Gaming has had a few setbacks at the gutter abode. The dear kids left the DS and DSi rechargers during a vacation, and we’ve yet to replace them. The Wii’s hard drive finally gave out after several weeks of some awful churning noises. The family tries Lent for size, and my son has given up video games. [But, as he told me, that doesn't include computer games, which are very different.]
Yet, I have joined an excellent group for tabletop Dungeons and Dragons [3.5 edition], and I have thoroughly enjoyed the backstories of all the characters. I’m playing a monk, the first time with that class for me, and I’m finding it much more interesting than I thought. I also managed to crawl back into the addictive sinkhole that is Fallout 3, which I’m finding more enjoyable than Oblivion and possible Morrowind.
But one casualty of late has been my style of play. I’ve enjoyed taking my time with almost any game, exploring as I can. On the Wii alone, I have Eternal Darkness [a game I've not played before], Muramasa, A Boy and His Blob, and Silent Hill – Shattered Memories all still to finish. Yet, the time to play those games and to explore as I like is simply not there. I find the challenge what to do with my time.
- Change how I play so that I explore less and finish the game, even if it means missing on some nuggets.
- Play even fewer games, and play how I want.
- Don’t play to finish games.
Many gamers, including myself, have done the last one, for a variety of reasons. Already, I have Virtual Console games that I now realize I won’t finish, probably not even play more than I have, because they require too many hours. [Indeed, retro and indie gaming, including DS homebrew, have gone to the wayside over the last year and more.] Yet, I have that guilt of not finishing some games. I played Fable II, thought it interesting and amusing with some very interesting takes on NPC interactions. But I’ve not felt any guilt about leaving it half done. Not finishing Shattered Memories, though, feels like a burden–I want to see it to the end, not to say that I finished it but to see where it goes.
Of course, the reality is that I’ll continue to do a combination of all three. I’ll explore a little less and not get as many games as I have in the past. I know a number of folks about my age, though, who dwindled their gaming down to a couple of deep titles a year, eventually dropping out altogether. That’s the risk of gaming appeasement–you lose out altogether in palatable chunks. But part of it is that we have to know we as individual gamers enjoy most–exploring a game or finishing it or something else. But we have to know that and not give up what we enjoy most in gaming.
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