Life is too Short to Play Something that Doesn't Make You Happy
One of my friends on Twitter said, "Life is too short to play something that doesn't make you happy." And when I read that I realized that's the philosophy I've been living by this past year.
Last December I got the desire to start working through my giant backlog of games. And this is the one trick that allowed me to do it:
If a game doesn't make me happy, I stop playing it.
It sounds so simple, but in practice... it's difficult. Once you get involved in the daily grind of a game it's hard to extricate yourself. What if there are daily quests? What if it's an MMO with a community of people you interact with? What if you're half way through the story of a massive RPG?
What if there are so many forces driving you to keep playing the game that you're currently playing... but you stop having fun with it?
This last year, after 25+ years of playing games, I was finally able to get my head into a place where I can walk away from a game once I hit that point. And it's made all the difference.
I sampled and played through my entire Steam back-catalog. I finished all the core Final Fantasy games I wanted to. I played every single PS3 game that I hadn't touched yet. I finished all my 3DS games. I'm caught up on the PS4 and Wii U games I've been wanting to play. I played enough MMOs to get back into the swing of them on PC but not let them take over my life.
I have a couple RPGs left on my Vita, and that's it. That's all that's left from a list that has been growing for years and years.
And for the first time ever, I can get entirely excited for the Fall releases! They're usually an exciting time, but they also can feel like adding weight to an already unbearable load. Not this year. Not for me.
I'm ready to dive in and have fun!
Last December I got the desire to start working through my giant backlog of games. And this is the one trick that allowed me to do it:
If a game doesn't make me happy, I stop playing it.
It sounds so simple, but in practice... it's difficult. Once you get involved in the daily grind of a game it's hard to extricate yourself. What if there are daily quests? What if it's an MMO with a community of people you interact with? What if you're half way through the story of a massive RPG?
What if there are so many forces driving you to keep playing the game that you're currently playing... but you stop having fun with it?
This last year, after 25+ years of playing games, I was finally able to get my head into a place where I can walk away from a game once I hit that point. And it's made all the difference.
I sampled and played through my entire Steam back-catalog. I finished all the core Final Fantasy games I wanted to. I played every single PS3 game that I hadn't touched yet. I finished all my 3DS games. I'm caught up on the PS4 and Wii U games I've been wanting to play. I played enough MMOs to get back into the swing of them on PC but not let them take over my life.
I have a couple RPGs left on my Vita, and that's it. That's all that's left from a list that has been growing for years and years.
And for the first time ever, I can get entirely excited for the Fall releases! They're usually an exciting time, but they also can feel like adding weight to an already unbearable load. Not this year. Not for me.
I'm ready to dive in and have fun!
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