I've been thinking about this lately:
- Why I want to beat games in the first place?
- Why I want to play some random games that I know I won't want to finish?
- Why I'm treating my backlog like a check-list that I always procrastinate?
- Why this is normal?
This week, I watched a video titled "You don't need to finish games!" by CG Positive. Which resurfaced these question to my mind. This time however, I feel I have an answer!
If you're a gamer suffering long backlogs: See the Video below. Watching it might make the best 20 minutes in your day:
I won't talk about the reasons of this mindset which are beautifully explored in the video above. I won't talk about the community effect of it either, though I suffered from it too. I'll talk about my experience and the conclusion I have reached.
Backlogs & Procrastination
I have a huge backlog! Full of games I own that I haven't played or haven't finished: Mostly from Bundles!
I have a huge "want to play" list, of games I haven't even bought. Games I'd buy on Sale. Games I avoid the spoilers for in fear that my eventual playthrough might become inauthentic.
I have a mental list of games "I want to write about" containing games from the two previous lists.
The problem is: Even if I got to play these games. I will never play most of them past the first few hours. My whole life time won't be enough to play them all until completion! So I decided to play some of them for a bit before going to the next one.
"I don't need to beat all of them." I thought...
I knew some games won't be touched again after I play them for a few hours for my #FirstImpression run, and probably talked about them for a bit. So for every game I decide on which point I'd stop and try to stick with that as much as possible:
Example:
I needed to finish Triangle Strategy Demo before moving to Bravely Default: The Final Demo. It's been 2 weeks since I last touched both of them.
I needed to finish Tales of Vesperia before playing changing my main 40+ hours game to another one.
The problem with that thought is that I procrastinate playing new games because I haven't reached that point with the games I started. Even if I didn't enjoy playing them.
Eventually it becomes a job, and considering I write about those games here on HIVE, it might as well be a one.
I don't want to write about games I haven't reached a suitable end point before I start writing. I decide on an arbitrary end point, and try to stick with it not matter how negative the experience overall becomes.
I was thinking about this a lot lately. Only after watching CG Positive video above, I was able to sort my thoughts!
I Need to Play for Fun!!
I don't need to decide an endpoint for a game and try to reach it... I'll just play until I notice that continuing is becoming a negative experience.
"It's okay to rage-quit." I used to say this, but now I believe it!
If I decided to write about a game, I'll just write about my experience with it even if I dropped it 10 minutes in. Why do I need to play 2 hours just to write: I lost interest after the half an hour? I don't!
If I played for fun and left the job part later, I'll have a better time playing and a more focused time writing!
I still want to finish Tales of Vesperia, but I won't procrastinate other games until I finish it. If I needed to get rid of some games to make space for other games, I won't do it feeling guilty over the sunk cost of downloading it anymore.
The short time spent loving the game's content is worth it... A 60-hour RPG priced at $60 isn't a $1-per-hour trade. It's a $60-per-enjoyed-moments investment! I want to believe that from now on...