Friday, February 11
I guess I should probably explain what power gaming is, or at least what I think it is and how I am going to be using it. Power gaming, in my eyes, is essentially to spend a lot of time playing games and in my current case, finishing them. Now if you don’t know, or aren’t from CheapAssGamer.com, there is something some gamers like to call a backlog. This is essentially a list of games that these gamers have either not played yet or not beaten yet. Well during the 2010 year I decided to rid myself of a lot of my backlog by power gaming. By this I mean that I ran through and finished a lot of games. Anyway, lets get into the details…
Last year is represented as starting from January 1st 20010 to December 31st 2010 and all of these games were completed in that time frame. Another thing is that all of these games but three were actually started during this 2010 period. I added these three games because I felt that I completed the majority of them during the duration of 2010.
So now onto the number of games completed, or stories finished, during 2010. In total there were 52 games completed, which means 49 games were started and finished in 2010 by myself. You may be wondering if I truly mean finished and I do. None of these games were halfway completed and then thrown away. But I would like to make clear that on average most of these games took 8 hours to complete. There were some oddities like Mass Effect 2, 20+ hours, and King’s Bounty, 40+ hours.
Here is the list of games completed in order…
- Darwinia
- Trine
- Castle Crashers
- Shadow Complex
- Universe at War
- Mass Effect 2
- Little Big Planet (Started in 09)
- Star Trek Legacy
- Defense Grid: The Awakening
- Torchlight (Started in 09)
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Started in 09)
- Star Wars: Dark Forces
- Star Wars - Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
- Star Wars - Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
- Call of Duty: World at War
- Uncharted
- Star Wars - Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
- Star Wars – Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
- Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2
- Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 – Rise of the Witch King
- Freedom Force
- Call of Duty 2
- Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich
- Lego Star Wars II
- Psychonauts
- Jade Empire
- Company of Heroes
- Portal
- Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
- Infamous
- Jak & Daxter
- Sniper Elite
- Jak II
- Dark Messiah: Might & Magic
- DJ Hero
- Unreal – Gold
- Unreal 2: The Awakening
- Overlord
- Overlord 2
- Gears of War
- Jak 3
- Red Faction: Guerrilla
- Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
- Starcraft 2
- King’s Bounty: The Legend
- X-Men Legends
- X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
- Halo Reach
- King’s Bounty Armored Princess
- Batman Arkham Asylum
- Battlefield Bad Company 2
In case you were wondering I did write them down as I beat them so no, I didn’t have to remember all of that off the top of my head.
And just in case anyone that reads this is wondering the breakdown of systems the games were on goes like this.
PC – 34
XBLA – 2
Xbox 360 – 6
Xbox – 2
PS3 – 3
PS2 – 5
Now I do know that beating 52 games means I put a lot of time into playing video games, but there were some reasons. Firstly I am a college student that has no job. This means during summer and other breaks I have a lot of time on my hands.
Also this list is a double-sided blade. On one hand I am happy to have gotten through so much of my backlog but on the other hand I wish it were a lower number because I wish I had a job.
Logging you in...
DarkonJohn · 735 weeks ago
- Professor Layton: Unwound Future (NDS) (recent backlog)
- 999 (9 People, 9 Doors, 9 Hours) (NDS) (played as soon as I got it)
- God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP) (recent backlog)
- God of War III (PS3) (old backlog, bought at release)
- Bejeweled 3 (have at least one level of each trophy, Gold and Platinum on several) (played as soon as I got it)
Maybe one more that I can't think of at the moment.
This is probably the most games I've completed in this time frame in many years, and my main motivation to start playing some of them was that I had purchased several new games during the holiday sales (greatly increasing my backlog) and figured if I'm going to keep collecting (buying games at great deals is actually a lot of fun), I should at least enjoy playing some of them.
As far as whether your accomplishment is to be commended or pitied, that depends on what you want to get out of your life and whether you are getting it.
For a non-gamer I can certain understand how it would appear to be a complete waste of a life spending that much time playing games. But as a lifelong gamer (almost growing up in an arcade from the very earliest days of arcades and video games) I can appreciate the enjoyment and satisfaction from finishing a good or challenging game.
But the key thing is finding balance in life.
Games have many addictive qualities and are a great form of escapism. If you are dissatisfied with other areas of your life (such as your lack of success finding a job), it is very easy to avoid the stress of searching for a job by spending that time playing games. And each time you overcome a tough boss at the end of level, you get a feeling of accomplishment that can be very rewarding and you want more of it.
You can also tell yourself that you are learning "skills" and training your reflexes in ways that might be useful somehow in the future (like "I lead a guild on WoW and that has taught me how to lead a group of people, build consensus and delegate responsibility). And I wouldn't say there isn't some truth to this. BUT, the best place to train for the real world is the real world, so a gamer shouldn't put too much stock in the value of the skills they learn while gaming.
I should also point out that I think video games get a bad rap when there are many other activities that can be used to consume your time that might be better spent on other things. These other activities include: watching TV or movies (how many NetFlix addicts are out there?), watching sports, surfing the Internet, reading, knitting, fishing, writing (unless you get paid for it), playing fantasy football, playing bridge or board games, gambling...basically anything that you enjoy doing that you don't get paid to do can be addictive and considered a waste of time by someone that doesn't enjoy the same thing.
So really, you need to look at your own behavior and your own life to decide if gaming is having an overall positive or negative effect on the rest of your life. Are you gaming this much because you don't have a job, or do you not have a job because of how much you are gaming? Not sure? Then maybe try gaming a bit less and looking for a job a bit more. That doesn't mean you'll get a job, but "doing what you should" do in addition to "doing what you want to do" is a lot like working out to stay in shape while also enjoying the occasional beer. Working out isn't really fun, but it keeps you healthy and allows you to have the occasional beer without getting overweight. It's all about finding balance.