, so I thought that that might be the last in the series, but I looked and it's not -- it's right in the middle of the series. And I usually see people who play sports games update each year to get the latest rosters and such. So I gotta ask -- why specifically the 98 release? Did the series change to become much-less-appealing to you with the next release?
  
  no reason beyond I owned it for n64, along with 96 iirc, and had some great memories with it. cannot speak on any since, but now I need to see how many there have been haha
Minecraft 3x over, still hardly ever play any games to completion (ADHD) but Ive lost whole days to Minecraft.

If I'm interpreting 'existing mods' as ALL existing mods, Jesus Christ imma 5 years isn't enough imma need at least 10

THANK GOD I'd be free from the next 5 years of updates cause it'll be a cold day in hell before Microsoft goes that long without adding some type of micro transactions/ads to the game
That's almost enough time to get through a full Gregtech:New Horizons run!

So my first thought is:

Minecraft, even a handful of modpacks would set you up for a long time

Morrowind, pretty much any tes game is going to give you lots of replay

Rimworld, same as Minecraft in that I've already had for years and it's on the top of my played hours on steam.

I may swap one with Satisfactory if this question was asked after 1.0. Elden Ring would be up there too, and maybe Stellaris, actually really difficult to limit to a small handful, there's a few I have as semi regular replays (ME trilogy, DA:O) that don't have the same time investment.

Edit: after reading some comments,

Minecraft, modded Minecraft gives you massive amounts of replayability

Mass Effect Collection, this is a bit cheaty as it's bundling the trilogy in one group, but the ME series is still one of the more memorable game series to me, between that and DA:O I'd have a hard choice but think the trilogy would win out.

Elden Ring, only picked up before the DLC dropped and it's already in my top 5, world is amazing, I do loosely themed runs when I play so I've not even scratched the surface in terms of build possibilities and it's great for someone who likes to theorycraft
Tetris, MarioKart 8, and Solitaire.
Modding a Bethesda game nowadays is actually fairly accessible. So the number one most obvious choice has to be:

Skyrim - What you can create in this game using modern modding tools is absolutely crazy. TESVI please, Todd. Todd?!

Casual playtime with characters that feel like friends? Excellent choice! Might help you from going insane at the same time.

Balder's Gate 3 - Possibly the best digital role-playing game of all time. Moddable too. A completely normal playthrough can easily burn a couple weeks. Factor in experiencing every character's story and 100%-ing the game and aside from challenge runs this will probably burn a lot of oil. Sorry, atmosphere!

The big ones are out of the way. Those two can probably prop up the five years on their own if you stretched them a bit and did some other activities, like exercise, you bums. People will claim driving games, Elden Ring, fighting titles, etc. I wonder though...what about...

Rocksmith with all downloadable songs. Get some good music and with the right mindset learn how to play. Since you can bring gear related to the game along grab an extra guitar and some strings. Rock out for five years and come back able to rip those chords.
- I'm not familiar with Rocksmith, but is it still legally-available in any form in 2024? Looking at Steam, it looks like Rocksmith was taken down. There's a Rocksmith 2014 Remastered Edition that got taken down. There's a Rocksmith+, which is free-to-play and has an Overwhelmingly Negative rating on Steam and a description about how it's the continuation of the earlier games in the series because music licensing rights expired on them...I'm not sure what's going on there.
  
  Long story short: Licensing the songs.
  
  The game was unique and the costs too high.
  
  Shame too. I was looking into it as a way of learning guitar without the usual boring procedure of plucking out and recognizing chords for the next year. Be fun to learn how to play songs alongside learning on the standard curve.
  
  Ah hamburgers. 2014 Remastered is such a good fucking pick. I didn't realize they removed it since i already have it
  
  It's a licensing issue : Ubisoft is only able to commercialise the songs for a number of years. They recently had to take down the 2014 version because of it. People who bought it can still play it. It's an absolutely awesome product, too bad Ubisoft is making thee brand shit with the latest iteration.
- I think you are the winner. Rocksmith is also easily moddable, giving you a near infinite supply of songs
I saw Minecraft and Stardew mentioned already. But not the ultimate time sink, Kerbal SP, especially with mods and documentation. Though I'm not sure 5 years is long enough, can I request an extension?
Tiny tina's wonderlands, Baldur's gate enhanced edition, and soulcaliber.

Swap between them here and there, and I'm happy.
considering the mods aspect, gotta go with Skyrim and Minecraft for my first two. (do i get multiple versions of the game? if i have to pick just one, i'd have to browse some mod lists to decide for minecraft). and maybe a Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine of some sort.

edit: dwarf fortress is also a strong contender as well
Factorio, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, and either Age of Empires 2 or Ship of Harkinian.
- Genuine question. Do the Legend of Zelda 64 games give you replay value, or do you feel you have enough with the other 2 and want to bring a favorite?
  
  Ocarina of Time randomizer has a lot of replay value for me. The game itself is secondary to the routing of getting items.
damn I might have time to finish a tenth of gregtech new horizons now!
- Without the creators having any way to patch in even harder endgame content because you got too close to finishing it too!
Half Life (or the Orange Box, if allowed). Serious Sam (or the compendium of the first 3 games), and Echochrome.
OpenTTD, easily. The next two I'm having difficulties deciding.

I'm sure I want some rpg-ish imsim for sure, but dunno which one it should be. Probably picking next two games randomly from this group: DXHR, DXMD, Cyberpunk, Fallout 3/nv/4, Skyrim... I don't know what to pick from these :|
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 Can easily spend hours creating a park or that one coaster.

Tetris An easy pick up and play game but could also last a long time if you’re good.

Links Awakening (Switch Version) This has always been my favourite Zelda game and I’ve played the switch version at least once a year.
Morrowind, Factorio, Terraria
Tetris

Descenders

Minecraft
FTL

Whichever Rockband has the most songs (obv all instruments, mods, DLC)

Asetto Corsa (with my selection of mods) + standard decent sim wheel/pedals/rig.
- 2 would maybe be custom hero with all the songs downloaded
I love this hypothetical. I think mine would be:

X-Plane 12 flight sim. Plenty to do and lots of variation between areas, weather patterns, etc. (Unlike MSFS, it is not a live service.)

Automation: the car company tycoon game. It serves very well as a creative outlet when designing your own cars.

Probably some strategy game. Old World? One of the Civs? Maybe Anno 1800, assuming I could get past Ubi Connect or whatever the hell they call it now. 😁
SSBM, I don't need an opponennt for tech skill

Bloodborne, if chalices aren't a live service?

Bowsers Fury, because I speedrun that and it'd be nice to have time to practice just that.
Fallout 4, Civ 6, and Satisfactory.
Very cool question!!

-The Long Dark: I have hundreds of hours in this game across various platforms (maybe even a thousand-plus, all together?) and with the different settings to play with to change the difficulty in really interesting ways, I think I could easily sink another thousand. I'll leave the DLC behind, though, thanks.

-Red Dead Redemption 2: My favorite game of all time, even just as a cowboy-themed hunting and poker sim. If Baldur's Gate 3 and the stupid Guarma chapter didn't exist, I'd say it would be a slamdunk for best game of all time, period. I'm not autistic, but if I had a special interest, this would be it; it literally inspired my son's name.

-Elden Ring: In five years, maybe I could just figure out how to solo Malenia without cheesing my build, much less the final boss of the DLC :')
- Yeah, I’ve already spent a desert island’s worth of time playing rdr2. Although, I actually like the guarma storyline. Mostly because I want a whole game about Hercule’s story.
Dragon Quest 11

Age of Empires 2

Civ 5
Obviously Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Nethack
- I just found out about nethack due to the manga that's based off a mobile game thats based on nethack.
  
  https://yonderstory.fandom.com/wiki/Surviving_the_Game_as_a_Barbarian_Novel
  
  That looks fantastic
Minecraft with the gregtech new horizons mod pack

Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead

Rimworld with my current 300+ mod setup

I could easily sink another 10k hours in each of those games
- I really tried to learn CDDA but damn that game can be brutal when you're just starting out. If you have any resources or even just tips I would greatly appreciate it!
  
  Worm girl's tutorial YouTube series was what finally got me started. A lot of early survival is just "avoid all combat". Skills are everything in this game. A little melee skill & a reasonable weapon (such as a wooden cudgel) can be the difference between easily killing a zombie and dying to it. You can get both of those in the basic shelter without ever leaving.
  
  Body encumbrance & move cost (such as luring an enemy zombie into tall grass before engaging) can also make a huge difference.
  
  I learned by watching other people play it on YouTube. aavak has some great videos where he explains the character creator and the meta.
  
  And now they added graphics :o
BG3, Skyrim, and I guess minecraft. If I can choose a non-game software, then probably the requirements for something like Godot and some downloaded documentation and libraries instead of minecraft.
- I was very tempted to pick BG3 but lacking patch 7. I would be too frustrated about needing to mod the game the hard way.
  
  I only got to act 2 and just got super busy so I have plenty left, heh
Uff this started out for me as being "easy! Minecraft, Factorio and a third one!"

And then quickly and only devolved into an abyss of deliberation...

Do I take EU4+DLC+Anbennar because then I would finally have an excuse to actually learn and play this damn game? (Plus having base game and Anbennar basically doubles the replayability)

Do I take VintageStory so I can finally learn to actually play it well and start creating meaningful mods for it?

Should I take Noita or Caves of Qud? Should they be replacements for DF?

Is either of Civ V or Civ VI replayable about for me for this much time?

And from there the more basic questions:

Does any of the three games need to be entertaining enough to basically always run or could/should it suffice to simply rotate between them?

How much time would I reasonably want to spend playing vs creating?

Also am I allowed to spend some time basically daydreaming every day (aka the games are meant more to actually keep me sane rather than get people to recommend good games they have given thought and time to?) or should they/would I want them to keep me occupied basically 15/7?

So yeah, Minecraft probably still stands as there are way too many mods and building ideas for it to (probably?) become truly stale in a lifetime!

And Factorio because I still want to actually finish an AB run for once, or a SE run, or ... You get the idea. Buut the third slot would likely be a make or break for this whole endeavor and now it's back to square one again!
Skyrim, Factorio, and The Sims 3 or 4 (it really doesn’t matter which one.)

All of them are open-ended and player-led, so there’s not a single set-in-stone story to play through and get bored with. All of them have extensive modding communities and support. And there is a variety of gameplay styles, so there’s something to suit various moods.

And all of them are notorious for hooking players. Nobody ever decides to boot up the Sims because it sounds fun; They boot it up on a whim, then come up for air three months later, wondering what the hell happened to all of their free time. Once you get sucked into Factorio, you’ll start seeing conveyor belts in your sleep. I played ~600 hours of it in just a few months, and that’s considered newbie numbers; There are plenty of Steam users who have tens of thousands of hours played.
Elden ring or bloodborne

Majoras mask

Baldurs gate 3
- I'm going to copy my question from another comment.
  
  Genuine question. Do the Legend of Zelda 64 games give you replay value, or do you feel you have enough with the other 2 and want to bring a favorite?
  
  For me it be the nostalgia. I played through ocarina of time so many times that I have it memorized but Majoras mask I have only played it a couple times. I love the music and the themes compared to wind waker or twilight princess.
I've been playing EU4 for over 5 years. Might as well take that one. Fuck it, I'll take 3 copies.
- I've always been tempted to jump into that fucking trench of a game.
  
  Have attempted hoi4 but never stuck.
  
  What sticks out about eu4 for you compared to other paradox similar type games?
  
  I've never really played the others. Coworker got me into it. It's a lot easier to get into the games if you're playing with someone who already knows what they're doing.
  
  EU5 looks like it's bringing a lot from the other games though.
Some kind of sandbox game like Garry's Mod or an open world crafting game.

An RPG to give myself a bit of story

Maybe a shooter or something so I could blow off steam when I need to.
Skyrim

Borderlands 2

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

I probably would have picked Mass Effect over Odyssey if you hadn't specified no series. There's really no point in playing just one ME.
- There’s really no point in playing just one ME.
  
  Huh. Speaking as someone who has that series on their "never played, but have it on their backlog list", could you explain why?
  
  Might need to note that I am ignoring Andromeda here. Personally I see all three games as one long game because the story is so involved. Maybe someone else has no problem just playing one by itself but I can't, in the same way that I'm never going to watch just one LOTR movie.
I'd select the following, noting that if I follow the rules strictly games like Gary's mod are disallowed because they are multiplayer.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead This is a game that could theoretically be played forever. Following the rules strictly I'll be able to use the open source aspect to tweak it.

Sims 3 Why not 4? Well 3 has more mature mods and expansion packs to enjoy. I'm less likely to be stuck with a big bug.

OpenViva let's face it, I'm going to be really lonely and as I slowly drift into insanity a VR escape filled with waifus may be exactly what I need to hold on. Plus it's open-source and it's plenty of time to learn how to use blender.
Europa Universalis IV - already have >900 hours, and my only constraint is time

Mount & Blade: Warband + mods - I loved vanilla, but haven't tried any of the mods; I almost put Bannerlord here, so I'd need to do some research on mods to decide, but as of now I'd go with Warband (I still like playing vanilla after a few hundred hours)

Stellaris - I haven't really gotten into it, but if I had all the docs and a lot of time, I'd probably love it

However, I play these very rarely these days because I prefer a higher quantity of shorter games to a smaller quantity of longer games. Since these are all PC games, I'd cheat a little and also build some of my own games/mods with my spare time. If you won't let me get away with that, I'll swap Stellaris for Godot + Blender and teach myself gamedev.
- Little Big Adventure 2
- Total Annihilation
- Minecraft
Having actually run something fairly close to this experiment I think I can say Satisfactory, Subnautica and West of Loathing. Yes Satisfactory has the capability of being multiplayer but it's not exactly Fortnite.
Skyrim to feel like I have freedom to explore.

Sims 3 to have social interaction and to feel like a cruel god at times.

Scribblenauts for my creative outlet.

Maybe minecraft? Since you can program a full computer in there therefore eventually I can emulate any game I want?
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

Elden Ring

Minecraft

Though I'm not sure with Elden Ring or Skyrim. If I have the modding tools I could make Skyrim into Elden Ring. But being offline would mean no "try finger but hole" or "fort night" in Elden Ring which downgrades the overall experience imho.
Cities: Skylines (would have picked the sequel but doesn't have that much content yet)

Kerbal Space Program

Minecraft (I guess it's the ultimate creative game)
Morrowind (This one is a lock. I can make a new character with different specialties. I can role play differently with a new character. I can join different guilds. And I can finally get around to modding if I ever get really adventurous.)

Final Fantasy VIII (XII would also be a good pick since it has exploration. X is my favorite, but doesn't have as much replayability as the other 2. I thought about Tactics because I want to get around to it. But I'm not gambling on loving it.)

Rogue Legacy 2 (I thought about the first one, which is a cathartic game for me. But I still haven't beaten the second and it scratches almost the same itch. Also thought about Jade Cocoon or Arc the Lad 2 or 3, which are similarly cathartic games for me.)
Civilization 6, Cities Skylines 1 and Space Engineers
SMT III Nocturne

SMT Strange Journey Redux

Grandia I

The Shin Megami Tensei games have some replayability between multiple routes, NG+ and coming up with the perfect team. Grandia is just one of the first jrpgs I really got in to, and I still love the characters today.
Duolingo - can learn languages yeah? I hope this qualifies. Not technically multi-player as you can't "play" with other people. I'd also learn a language or a few within 5 years. I think you can play it offline assuming you have the necessary files downloaded.

Binding of Isaac - a fantastic rogue like where every game is different but you keep progression.

Factorio - haven't played it, heard great things.
Skyrim
Mario Galaxy 2
~~Animal Crossing New Horizons~~
I changed my mind. ACNH wouldn't be as fun with no multiplayer. I'll say Fire Emblem Three Houses instead.
DOOM 2, Minecraft, F-Zero EXpansion Kit
Nier Automata

Fatal Frame 3

Tetris
- Nier is an interesting choice. After the first (complete) playthrough, I have never felt the need to revisit—except to make my husband play it.
  
  I find it comforting in a way. One of the last times I played a game and was like, "Oh, what's this? Joy!?"
Maybe this is cheating but RPG maker, ACC or maybe ACE if it's out in time with a great rig, and probably Minecraft.
- RPG maker
  
  That's a clever idea.
  
  For those not familiar, RPG Maker is a popular engine -- or series of engines, really -- used to let people make games easily. The company that makes them also sells some libraries of assets to make games. So, in a sense, one could think of all games made using one of the RPG Maker engines as maybe being a "mod" -- some commercial, some not; BallShapedMan is aiming to walk off with the entire library of RPG Maker games under the rules as given.
  
  ponders
  
  I think that from a standpoint of the rules I set, I'd probably not allow it.
  
  People don't normally think of RPG Maker games as being mods, but as stand-alone games. And, yeah, I know that there's gray area there, and by using something like Skyrim, which has seen very heavy modding (is Enderal a different game or a huge Skyrim mod?), one is edging into that gray area. But there's gotta be some kind of line, and I think that at least as the term conventionally is used, RPG Maker games don't fall into the "mod" camp.
  
  RPG Maker is definitely not normally considered to be a game on its own. It's an authoring environment; if you buy it on Steam, it's listed as an "Application", not a "Game". Something like Skyrim is unquestionably a game, even if people have taken it and used it as a platform to build a lot of stuff.
  
  Speaking purely in terms of designing this post to be interesting to read, I'm hoping to get a list of super-replayable games. But if RPG Maker gets allowed, then the post just devolves to a list of widely-used game engines. Unity or Unreal Engine has an authoring environment and such too...are all games that use Unity or Unreal Engine "one game"? I think that it probably wouldn't be a very interesting question.
  
  I'll give an upvote for cleverness in analyzing and aiming to game the system, though. ;-)
  
  Gimmie a quick sec to make a Godot add-on that plays snake in the editor lmao - can I play sonic colors now?
  
  Lol thank you! Though I hadn't considered the whole library. I should have though. I was more thinking of making my own game as a game. Then I could make anything I could think of and then play it. I've always wanted to make a video game, this would be a good time to start I guess.
Elden ring, with the wiki to it

Sims 3 + DLC(sims 4 is far too basic for anything)

I'm not sure if this is cheating or not but, the Steam edition of Kingdom Hearts 2.5, not sure if it's cheating cause it's technically a few games in one

if it is cheating then definitly minecraft with access to mods
Fallout 4, Minecraft, and Flightgear. I love FO4, have been getting into Minecraft, and Flightgear is an endless hole I didn't have the hardware to use. They're also all easily moddable.
Is there anything else for me to do on the island? Is it big enough to go hiking, can you swim in the ocean, or is there just a desk and a chair and you have to play all day while not eating/sleeping? Because if that was the case, I'd choose some sports game, probably Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure, but I don't know any alternatives. Sitting at the desk 16 hours a day would be quite uncomfortable after a while. Other than that my choices have already been named: Factorio (can I wait till October please, before you send me off to that island 🙏. I can't wait 5 more years for the expansion!) and KSP.
Easy.

Diablo, Diablo 2 and D2 LoD. Done.
Tetris, factorio, Halo CE.
Doom Eternal

Age of Empires 2

Minecraft

Those are the ones I go back to all the time, when not playing Counterstrike with friends.

For Doom I'd like to try the hardcore mode at some point and that would take a while to perfect it seems like so five years on an island are ideal. I almost always play AoE2 in Singleplayer against the computer anyway so that's okay for me too. I think Minecraft has the most potential for not getting tired of it. For that one I'd also like to take a one block mod, playing with that extra restriction is quite fresh sometimes.
I don't like playing multiplayer or online games anyways. So I'm good.

Starcraft, the OG, with Broodwars on the PC

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, or some tycoon game.

Super Mario World on the SNES
Doom. I have 30 years of custom maps that I'll probably never finish playing. Assetto Corsa, also with mods, I can drive and race any sort of car I can think of. And Monster Hunter. I guess I'd take either 4 Ultimate or Generations Ultimate. In 4U alone I have 1,000 hours.
- Add VR and a steering setup to that and it's fantastic
This feels hard, I'm sure.

Anyone who's actually had to be alone for decades though....
I might change these if I thought longer about it. But, completely off the top of my head, I'm thinking Anno 1800, EA FC 24, and Total War Warhammer 3
minecraft - duh

celeste - hehe funny trans platformer

odd choice, but if you removed the multiplayer and live service aspect of hypixel skyblock i would still be able to sink thousands of hours into it, so that's my pick
Stellaris Medieval 2 Total War Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Descent 2
No Man's Sky
Deep Rock Galactic

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