Getting older is tough. I remember the days where I stayed awake until 5:30am farming Mephisto/Pindle in Diablo II, or farming and leveling in World of Warcraft. I would only head to bed when I heard my parents stirring upstairs, awake for their day of work.
Meanwhile, I slept for a few hours and made sure to wake up before noon so I could log into Sanctuary or Azeroth once again, and begin the process one more time. They worked to earn money and pay the bills, something I never helped with. They even paid for my WoW subscription.
This didn’t really happen on purpose, I was in high school when WoW came out and I didn’t have my own credit card, so I recruited mom to log in on day one. It just never really got corrected. It stayed there month after month for a few years until I went off to college where I became an adult after realizing what student loans were.
I think about those days a lot now.
Five years ago, I began a management job that required me to be in at 6:00am. I started waking up at 4:30am so I had time to shower, eat and travel in to my shift. This meant that for eight hours of sleep, I had to be passed out by 8:30pm every night. That didn’t happen all the time, but it gave me something to aim for.
I got promoted six months later and didn’t have to be in by 6:00am anymore, but I kept the routine and continued waking up at 4:30am. It’s still management, and I felt that the early hours of the morning were my time. I could catch up on the news from the previous day, work out or get some playtime in on whatever game I was deep into at the time.
Since then, I’ve bought a house, gotten married, adopted a few pets and continue waking up at 4:30am and I increasingly feel like one of my parents. I work, pay the bills, pay for home improvements, pay for things for my wife and pets, pay for food. I’ve fully funded my gaming habits for years now, but that’s where I’m having a problem.
I don’t have a lot of time anymore to play games. The days where I could log in to World of Warcraft and play for 20 hours are over. Hell, I can’t even sit for that long now if I wanted to. I get tired after a few hours, I get distracted or bored and move on to something else.
The digital age of gaming is great in a lot of ways, but also overwhelming. I have 364 games sitting in my Steam account right now, most of which I haven’t even played (thanks Humble Bundle Monthly). I tend to latch on to one or two games at a time and play them for an extended period of time, experiencing few games as opposed to the dozens every year I used to play through when I was younger.
Where am I going with this rant? In a lot of ways I wasn’t, and am not, prepared to get older and take on more responsibility. I want to be back in the old days, playing games all day, even though I know it’s not realistic or even as enjoyable for me now.
With all that being said, I’m going to start a series where I write about what I’m currently playing. They will be games I’ve reviewed, or haven’t for various reasons and include everything from console/PC/mobile (not you Diablo: Immortal).
Stayed tuned for the first iteration, it may be today or sometime tomorrow if I’m not consumed by remodeling one of the rooms in my house.
Have a good night everyone, and Happy New Year.
I Wasn't Prepared For This 