Finishing what I start

Remember how I told you I was a pretty avid console gamer? Well, yeah, about that…

I have a small problem when it comes to videogames: I never seem to finish them. My attention is caught, I plunk down the cash (or, more recently, massive amounts of Gamestop trade-in credit) and bring it home, I play the game for a night or two, and… nothing. Some rare games get me to come back to them repeatedly, but overall I seem to lose the drive to finish things in place of the drive to buy the Next New Thingâ„¢.

So, now, I am putting a challenge before myself: I’m going to finish what I start. Enter this site’s new page: Hey Phil, Whatcha Playin’? It’s a pretty straightforward page, divided into three sections:

1. Currently Playing, for games that are currently receiving a moderate-to-large amount of my gaming hours,
2. On the Shelf, for games that I either haven’t started, haven’t invested more than a few hours into, or that I have played for a while then put back down for whatever reason.
3. Finished! Which should be self-explanatory, no?

And, to make it a little more challenging on myself, I won’t be adding to the collection by spending any cash at all, until I’ve finished everything that is currently unfinished. If I want to get something new, there are two exceptions to this rule:

1. Store Credit, by trading in things I’m no longer playing, and
2. Rare Finds, such as if I manage to find Xenosaga III or Yakuza 2 somewhere.

That’s it. No spending money on new console or handheld games until I finish the ones I have. Let’s see if I can do it! I’ll update periodically on this (you didn’t think I would do something that didn’t provide me with periodic blogfodder, did you? Pshaw) and welcome comments as well as recommendations (because it’s probably pretty obvious from the list what kind of games I like).