Too Many Games

On Games

One thing that I am sure that I share in common with many people is that I am finding it harder and harder to play all the video games that I want. I realize this is part of growing up and having a family, along with wanting to grow myself technically and professionally, plus do other things like this website and blog, but it is still something that is on my mind a lot.  I think another part of it is that the industry has grown to such a degree that the amount of games that are of high quality are so numerous that it is near impossible to even try to keep up with the latest ones.  This is including the fact that I don’t have a smart phone (I recently upgraded to a phone with a keyboard, which shows you how on top of the times I am).  I also don’t play MMOs and try to avoid online games as well.  I stick primarily to consoles with the occasional PC and I have a DSi that I will get a game for from time to time.  It’s rare that I play the downloadable games for the consoles too.  I only recently got a PS3 as well, but even before that I found it difficult to stay on top of things.

 

Why Games?

I think part of my issue is that I find games very interesting and always want to see what new things that developers are trying.  I find them very interesting since the possibilities of what you can do with video games almost seems endless, though it can be easy to find limitations when you compare them to other forms of traditional media.  But the new things that they allow for just makes my imagination go crazy with possibilities.  Though whenever I sit down to think about a game I would like to make, 90% of time it is just a remake of an existing one that I enjoyed when I was a kid.  But I suppose that is why I am a programmer and not a designer 🙂

 

Quantity vs Quality

So, basically, it has come to a point where I have to be very choosy about my games.  While it is a bit sad, I need to reduce the amount of games that I play since I know I just won’t have the time to play all that I want and still keep up learning new things and other hobbies.  On the other hand, there are so many great games out there that it means I really won’t have a bad experience if I pay attention to the reviews.  And I hope that I will be able to devote more time to the good ones and actually enjoy myself a bit more while doing it.  Since isn’t the point of playing games supposed to be fun?  Now I hope to be able to slow down my pace a little more instead of just rushing to the end, since I am one of those who has a hard time stopping midway with a game (though some like Dragon Age: Origins I might play continuously off and on for over a year).  And maybe this will mean that I might actually get to games that have been released recently, instead of my usual 6-8 month delay.

The Future

So one of the first things that I have done it really cleaned out my GameFly queue.  Granted, it still probably needs another pass (or two) to reduce it to a more realistic level, already I feel a bit better.  When the backlog is over 20 games (even if at least 5 of those haven’t been released yet) it really starts to get depressing looking at it, which is the opposite of what it should be.  The same goes for Netflix, but I’m trying to stay on topic here.  I’ve pretty much wiped out all future RPGs due to the time commitment involved (playing Fallout: New Vegas and Valkyria Chronicles will likely be more than sufficient for awhile).  This means more action games and other shorter genres primarily for the time being, but I think it will be a good change of pace.  It probably will be awhile before I really get some appreciation out of doing this, but I think it is a step in the right direction.