Disclaimer: The conceit of this thread, or at list its particular methodology, is pretty dumb. It is, in a way, another “list-your-faves” thread. We have many of these threads. I hope you can tolerate another.
I have been thinking a lot lately about my relationship to video games. More specifically, the question of how many hours of video games my life can tolerate. Some months ago, I made a list of games I wanted to play through before 2025. To make the list, I had calculated the remaining days in the year and worked with the assumption that I would have 1 hour per day for games. I looked up some games on HowLongtoBeat and made a list that would fit within my time limit. It was going well until it wasn’t.
It turns out, I do not have 1 hour per day for games.
Maybe I have 30 minutes. I am working under a new hypothesis: in a given year, I can spend about 183 hours playing video games. Putting that into perspective, I could watch the top 87 films from Sight & Sound’s 2022 critic’s poll in that amount of time. I really could do that. OR, I could play the top 20 games from EGM’s list from 1997. If you’re lucky, you’d have time to do both and your life would be enriched by Mario and a century’s worth of cinematic ideas from around the world.
This brings me to the point of the thread. What would be your ideal itinerary for a year of play? Feel free to use HowLongtoBeat, Gamefaqs, or your own whimsical measure for the length of time any game deserves.
For myself, I have devised a “Year of the Saturn” that I just might pull the trigger on in 2025.
Game
Hours
Soukyu Gurentai
2
Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru
1
Guardian Heroes
5
Bulk Slash
4
Silhouette Mirage
4
Saturn Bomberman
4
Enemy Zero
8
Baroque
13
Panzer Dragoon Saga
17
Sakura Taisen
30
Princess Crown
40
Grandia
56
P.S. Doing this with the PC Engine is really funny. With 183 hours, you could probably play every good game for that console and then some.
To be honest, this year could turn out to be one of the worst in terms of time I’ve spent on VGs… which is kinda good for me, i guess - but it will be interesting to see the stats at the end of the year how much hours i have spent per platform, since i am actually unsure which would be top spot and number tres
As such, i love working with a constraint on the time and trying to max it with games i would love to play (since i have very recently curated a list of games i want to tackle soon)
I know operating in this fashion is peak Minty but I have to say for myself that applying this kind of industrial engineering precision to the homework of leisure is staring directly into the maw of madness. I have to let fate and circumstance and whim guide me or I will never feel as if I am relaxing at all. Why am I playing through junk game Callisto Protocol right now? Because it was free on Epic like a year ago and I wanted a single player thing to do. I don’t want to be playing something Great instead, but planning on playing Callisto Protocol is evidence of mental disease. You just have to let it flow.
I think I actually tend to split the difference on this – I will absolutely create spreadsheets like this because I enjoy the exercise of doing so, but then I’ll just delete them immediately afterward and make no effort to conform to them because it would not be fun
Oh yeah, I mean there’s a big chance that this plane doesn’t even get off the ground, but it’s fun for me to think through the hypothetical. This is how I break out of decision paralysis.
I’m playing dark souls 2 then shining force 3 and that’ll probably take me a year because I’m always playing ffxiv. my one game makes life so much easier
On a recent culling of my own list I started using Howlongtobeat to review whether I TRULY REALLY wanted to invest the time. I don’t think it actually helps that much because when I start to calculate the hours of my free time as a whole it feels like a chore list (but then arguably maintaining the list is already a bit like this anyway and I can’t shake it as a habit). For me a healthier action to cultivate would be just learning to move on and stop feeling the need to complete all these games (mostly rpgs).
I’m getting my pledge list for next year ready and it has two games I’ve already played this lifetime. Feeling almost completely checked out of New Releases but also still Neck Deep In The Video Game has felt great.
And also not having a buffet service hanging over my head.
But I’ve talked a lot I had two Free Hours A Night (which is in fact RIGHT NOW) and it is a decision to do anything at that time. It is usually much easier for me to drop a game because I’m sitting down and do I want to pick X Up Again? The New Brain Depression definitely helps me hyper-fixate on one game and just gnaw on it until the credits roll and then it’s like a curse has been broken and I can instantly just drop the game and feel perfectly comfortable not picking it up again.
Further mess with the Mister? Always good.
All that said. That I PAID MONEY for Quern and Monster Boy is some hideous sunk cost fallacy that I feel the need to play those games more even though I am clearly emotionally/intellectually/ludologically done with both.
I think my opinion on this differs significantly from others. I don’t see chores or homework as negative per se. Assigning myself little tasks helps me break through whatever mental block I have that tells me I should just lie in bed and play solitaire or whatever. The homework is satisfying once it’s done.
I don’t see an itinerary as rigidly demanding what must be done. Rather, it helps me define the boundaries of what I can possibly accomplish. With an itinerary, it’s easier for me to take a detour.
Granted, I do have a certain romanticism towards finding the right book at the right time in my life but you can’t plan for that and it’s pretty easy to recognize when it comes.
I’ve got a lot of replays on my current list but am also finding peace with that. Some recent indie games I’ve played really felt like an obligation more than the thing I wanted to do at the end of the day. The new Zelda had this all over. So yeah, I think I’m starting to swing towards Rudie’s position regarding new releases and how I’m not getting as much out of them as I used to.
I think organising the list and thinking about its practicalities is worthwhile, the reason I invoke ‘chore’ (derogatory) is I feel I should be somewhat intrinsically driven to the next game at that point in time and I think if I get the calculator out to often it disrupts that mystical serendipitous feeling maybe. That said I need to stop putting RPGs on my list, it’s like having a bulk purchase of ice-cream tubs on there. Probably bad for my time on this planet but enjoyable in the moment.
I’ve thought about setting rules for each year (no RPGs, a shorter game every week, always have 3 games in rotation) to help ‘clean up’ on certain things more effectively but I am fickle. Perhaps a pact is needed?
I never know what I’m gonna run into when it comes to video games. Maybe I’ll get an itch to play this, or maybe something totally different. I do hope that I spend less time with remakes, replays, or expansions to old games. Recently, I’ve been really intrigued by JRPGs from the 90s as those were just a blindspot for me growing up. So I imagine I’ll continue to play more Final Fantasies. But I’d like to also try like Chrono Trigger, one of the DQ Remakes (exemption to the above [and I’m sure it won’t be the only one]), and an SMT game but maybe ReFantazio instead or in addition to finishing up Nocturne.
Other than JRPGs, I’d like to get around to the Riven Remake ([see!!]), Tactical Breach Wizards, upcoming releases like Pathologic 3, Death Stranding 2, Avowed, Golden Idol 2…
