When I was younger I didn’t have a lot of games to choose from. I often looked forward to birthdays and Christmas because that was my chance to add a new game to my collection. There were many times that the game I put on my Christmas wish list had come out in the summer or fall months, but it was the quickest shot I’d have at playing it. Things improved a bit when I was old enough to do yard work in summer, fall, and winter months in our neighborhood. Even then, though, that was only a few hundred bucks a year at best, and with the cost of games, new systems, and batteries, it was hardly enough to fund my habit. It was these circumstances that forced me to spend more time with my smaller game library than I would have if things were different. I sometimes minded and probably would have minded much more if I didn’t mostly play RPGs, but I’m just going to come out and say it: I miss those days so damn much sometimes.
I still remember the first job I had that had optional overtime. At first I wasn’t a fan and tried to avoid it, but then I realized I could turn my take home bi-weekly pay from $700 into $1,200 by just cranking out some extra hours. Now, keep in mind that this was when I had almost no bills. I was living with my now brother-in-law in a house with a couple of his friends, and so my contribution for rent and utilities wasn’t very high. I was able to afford to take my now wife on dates, buy games, and do whatever we wanted really, and it was fantastic. I hadn’t realized the downside yet, but I did after a few months. It is my belief that every gamer goes through this phase. See, when we’re younger we can’t afford games but have all the time in the world to play them. We tell ourselves, “If only I could afford more games! Then I could beat so many more games!” But we don’t realize the trade-off yet. We were young, simple, and naive, and had no idea that in order to get said money we would need to sacrifice that time we used to use to run across Hyrule Field for hours on end.
I spent a few years going through this battle before I sat down and decided to come up with a system. I already have bad anxiety so a pile of games staring at me really didn’t help too much. There are many different ways to optimize your gaming time so you can actually play and complete games; this is just my system, and I encourage you to tweak it or do whatever works for you. After all, we all love games here and I want everyone to be able to enjoy as many of them, and as often, as possible.