I’m Having Trouble With My Piles…

It’s true I’m afraid, they are causing me real problems at the moment to the point where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to sit in my office here at home and actually do anything.

They’re always there, nagging at me, chastising me. Even if I shift position I can still sense their presence… always.

See that’s the problem with my post-Christmas gaming, I seem to have piles of games stacked up waiting to be started, given at least some serious consideration or finished off to a point of completion where I feel comfortable putting them onto the shelf.

The problem is that, as well as my previously documented time allocation issues, I’ve developed a bit of an addiction to a certain 3-lettered MMO. I suppose that part of it is down to the completionist in me as I really want to get some of those achievements which require a significant amount of effort. Some element of it is that I want to visit the new game environment – post Cataclysm (damn, that gave it away!) – with a fresh set of virtual eyes and so have started a new character of a different race and class. But that’s the thing isn’t it, there’s always going to be something new to see, do and experience. That’s why people get absorbed by these things to the exclusion of all else.

Now, to set the record straight, I’m not addicted here. I don’t stay up until stupid o’clock in the morning beating down mobs. Nor do I forget that I have responsibilities and commitments to other aspects of normal life such as eating, working and spending time with my other half. The problem is that when I do have ‘game time’ I seem to automatically drag over the G13 and start up WoW in preference to anything else.

When I did the Tron: Evolution review, I enjoyed playing through the zones I did in the game and fully intend to finish it, but it sits in my pile and waits.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was on my Christmas wishlist but has so far had no more than an hour’s play put into it, so it sits in my pile and waits.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, a game much lauded on the Ready-Up Podcasts by Dan, and giving a significant thumbs up by this industry at large, is another which has been started for 2-3 hours and set aside.

Crackdown 2, Mafia 2, Lost Planet 2 are all there as well and at the bottom of the pile (possibly a reflection of my feelings for it in some part) sits Bayonetta for the PS3.

I know I’m not alone in this and that many of you out there will be reading this and uncomfortably eyeing your own piles – physical or metaphorical depending upon how neat you are – but really, what do we do about things? If I say “OK, I’m going to blast through Tron: Evolution so it’s finished”, am I not taking some of the fun out of the process?

It looks like the only logical step I can take is to take a some time away from Azeroth and commit to firing up the consoles instead. It’ll be tough but I’ll just have to deal with the withdrawal by applying large amounts of  car/gun/dagger/data-disk based carnage in its place – actually that doesn’t sound too bad!