Unfinished games
It's not so much a state of boredom, I think, as it is a state of indecision.
Today I was making a list of things I might like to buy in the near or far future, including video games. It's something I do fairly regularly, maybe once a month. I like making lists. So, after that, I started making a list of video games that I already own that I haven't finished. It was split into two categories: those I have some good progress on, and those I've barely started.
Even the "barely started" list is way too long ...
It's not that I don't have free time. I probably have more free time than I did when I was in school, since back then I had both classes and homework, and now I only have work. (My energy levels are definitely not the same though ...) I live at home and I'm pretty spoiled, so chores/housework don't really have a claim on my time. I don't even spend much time with friends; if I hang out with someone every weekend in a month, that's a lot.
And yet I still have these piles of unfinished games, unfinished anime, unfinished manga ... it's kind of overwhelming to think about.
When I come home and I'm tired, I tend to waste time on the internet instead of turning to these things. It doesn't take very much brainpower, and there's always the feeling that "It'll just take a few minutes," whereas if I'm gaming I'd like to have at least an hour-long block of time set aside. At least, I say -- preferably more. Heck, it's easiest to play a game when I don't have anything else going on in a day. (Ha. Even for me, that's pretty rare.)
Besides which ... even when I feel like playing video games, there have gotten to be so many in my backlog pile that it's hard to choose which one to play. Right now the game I'm working on is Tales of Xillia. I am enjoying it, to be sure, chipping away little pieces of it in little chunks of time. But since it is in Japanese and my knowledge of that language was certainly never perfect (and isn't even as good as it used to be when college Japanese was still fresh), there's a filter for my interest to go through. As the game goes on, it's clear that I'm missing more and more of the plot intricacies, so there's not quite the driving force there that I'm sure would exist if I understood everything in it. (I will be playing it in English when it comes out, of course.)
Japanese is the barrier for a few of my games (I've barely touched the PSP games I bought on my trip last year), but it's not the only one. "It's been so long since I've played, so I probably won't remember what's going on," "The battle system was hard enough to get the hang of the first time around," "I have to make a decision in the game and I'm not sure what to do," "I'm stuck/lost/etc."
It comes down to: "It's not that I don't want to play the game, but ..."
It's that state of indecision.
I don't want to force myself to play anything when I'm not sure, because I know that will end badly too. (Case in point: Tales of Legendia, one of the only games I powered through by sheer force of will.) Games are supposed to be fun, not something I need to "make" myself do.
But the longer I let it rest, the less likely it seems I am to go back.
Ah, I probably shouldn't buy any new games for a while ...
Today I was making a list of things I might like to buy in the near or far future, including video games. It's something I do fairly regularly, maybe once a month. I like making lists. So, after that, I started making a list of video games that I already own that I haven't finished. It was split into two categories: those I have some good progress on, and those I've barely started.
Even the "barely started" list is way too long ...
It's not that I don't have free time. I probably have more free time than I did when I was in school, since back then I had both classes and homework, and now I only have work. (My energy levels are definitely not the same though ...) I live at home and I'm pretty spoiled, so chores/housework don't really have a claim on my time. I don't even spend much time with friends; if I hang out with someone every weekend in a month, that's a lot.
And yet I still have these piles of unfinished games, unfinished anime, unfinished manga ... it's kind of overwhelming to think about.
When I come home and I'm tired, I tend to waste time on the internet instead of turning to these things. It doesn't take very much brainpower, and there's always the feeling that "It'll just take a few minutes," whereas if I'm gaming I'd like to have at least an hour-long block of time set aside. At least, I say -- preferably more. Heck, it's easiest to play a game when I don't have anything else going on in a day. (Ha. Even for me, that's pretty rare.)
Besides which ... even when I feel like playing video games, there have gotten to be so many in my backlog pile that it's hard to choose which one to play. Right now the game I'm working on is Tales of Xillia. I am enjoying it, to be sure, chipping away little pieces of it in little chunks of time. But since it is in Japanese and my knowledge of that language was certainly never perfect (and isn't even as good as it used to be when college Japanese was still fresh), there's a filter for my interest to go through. As the game goes on, it's clear that I'm missing more and more of the plot intricacies, so there's not quite the driving force there that I'm sure would exist if I understood everything in it. (I will be playing it in English when it comes out, of course.)
Japanese is the barrier for a few of my games (I've barely touched the PSP games I bought on my trip last year), but it's not the only one. "It's been so long since I've played, so I probably won't remember what's going on," "The battle system was hard enough to get the hang of the first time around," "I have to make a decision in the game and I'm not sure what to do," "I'm stuck/lost/etc."
It comes down to: "It's not that I don't want to play the game, but ..."
It's that state of indecision.
I don't want to force myself to play anything when I'm not sure, because I know that will end badly too. (Case in point: Tales of Legendia, one of the only games I powered through by sheer force of will.) Games are supposed to be fun, not something I need to "make" myself do.
But the longer I let it rest, the less likely it seems I am to go back.
Ah, I probably shouldn't buy any new games for a while ...