Crippling variety

Since entering the 'real world' six years ago, I've been lucky enough to be capable of buying most video games I have the slightest interest in playing. Yet I still reactivated my GameFly account recently. It took too damn long, but I finally realized I keep going through the same cycle over and over again. The game collection expands, I reach a point where I have so many games I can never settle on one when I'm in a gaming kind of mood, and then I trade most of the game pile in at GameStop or Amazon for credit. Credit that ultimately ends up rebuilding the pile. Lather, rinse, repeat. I rarely finish what I start, and it has been foolish of me to spend so much on that which will never be completed. Two weeks ago, God of War III became what is probably the first game I've finished in two years. Two years!

Age and my ever-changing gaming habits fuel the cycle to a large degree, I must admit. I simply don't have as much time for video games as I used to, and I have even less patience for certain unpleasant aspects common to the genres I once loved. Minor annoyances have transformed into game breakers, yet I never learn to keep any of this knowledge in mind when I read the reviews for the next hotly anticipated title. And when I have so many other games I could be playing instead, all the less reason to hack away at any walls I run into.

New personal rule: I will endeavor to avoid buying sequels or other games by established developers. Nothing against either, but if I'm going to lay down cash for something I'll probably never finish, better to support the new IPs and/or upstart developers.  Ah, who am I kidding? A sufficiently awesome pre-order bonus will always possess the power to part my money from me. Preferably something non-digital though. Some people appreciate the intangibles in life, but I'm not one of them.

 The Tangibles in their place of honor within my office