Left behind?

I work from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday. I have a girlfriend who takes up most of my weekend free time. I try to visit my large family from time to time. I also am forced against my will to workout on Tuesday's and Thursday's after work with my girlfriend. So what do I do with my "free time"? I play video games. I have a PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii, N64 and Super Nintendo. Collectively, I have over a hundred games, in which about 20 of them I have not beaten. Those 20 do not include games that don't have a campaign (sports, racing and fighting games). Besides those games I haven't beaten, there is a line around the block of games I'm looking forward to that will be released in the near future that will be first priority when I get my hands on them. So, my point? I have no time for games. And not in the initial way that you're thinking. I play games ALL THE TIME. So it's not the issue of me not playing enough games, it's the issue of.. Not.. Playing..?.. Enough games?.. Let me explain!

It took me about 6 hours to arguably finish ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD. I say arguably because I did close to none of the secondary missions. I see secondary missions as.. well.. secondary. Not important. Not necessary. I've been told that BROTHERHOOD's greatness is evenly spread throughout the variety of the secondary missions. But I didn't care. I wanted to "finish" the game, so I can play another game I just bought I haven't played. I told myself that if I finish the Primary Main story missions, I can put the game in my "finished games" pile. Done and done. But am I truly "finished"?

This scenario with ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD is not foreign or crazy to me. I've done this quite a few times.. Ok, most times.. Almost every single game I play. But I wasn't always like this! No no no! I used to play my games until I knew everything there is to know about them. Every secret and collectible. So what happened? I'll tell you what happened! Accessibility happened! Along with a good paying job and no real responsibilities. What happened, was that after getting my first job, I started going crazy trying to buy as many games as possible. I'm assuming I thought I was making up for the lost years of no gaming. So I was playing game after game. It got to a point where I started buying games bi-monthly, MINIMUM. Sounds like heaven, right? Well.. it is.. Until I couldn't keep up, because I was developing a life outside the controller. So, I was minimizing my game time and expanding my social time, while still buying the same amount of video games. A new game came out that I was REMOTELY interested in, I bought it. Old games that I missed out on that I felt I needed to play, I bought them. I needed a system to play the old games, I bought the system. Piles upon piles of games with less time to play them. Before I knew it, I was drowning in games that I started and then quit because a "better" or "more interesting" game came wandering around. I was in trouble.

Recently, I've found more time to play. That would be a great thing if I still didn't have all these games that have been pushed back over the years. So, now I find myself playing games like its a job. Clock in, get it done, clock out. No overtime. No trying to impress my boss. No above and beyond the call of duty.

Its obviously not THAT extreme, but I feel like I've betrayed the very core of the reason why I love playing video games.. Fun. From as far as I remember, I've had fun playing video games. Whether it was by myself or with others, I was having fun engaging in these fictional and non-fictional worlds, saving the earth in bullet time slow-mo. If I remove the fun factor from video games, then what do they have to offer? I'm assuming its what I'm feeling now.. work. But I don't want to feel that about the medium I love most. I need to stop rushing and stop to smell the digital roses. Inhale that pixelated air. And swim with the fish sprites. Where are these games going? Nowhere. They're staying right in my drawer, waiting patiently for me. So, I'll do not only the developers the pleasure of playing their games through and through, but also myself the pleasure. Get back to the basics of playing video games. What got me into loving them to begin with. Fun.