Author: David Schirduan

Gaming Guilt – Maximum Joy Levels

Episode 29, and a discussion with some friends last night brought up this little rant:

Everyone owns more games than they play. I don’t know a single gamer (RPGs, board games, or video games) who has played and fully enjoyed EVERYTHING that they have ever purchased.

And that is okay. We have a weird fixation on “getting value from our games”, and this idea that when we purchase something, we are making a commitment to extract all of the joy from that thing.

In my house we’ve had to institute a new rule: “If you aren’t having fun, stop playing.”

– When a long RPG starts to get kinda boring, don’t push through for 30 hours so you can finish it. Just find something fun.

– When a game never really gels with your group, stop trying to force it on everyone to justify your purchase.

– Don’t feel weighed down by a huge folder of unplayed games. Just enjoy what you enjoy.

– It’s okay to be excited about new things, even if you haven’t played EVERY SINGLE ONE of your old things.

Let’s all take a deep breath, and just try to have fun today, right now, with our friends. Those other games will still be around if we decide to play them 10 years from now.