Gaming, chess and other psychotropics

I was thinking about rebuilding my main recording computer at home so its a better gaming machine.  Why??  To play HL or HL2 again?  To increase frame rates in Diablo or actually replay Myst?  Am I really going to play Crysis or some other insanely compute/GPU intensive game?  I might buy it, but will I ever play it??

I'm not rebuilding the machine so it's a better recording platform, but so it's a better machine for the gaming I'll never get around to...

Priorities, man, priorities.  I'm in the top 100 on the TW13 online play list, but I can't finish 20 minutes of music.  I finished Mass Effect (no number, the FIRST ONE) last week, but, after a month, I just got around to putting up the kids' REAL LIFE basketball hoop.

Like everyone, I have more obligations and hobbies than time to execute them.  I enjoy gaming, and we have every console / platform in the house - a couple of 360s, a PS3 and a PS2, a Wii, a couple of Nintendo handhelds, a couple of iPhones and Android handsets, and, of course, a few PCs.  I keep up with things in the space, and bought Diablo III, Halo 3, MGS3&4, Gears 2&3, Madden 10-12, Tiger Woods 10-13 all on launch day.  I've noticed one thing, however.  With very few exceptions, however, I never get through these games in anything like a reasonable amount of time, if ever.

I'm not a masochist - all of these seemed appealing when I bought them, and still do in the abstract (I'd like to see the end of Snake's story - hell, if it makes sense of any of the Metal Gear canon, I'd probably just sit and watch someone else play through it),  It's just never important enough RIGHT NOW to plop the disc in and play.

I have a  history with old games.  My wife was a chess widow while we were dating.  There was something about learning the game that was fascinating - above a certain level, though, it was more about memorization of opening theory than coming up with interesting attack or defensive play.  So, I got bored, stopped studying, my rating stagnated, and I eventually stopped playing.

Starting to get that way with gaming - more "putting in time" to keep my TW rating up than enjoyment or FUN.  Less willing to put up with the first 90 min of a shooter because it's "training" and, paradoxically, it "obligates" me to another 10 hours to slog through the story line so I can be DONE WITH IT, already.

If the best part of your hobby is slogging so you can be done - rethink it.  No happy ending.  For you it may not be gaming.  If you're actively working on anything you don't like in its own right, stop it.


Right now.  Stop it.

I am going to try and live this – will let you know whether I succeed