For gamers and collectors, the advent of a new year commonly brings goals and resolutions as with any other aspect of life. In the past I have tried to tweak my habits to get the most out of the medium, and I have usually been able to maximize my enjoyment of the hobby, or at least evaluate my own behaviors in an honest way. My goals for both playing and collecting video games in 2018 are reactionary to the way I approached them in 2017. I'm going to reign back the deluge of spending and quantity of titles played.




I kicked off 2017 by playing as many games as I possibly could, beating them by any means necessary. My newly modded thrift-store Wii blew my mind in a sense that it was the first console mod I did by myself, and it was the first time in all my years of emulation that I felt completely comfortable from a tactile sense playing the games. Using the Wii classic controller, I felt a one to one recreation of the games in a way that is as close as possible to playing the original games on original hardware, while using modern hardware on a modern television. Purists can cry foul, and God bless them. My modded Wii is one of my prized possessions. So, I felt energized for the first time to play through as many of the tens of thousands of roms I threw at this console to explore consoles, genres, and game series I had not looked at in the past. The first weekend I messed around with this new toy, I played through a handful of games in a single weekend. I saw my list on the "Beaten in 2017" thread growing quickly, and subconsciously challenged myself to add as many game to the list as I could. I went on a tear of rolling the credits on as many games I possibly could, using emulator cheats if necessary.

As the year went on, I branched out into including more modern games, but I typically skewed towards shorter titles. I was, without a doubt, going for quantity over quality. In the summer, I purchased a GPD XP and the emulation floodgates were open all over again. Now that 2017 is over, I can look back on my list and recognize it for what it is; a list. Though I wouldn't in any way say I regret the way I approached gaming in 2017, I am completely changing course in 2018. I already have a post in "Beaten in 2018," but I have to acknowledge the fact that no one except me cares how many games are in it. So finally, I present my goal for the new year pertaining to playing video games: I will seek out depth and richness in the gaming experience, regardless of the length of the game and to a certain extent the challenge. I will seek joy and bliss in each title I play, and where I cannot find it, I will move on. In doing this I hope to be able to slow down and savor each title in a way that doesn't glaze over or rush any experience.

As I look back on how I collected games in 2017, I have to acknowledge and assess my profligate spending on video games and consoles. In 2017, I spent just over $2,000 on video games from Amazon alone. If I step back and take an honest look at myself, I admit without reservation that I was only getting satisfaction out of spending the money and receiving the packages. As a collector (who has no objection to emulation), I am in possession of far more games than I can ever play in my entire lifetime. I'm going to be blunt, I judge my spendthrift ways in the past year as a completely irrational and unreasonable act. When I think of other things I could have done with just that $2,000, I know 2018 has to be different. I put a lot of thought into this next goal, and in the end I believe it ties in beautifully with my first goal. I will not spend any money out of pocket on video games, consoles, accessories or anything else video game related in 2018. It sounds drastic, but I've set up a few qualifications for myself to prevent this endeavor from becoming a quick nonstarter. First of all, games for the Playcast are excluded. If I can't acquire a planned playthrough title through trades or borrowing, I will not bar myself from purchasing it. Speaking of trades, they are on the table, as are games and gift cards given to me. This idea was borne out of avoiding frivolity, not fun or gaming itself.

As I write this in the second week of January, I have already seen benefits of both goals. I'm currently playing NieR: Automata and I am taking my sweet time with it. I'm playing it solely for the enjoyment of it, and not as another tally mark on a list. What's more, to hedge against the spending goal, I have carefully taken advantage of a certain major video game retailer's trade-in policies to amass a large amount of trade credit which has also had the side effect of slowly shrinking my collection through individual evaluation of each title therein. I will check in here and on the podcast as the year goes on. Wish me luck!

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