I like cracking open some of the words we use to define "hardcore gamers" to find ones that are more constructive.  My favorite is describing incessant players as "obsessed."

I'm obsessed with games.  You probably are too, if you're reading this.  We read about them on websites, and sometimes have the privilege of writing about them ourselves.  We collect shirts, posters, figurines (a more constructive word for "dolls," of course), and most of all, we buy games.  In bulk.  With the shrink wrap still on them, if we can.

The issue with being an obsessed player is that I rarely finish games that I buy.  Worse yet, when I finally have a review or two out of my way and have a clean slate on my calendar, now that I'm out of school, I get the worst feeling an obsessed player can have.  Restlessness.  Indecisiveness.  Turmoil.

 

Maybe that's going a bit far, but the point is that I don't know what to play.  Then, I keep reading about how excellent some games are.  The reasons people give are different each time, from pure enjoyment to a game having a tear-jerking story.  It leads into the next feeling obsessed players hate the most: feeling left out.

I'm sick of feeling left out.  Glance at my incomplete backlog below, the games I own and have never completed that I thought of/could see while sitting at my desk that are mostly from this generation of consoles.  I know I'm missing out on some amazing experiences, but that restlessness leaves me wondering where I should start first.  You know the feeling.  I call it the "backlog blues."

Note: I left off dozens of games that I decided weren't story-driven in nature, were puzzle, racing, or sports games.  "Completion" is a tricky thing to argue with those.  It also doesn't include games I don't own yet, obviously.

A * next to the game indicates that I haven't even started playing the game yet.

  • *Assassin's Creed
  • Assassin's Creed 2
  • Bastion
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
  • *BioShock
  • *Blue Dragon
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
  • Child of Eden
  • Dark Souls
  • *Dead Rising
  • Dragon Age: Origins
  • Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • *Enslaved: Odyseey to the West
  • *Fallout
  • *Fallout 3
  • Final Fantasy XIII
  • *Final Fantasy XIII-2
  • Geist
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • *Halo 3
  • *Halo: Reach
  • *Heavy Rain
  • *ICO
  • *inFamous
  • L.A. Noire
  • *Left 4 Dead 2
  • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
  • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
  • Metroid: Other M
  • *The Orange Box (Yes, all of the games, except for Portal)
  • Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
  • Red Dead Redemption
  • *Shadow of the Colossus
  • Singularity
  • *Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
  • *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
  • *Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

This is an interesting, albeit depressing exercise to take part in.  Try it for yourself.  I think few obsessed players like myself actually take the time to list out the games they own but have yet to finish.

What do we get out of this?  For starters, I was hoping I could get a few people to tell me what I need to play right now on this list.

Otherwise, the questions we should be asking are: Is it crucial that we finish games?  What determines which games we think are more "important" for others to play?  Do you finish every game you buy?  Why not/how the hell do you do that?