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One Year Video Game-Free
3 years ago
Don't do it first. Do it better.
The last time I played a video game was with HuniePop 2 on April 16, 2021. I first took a break from frustration at the final (that is to say only) boss (yeah, an NC-17 Bejeweled dating sim with a boss battle, imagine that), and after basically playing HP1 and 2 for almost two and a half months, it was starting to wear on me and I decided to focus on my writing for a while, which was so nice because thanks to HuniePop, I was making the time and finding the energy to really sit down and write a story for the first time in over three years.
Then I kept not playing games because I had a self-imposed deadline to meet: Finish the story I was working on by my birthday so I could start posting it on that day as a birthday present to myself. I did it.
I'm not sure when I decided to see how long I could do it, other than by the time I hadn't played a video game for a month, I was sure that was the longest I'd ever gone without playing video games since I first played a video game, or at least since I got my first game system, a Genesis, for my eighth birthday. At some point after I met my "finish the story by my birthday" goal, then the challenge became "how long can I keep it up?"
To my surprise, and at times disbelief, I just kept it up. Part of it was from how, now that I was writing again, I felt like I'd rediscovered a lost part of myself, a part of myself I missed deeply and that left me unwhole without it. Another part of it was because eventually I felt like if I stopped, I'd never be able to try it again and I wanted to be able to say that I'd done it; in other words, vanity, but I take what pride in my accomplishments I can get, and being able to say "I went a year of my own volition without playing video games" kind of makes me feel like if I can do that, I can accomplish more, so maybe less vanity and more a long-term self-esteem boost.
But...I did it. Despite heavy temptations like Deltarune Chapter 2 dropping out of nowhere, finding this really cool-looking game called CrossCode, and hearing that Freedom Planet 2 was scheduled for a spring release (which has since been delayed), I did it and it feels good.
What now? I really don't want to lose the drive to write that I got back a year ago. But I also promised myself, sometime around last October, that if I kept this up for a year that I'd reward myself by going back and clearing up some unfinished gaming business and beat some games I always wanted to beat but never did. In rough order, my intention:
1) Beat Metroid Prime 1 and 2 again, then beat Prime 3, which I never even played. And to think I call Metroid one of my favorite series ever and first got into it thanks to the Prime games and haven't even played Prime 3...
2) Beat Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, maybe my oldest bit of unfinished gaming business.
3) Beat Twilight Princess, which I almost played to completion twice but never finished.
4) Dunno, we'll see.
P.S.: Late shout-out to the Hunie series for, again, moving me to do something I didn't think I could do, even if in a more roundabout way this time.
Then I kept not playing games because I had a self-imposed deadline to meet: Finish the story I was working on by my birthday so I could start posting it on that day as a birthday present to myself. I did it.
I'm not sure when I decided to see how long I could do it, other than by the time I hadn't played a video game for a month, I was sure that was the longest I'd ever gone without playing video games since I first played a video game, or at least since I got my first game system, a Genesis, for my eighth birthday. At some point after I met my "finish the story by my birthday" goal, then the challenge became "how long can I keep it up?"
To my surprise, and at times disbelief, I just kept it up. Part of it was from how, now that I was writing again, I felt like I'd rediscovered a lost part of myself, a part of myself I missed deeply and that left me unwhole without it. Another part of it was because eventually I felt like if I stopped, I'd never be able to try it again and I wanted to be able to say that I'd done it; in other words, vanity, but I take what pride in my accomplishments I can get, and being able to say "I went a year of my own volition without playing video games" kind of makes me feel like if I can do that, I can accomplish more, so maybe less vanity and more a long-term self-esteem boost.
But...I did it. Despite heavy temptations like Deltarune Chapter 2 dropping out of nowhere, finding this really cool-looking game called CrossCode, and hearing that Freedom Planet 2 was scheduled for a spring release (which has since been delayed), I did it and it feels good.
What now? I really don't want to lose the drive to write that I got back a year ago. But I also promised myself, sometime around last October, that if I kept this up for a year that I'd reward myself by going back and clearing up some unfinished gaming business and beat some games I always wanted to beat but never did. In rough order, my intention:
1) Beat Metroid Prime 1 and 2 again, then beat Prime 3, which I never even played. And to think I call Metroid one of my favorite series ever and first got into it thanks to the Prime games and haven't even played Prime 3...
2) Beat Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, maybe my oldest bit of unfinished gaming business.
3) Beat Twilight Princess, which I almost played to completion twice but never finished.
4) Dunno, we'll see.
P.S.: Late shout-out to the Hunie series for, again, moving me to do something I didn't think I could do, even if in a more roundabout way this time.
Filling the time with other things. Some of it writing after finally starting to do that again, some of it watching stuff (didn't say I didn't WATCH people play video games), and "get an idea in my head and then can't get it out" high-functioning autism power, if there is such a thing.
