Mile Zero

February 1, 2010

Or: My New Year's Resolutions for Gaming Only, Because I Don't Follow the Other Ones (As If I'm Going To Follow These), 2009:

1. If it bores me early, I'll stop playing it. Like a lot of people, I suspect, I'll keep playing something long after it has become clear that it is a drag with few redeeming features. This has to stop. Life is too short to spend it in virtual drudgery. I don't have this problem with books (see: GEB), I need to bring the same ruthless approach to electronic entertainment. This probably means I'll stop playing Metroid 3 soon.
2. If I didn't stop early, but it's still boring, I'll really stop this time. When I was playing Final Fantasy Tactics A2 recently, it was obvious after not very long that there was just a lot of grinding ahead. But by the point when I began to seriously consider quitting, I had sunk enough time into it (according to the little counter in the save screen) that I kept going, because I didn't want to have that time wasted completely. Result: I spent twice as long playing as I should have, and in retrospect it was all a waste anyway. Plus there was the incredibly annoying final boss, which brings me to...
3. You're not the boss of me now. I only want to beat final bosses if they are A) very easy, or B) ridiculously amusing. After the investment the average game requires, I'm usually just about sick to death of it by the time I get to the last section. The old-school spike in difficulty, a la Ninja Gaiden, just isn't going to cut it any more (see also: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin). I've done my time, now let me feel good about myself and then show me the frakkin' ending.
4. No more console shooters. I'm sick of playing them, and you're sick of reading me gripe about them.
5. Play more indies. I don't spend enough time outside the mainstream comfort zone. And since I'm trying to be more of a PC gamer, it's not like there's a paucity of good, independent titles to try. Also, I feel like I could write more interesting things if I weren't playing the same stale stuff as everyone else.
6. Commit more Sins of a Solar Empire. Sins is a phenomenal game with a great title. Unfortunately, I started a massive, five-solar system session, got 2/3 of the way through it, and then couldn't work up the energy to finish such a daunting task. If I can't finally clear that off my to-do list, I'd like to at least play a few smaller boards before I shelve it under "emergency game stash."
7. Try one MMO. Preferably one of the ones that doesn't require a subscription. I've never played one of these. I'll feel better about mocking them once I've got a tiny bit of experience.
8. Quit trying to beat Rinserepeat's Pacifism score in Geometry Wars 2. Because I'm never going to get past 14,000, no matter how much fun it is to try.

Future - Present - Past