Relax, Have Some Dip…

…or, how to stop worrying and love the game.

Most everyone remembers 2007, for a couple of reasons. First, it was only 2 years ago. Second, it was a mighty fine year for videogames. Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Modern Warfare, Uncharted, The Orange Box, BioShock, Assassin’s Creed, Ratchet & Clank Future, Rock Band…the list is impressive in terms of both quantity and quality. 

But you know what I remember about the games of 2007?

Very little.

In a valiant (vain?) attempt to keep up with the releases that year, and with a deathly fear of falling behind and not being able to be part of the ongoing conversation, I ripped through each and every one of those games like a fat kid at Old Country Buffet. It wasn’t pretty, and I can’t really say I enjoyed it as much as I should have.

That’s why this past year I made a conscious effort to slow down the pace, to play each game until I was done having fun with it, and not get hung up in what might be looming the following Tuesday. And you know what? It worked. I definitely played a few less games than in years past, but I got more value for my money, lost some of the sense of being overwhelmed, and most importantly I had more fun than I had before.

Looking back at the last few months of 2009, I noticed a few trends:

The average time I spent on a game was over 20 hours.

This is significant, because I don’t really spend much time playing multiplayer, so a game like Uncharted or Modern Warfare, while terrific games, aren’t great investments for me when you can blow through the solo campaign in around 8 hours. I got over 70 hours out of Dragon Age alone, completing two entire play-throughs, which is something I almost never used to do. I also completed two runs through Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time, and got over 25 hours out of that game.

I got a much higher percentage of Achievements/Trophies than I used to.

If you look at my Xbox Live or PSN accounts at games I have played in the past few years, you’ll see I’m definitely not an Achievement Whore. I would rarely go out of my way to get any Achievement or Trophy that you wouldn’t get simply in the natural course of finishing a game. This year, however, I got 96% on Ratchet, 90% on Assassin’s Creed 2, and it looks like I’ll be in at least the high 80’s when I finish Darksiders. I’m definitely still not an Achievement Whore, but I did learn that I could have some fun attempting a few of the challenges put out there by the developers, and extend the experience of a game I was enjoying. Compare Assassin’s Creed, which I plowed through without getting any non-essential Achievements, to the sequel, where I got just about everything you can get (I still have to go back and get all 100 feathers) and I can definitely tell you which game I enjoyed more.

The world did not end.

What was the reward for tearing through all of those games in previous years? Nothing, really. Maybe a small sense of pride that I was able to “keep up” with what everyone else was doing? That and a nickel will get you…err…whatever a nickel gets you these days.

This year, I was as involved as I’ve ever been, I only had to “lalalalanotlistening” once or twice as somebody discussed a pivotal moment in a game I hadn’t yet played, and life sort of just went on as usual. No self-imposed deadlines, no weekly trips to GameStop, and I really don’t feel like I missed out on anything. In fact, the only downside is that I’ve got a pretty healthy stack of games that I still want to play through, but that’s no big deal. I mean, the beginning of the year is where we all slow down and catch up on what we missed anyway, right? Because nothing worth playing ever comes out in the first part of the year, we all know that.

Right?

Thanks to the late, great George Carlin for the title of this post.