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Summer is officially here. This is, of course, a contradiction; as I write this, it's only May. But with the seemingly perpetual Vermont winter behind me and nothing but pleasant, sunny weather ahead of me, I've already decided how I'm going to ignore it. I have a backlog to care of. Sure, I might make the occasional foray into the real world --my girlfriend and I do intend to go hiking at some point-- but I'm rather certain that for the most part my summer is going to be one of intense gaming, fueled by Dr. Pepper and ice cream sandwiches. Is it weird that I'm not looking forward to it?
It's almost hard to believe there could be any such thing as too many video games to play. I remember years ago being able to play a single game for months on end without interruption. When I first bought my Nintendo 64, I mastered Star Fox 64. I can't even begin to tally the sheer amount of time I spent pretending to be James Bond in Goldeneye, or galloping across Hyrule in Ocarina of Time. They just seemed to last forever.
Now the idea of playing one game at a time seems ludicrous. I have tried it recently and find it to be unbelievably hard. I'll set aside a game I want to beat, devote myself to it, and then somehow find myself stopping after a few hours to get a few rounds in of Resistance: Fall of Man. Or I'll log onto a forum, and, upon reading something, feel the urge to pop in a game that further disrupts my goal of giving another title the time it deserves.
I've taken steps to resolve this problem. Though it pained me, I found the will to sort through my games, separated those I knew I would never realistically finish, and sold them. Any gamer that has carted a portion of their collection to Electronic Boutique can probably relate. Watching them ring up your games for only a fraction of what you paid can be a rage inducing experience, but as the sales clerk handed me my credit, I knew I'd done the right thing.
I've rationed my time. I don't seem to have it in me anymore to just play one game at a time. Those days are little more now than a relic of a past wherein I was ten years old, received a small allowance, and couldn't afford to purchase multiple games on a regular basis. So instead, I'm setting aside a few games I want to beat and playing each regularly. Hopefully by summer's end, my stack of unfinished games will be a bit smaller.
In all likelihood, however, it will probably have gotten worse. For all the work I get done and all the games I beat, I'll probably just buy more. Newly endowed with store credit, I almost bought Rondo of Swords. The sales clerk almost talked me into reserving FFIV DS, and come June, when Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out, the world, and my backlog with it, will likely cease to exist. Perhaps I just have a purchase problem. Just last week, having taken some advice from a recent RPGCast, I purchased the Sega Genesis Collection for my PSP in a buy two, get one free deal at EB. I of course bought two other games to go with it. It was a bargain after all.
In the end all that I can do is keep coming back to how silly this all sounds. To complain about having too many games is like a starving child complaining about being given a Thanksgiving turkey all for himself. I guess I just keep thinking back to those younger days and wonder if I’m, if we're, missing something. I’ve grown up, I’m not a kid anymore and I’ll never enjoy things like I did back then. I’ll never treasure a game the same way because if I want I can go and buy more anytime I like. Like a list of chores that never ends, I have a backlog. Who would have thought video games could ever become even remotely like a chore?
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