Although this topic is applicable to all kinds of things (shows, books, etc.), I will mainly be focusing on games here.

I have an account on HowLongToBeat.com. If you’re unaware of this website, it’s a website that allows you to catalog games and give them a status, such as playing, backlog, completed, or retired. It’s like Letterboxd, but for games. Also, because games are more variable experiences than movies, it calculates the average time it takes to beat a game based on the recorded times entered by its users, hence the name of the site.

Sometimes, when I look at all the games I have in my backlog, I get nervous. I’m a fan of genres that tend to have longer play times, such as RPGs and Visual Novels. When I look at the “Avg Time to Beat” and “Total Time to Beat” stats on my account, I realize my own mortality. Will I die without having played some of these games? Especially the ones that I actually bought, and spent my hard-earned money on.

To complicate things, I like collecting games (as you may know by now). As a physical game collector nowadays, there’s an impetus to buy games before they become unobtainable or too expensive. I’ve looked back on when I obtained games, versus when I actually got to play them, and it can take upwards of 2-3 years before I finish a game. I am definitely acquiring games faster than I can complete them. The only thing that helps my numbers is that I tend to complete shorter indie games as I buy them.

I don’t really like forcing myself to play games, so I play whatever I’m in the mood for. Recently, I decided I wanted to sort my games into collections (a feature where you can make custom lists of any kind) just to see how many games of each genre I’ve played.

I was shocked to find out that I’m actually a fake JRPG fan. It’s true that I love visual novels and adventure games (I’ve played 48 of them!) but although I thought of myself as a JRPG fan, I’ve only actually finished 16 games. Out of that total, 3 of them are a Dragon Quest game, 3 are a Pokemon game, and 2 are Loathing series games. I have a piddling few other games, like Atelier Ryza, and Live a Live.

How can this be!! Am I actually a fake fan??? When I check my other lists, it becomes obvious what’s going on. Even if I spend the same or more amount of time on this particular genre, because the games are so long, it takes forever to complete them. I’m definitely interested in JRPGS, but they are basically 3 to 4 times as long as any other game genre. Newer games also tend to go for much longer, it took me 150 hours to play through DQ11S all the way to completion (I don’t consider Act 3 optional, as it contains the “true” story ending).

I can see why people hate these types of games, and feel like they’re padded out. But I love the slow paced approach to story telling, and I find these types of games super cozy. I don’t mind chipping away at games, and switching to whatever I’m in the mood for.

Right now, I have 10 games I’m playing, 37 games paused, and 138 games on my backlog. I’ve only completed 111 games in my entire gaming life, and have also retired 35 games due to various reasons. Although I get anxious about it occasionally, I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a hobby that I do in my free-time, not a job.

Sure, it sucks that I maybe wasted some money if I never get to the game, but I could always sell the games later (this is why it’s good to go physical!). In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that expensive either, and not worth worrying about it.

One unfortunate ER visit costs more than 2 years of game purchases (for me). My house could burn down someday. A life changing accident could happen tomorrow, at which point I’m going to have way bigger concerns than my gaming backlog. I just want to enjoy my time on this planet while I still can.