Leucius: Greetings,
So I recently published my list of games completed this year. It's a doozy.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2017/post889 shows 22 games completed, assuming I remembered them all.
"Yay!" you say. "That's awesome!" I hear from the back row. Hold on, there's a danger to pushing so hard, even with smaller games, such as many of the ones on my list.
I am a social gamer. I played mmos extensively since 2004 for that singular purpose - to get a social fix. From 2002-2004 I played Diablo 2 online for the same purpose. This year I changed that purpose, and utilized my friends list on Galaxy and *coughs* that
other service, to stop playing mmos and instead, talk to my actual friends more.
The result is what you see in the above linked post - a TON of games completed this year. The problem I'm facing now, is that I'm suffering gamer burnout. When I actually looked at all the games I've finished this year, I was excited at first, tempted to reinstall Dungeons & Dragons Online or Lotro, and then I realized that I basically played through a lot of these games for the sole purpose of putting another notch in my belt - I did not actually play some of these games to enjoy them.
So here I am now, about halfway through September, having completed 22 games this year, by far the most games I've ever actually finished in a single year, and I don't honestly want to game right now. If you know me, you know I ALWAYS want to game.
Long story short, for me at least, pushing through my backlog this season has really left me not wanting to play much of anything, in fact it has me questioning the validity of being a core gamer (My term for people who game as their primary pastime) as I approach the big 4-0, and wondering what else I could accomplish in life. I'm also thinking about all the money I've spent over the years, how many games I have left to "complete" if I choose to do that, and I'm left scratching my head at it all.
I'm starting my New Year's Resolution 3 1/2 months early, and I'm going to try to only buy one game a month, regardless of how much it costs or what platform I buy it for. So yes, I'm going to hold myself to the one game rule if I buy a $3.00 game on the google store.
This seems kind of meandering, and I'm not sure it's going to help anyone. My ultimate goal is to remind you that games are for fun, and when you expect yourself to complete X games in a certain timeframe, or you make yourself feel guilty because maybe you should have spent that $30 on something other than a new game on gog, try to be kind to yourself. We're all learning as we go, and
games are meant to be fun.
If you read this whole thing, kudos to you. Thanks for letting me vent.
Looking at your list, I'm amazed at how many games you have finished this year. I sympathize with you about your burnout, and the one suggestion I would make about that (particularly when it comes to working through a backlog) is to ask yourself before you start any given game, "Do I REALLY want to play this game, or do I just feel like I probably should?" If you don't really, truly want to, play something else instead. It sounds simple, but it actually helps a lot.
