Categories of games according to how you approach playing them
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:36 pm
You can skip to the list below if you want.
We often talk about how play time and our approach to gaming have changed as we age our way through life. In my case it has been childhood-->college-->married with no kid-->small kid-->older kid-->empty nest.
I've been trying very hard to reorganize my games differently, so that I'll play them differently, so that I'll buy them differently. I've been buying games in a pattern for years that was to make up for not having time to play them, and that turns into spending more time sorting them than playing them, which makes the money something of a waste. I've known it was stupid all along, but I get neurotic pleasure out of sorting, so it was all reinforced enough to continue. For those of you who know my habits and wonder about my finances, I spend less than you probably imagine and this introspection was prompted by paying off all my debt, not by hitting bottom on a money problem. I'm just trying to adult. I'm 45 and it still sucks.
I'd be crazy to say I'll slow down buying games to just what I play. That may never happen. But this summer I've had a little time to think about it.
Today's list -- I've identified the following ways I play games, and I've tried leaving fewer than 40 games installed so I can easily sort them into these categories. Realize that I do not play multiplayer-only games, and play practically nothing but PC games now.
To finish: single-player action games, puzzle and story-based platformers, more conventional puzzle games, and various subgenres of short or experimental adventure games
To catch up: so many core adventure game series and new entries because this is my longest-running main genre
To progress: this is particularly for the long-running series of hard, deep action-rpg hybrids like Deus Ex, Thief / System Shock / Bioshock, and Arx Fatalis / Dishonored
To exhaust: arcade, racing, and other subgenres where you die and start over, particularly the gamebook-style games
The long haul: the role playing games that I always pretend I'm going to catch up and finish but never will, especially old-school stories like Planescape Torment
The indefinite: games that aren't made to finish, like Euro Truck, Pinball FX3, and a whole bunch of 4x turn-based strategy
This way I can see that I have too many games installed in one of these categories and really don't need another one, even at $10, until I make some headway.
Thoughts?
We often talk about how play time and our approach to gaming have changed as we age our way through life. In my case it has been childhood-->college-->married with no kid-->small kid-->older kid-->empty nest.
I've been trying very hard to reorganize my games differently, so that I'll play them differently, so that I'll buy them differently. I've been buying games in a pattern for years that was to make up for not having time to play them, and that turns into spending more time sorting them than playing them, which makes the money something of a waste. I've known it was stupid all along, but I get neurotic pleasure out of sorting, so it was all reinforced enough to continue. For those of you who know my habits and wonder about my finances, I spend less than you probably imagine and this introspection was prompted by paying off all my debt, not by hitting bottom on a money problem. I'm just trying to adult. I'm 45 and it still sucks.
I'd be crazy to say I'll slow down buying games to just what I play. That may never happen. But this summer I've had a little time to think about it.
Today's list -- I've identified the following ways I play games, and I've tried leaving fewer than 40 games installed so I can easily sort them into these categories. Realize that I do not play multiplayer-only games, and play practically nothing but PC games now.
To finish: single-player action games, puzzle and story-based platformers, more conventional puzzle games, and various subgenres of short or experimental adventure games
To catch up: so many core adventure game series and new entries because this is my longest-running main genre
To progress: this is particularly for the long-running series of hard, deep action-rpg hybrids like Deus Ex, Thief / System Shock / Bioshock, and Arx Fatalis / Dishonored
To exhaust: arcade, racing, and other subgenres where you die and start over, particularly the gamebook-style games
The long haul: the role playing games that I always pretend I'm going to catch up and finish but never will, especially old-school stories like Planescape Torment
The indefinite: games that aren't made to finish, like Euro Truck, Pinball FX3, and a whole bunch of 4x turn-based strategy
This way I can see that I have too many games installed in one of these categories and really don't need another one, even at $10, until I make some headway.
Thoughts?