The Intentional Gaming Resolution

We obtained every part that we might ever need. An whole technology poured their coronary heart and soul into the online game pastime, and, as adults, we’ve got entry to whole libraries of titles amassed over years of digging via gross sales and awaiting thrilling releases. New video games seem so typically that you just couldn’t probably hear about each one with out placing within the work of a paid video games journalist. Retro units put whole childhoods into our pockets, and our residing rooms are high-definition portals to unbelievable worlds of motion and journey. We obtained every part that we might ever need, so why is it that I spend my 2 hours of free time after work looking at my Steam library of 700 laptop video games, feeling as if there have been nothing to do?

I requested myself this query in 2025, and it barrel-rolled into many alternative questions. Why don’t I end video video games? Why can’t I deal with particular video games? What do I even like? All of those are clearly issues that I ought to learn about myself; a fast search on-line will discover that many individuals additionally endure this misplaced feeling when participating of their favourite pastime; I’m not alone on this. I spent months testing strategies and scouring for solutions till I discovered a New Year’s decision that labored for me.

I need to share what I’ve discovered; placing it in writing will assist me cement the decision in my 12 months, but in addition sharing it could assist any person else (perhaps you!) discover the trail in the direction of having enjoyable once more.

Removing The Un-Fun

At the start of 2025, I used to be a persistent scroller. I surfed the online most likely an excessive amount of. Tweet after tweet and TikTook after TikTook till it was time to close the lights off and go to mattress. I’d take my cellphone out if there have been beats of silence in conversations and waste work breaks by drowning within the noise of micro-content. If you need time to do any pastime, it’s important to make that point, and you can begin to do this by eliminating the distractions that you just don’t worth, which are simpler than resuming a online game. For me, this was taking a holy campaign to the elements of my cellphone that didn’t serve me.

The dumb cellphone motion is impressed; I actually just like the concepts that the spearheads of that cult stand for: downgrading to tech that you just don’t need to use except it’s important to. I notice that there are some on the market who must bodily take away the smartphone to do away with the temptations of scrolling, however I’ve discovered loads of success in simply stripping my cellphone of each app, nearly to manufacturing facility defaults. I hold basic items like banking apps, calendars, and Steam; I actually have a card recreation on there to play with pals and Shonen Jump to learn comics infrequently. Only distractions that I get actual worth out of get to remain. Your cellphone works for you; you don’t must collapse to impulse and short-form leisure. All different social media, video games, and purchasing apps went away.

I hardly test my cellphone now. When I’m bored at dwelling, I don’t have the straightforward manner out anymore; I rise up and seize my Steam Deck, a retro handheld, or a controller and discover one thing to do this I’m going to take pleasure in much more than studying a feed. I noticed that I didn’t have an issue discovering time to play video video games; I used to be growing a problem motivating myself to choose up a controller over opening TikTook. Thus, I remodeled my cellphone into a tool that serves my pursuits as an alternative of distracting me from them.

Curating Your Interests

So, we now have the controller in hand, however we’re flooded with choices. I personal simply over a thousand video games, and I’m keen to guess {that a} majority of different folks within the pastime can beat that quantity or come fairly shut. Hitting a number of Steam gross sales, raiding Humble Bundles, or scouring cut price bins can have you ever swimming in video video games on a comparatively wholesome price range. Many of us dreamed of getting giant libraries of video games as youngsters, and now that it’s actual, we’ve got constructed our personal ghost haunting us, named “The Backlog.”

The backlog places us into a particular mindset. “I’m gonna get around to playing it sometime, but I have to start somewhere.” Casually, you choose up one thing you’ve been which means to play with the objective of beating the sport. We play video games for a lot of completely different causes: to hang around with pals, to develop into higher at a sport, or to simply chill out and have enjoyable, amongst others. Completion is a big motivator in lots of people, and there are a lot of video games particularly geared to itch that a part of your mind. Mounds of checklists in an Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry recreation permit gamers to really feel accomplishment for finishing areas or ending quest traces briefly bursts.

This mentality doesn’t translate to backlogs very nicely, in your common participant attempting to complete longer targets and video games that may take dozens of hours.

We must restrict and curate our choices in order that we aren’t taking part in video games solely on the premise that we personal them. Of course, this comes at the price of admitting that we’ve wasted cash on video games that we’ll probably by no means play, however we achieve the probability that we’ll spend our time taking part in video video games that may follow us lengthy after the credit roll.

Now we are able to simply go recreation by recreation and by technique of elimination, be trustworthy, and quit on the video games that we don’t take pleasure in. This remains to be an enormous step in our journey, however I believe that we might do just a bit bit higher to find our subsequent conquest.

A Closer Look

I’ve been hooked on a number of broad genres of video video games, and it takes a chicken’s eye view to find precisely what it’s that ties these hyper-fixations collectively.
As a child, I nearly solely performed 3D platformers. This shouldn’t be stunning, coming from somebody who grew up proudly owning a PlayStation 2. I performed loads of Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet & Clank, and Jak and Daxter; I actually have a historical past with Super Mario. Now, what could be the frequent thread between all of those video games appears to be a colourful aesthetic, or the gathering of shiny objects, and even the exploration of vertical ranges. But these elements haven’t caught with me through the years; what has caught with me is ingenious motion methods and the way they fuse with fight.

Games like Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Arkham Knight, Saints Row 4, and InWell-known have all saved me hooked, and that’s via quick and enjoyable motion that sends you hurtling, swinging, and sprinting at unimaginable speeds via metropolis streets. I hate open-world video games that supply solely checklists and waypoints, however I make an exception when the traversal is so distinctive and enjoyable. I really feel the identical manner about most motion video games; if transferring is enjoyable, then I’ll look previous a lot of the elements that I believe are boring. I search for inexperienced flags like this when deciding on a recreation to play, however let’s take a look at a number of extra examples.

I’ve by no means formally recognized as a loot goblin, however my monitor report appears to point that the frontal lobe of my lizard mind lights up once I see an explosion of rainbow coloured loot come from a boss that I simply burst down whereas cranking punk music. After taking part in via Destiny, Borderlands, and Diablo 3, it could appear that I’ve a particular weak spot for stock administration and chasing these legendary needles within the haystack of commons.

As I play via Grim Dawn, as I look ahead to Borderlands 4 to achieve a suitable worth, I’m reminded that most of these looter video games have develop into a consolation meals that I really like to choose up and put down. These are probably the most excessive instances the place the loot is the sport, but when a recreation has any form of granular merchandise constructing and restrict that stops hoarding, I actually dig into it. I believe that’s the reason I’ll typically bounce off of Betheseda RPGs, the place many loot objects are an identical to one another, and I get drawn in the direction of video games like Dungeon Defenders or Wildermyth, the place each merchandise seems like a brand new discovery, and those you select to hold with you develop into treasured.

I want to say that I really like all RPGs, however I’ve a penchant for a particular kind and have a tendency to bounce off something that doesn’t meet this requirement. Persona, Dragon Quest XI, Dragon Age Origins, and Cyberpunk 2077; the frequent thread in all of those is a robust emphasis on celebration or supporting solid storyline. If I can contact the lifetime of a supporting character or a celebration member, I’m totally invested. I noticed this throughout Cyberpunk once I promptly skipped all the aspect content material to reply each name from a good friend in want as a result of that’s the solely factor within the recreation that I cared about doing.

These are my inexperienced flags. This is to not say that I by no means attempt something new, however that is to make sure that I do know what new video games I ought to look out for and what video games ought to float to the highest of the backlog. Looking into your previous can spotlight what you’ve got historically loved and inform issues that you just may like sooner or later. The subsequent step may even contain solely putting in the video games that curiosity you or promoting/hiding the video games that now not deliver you pleasure out of your library. We curate our libraries, and it not solely helps us select what to do, however it additionally creates a bunch of video games that’s uniquely yours and an amazing illustration of your pursuits.

Keeping Momentum

So far, what we’ve got is 1600 phrases on methods to sit down and select a recreation to play. While this appears quite simple, for those who’ve ever spent a day downloading video games to play, performed for 5 minutes, and realized that perhaps it was one other recreation you had been within the temper for, then we’re kindred spirits, and you already know this rationalization solely scratches the floor of the paralysis. But now that we’ve allowed ourselves some house to focus and found out what recreation we’re taking part in, the vast majority of our intentional gaming set dressing is completed. The relaxation occurs after we’ve sat down with the sport for the day.

It’s onerous to focus and be current together with your pastime within the time between play periods, particularly if that point could be a few days with work and life in between. I lose monitor of video games that I actually loved taking part in and find yourself both wanting to start out the sport over or dropping it fully when its been every week and I don’t bear in mind the targets I used to be working in the direction of. There is a straightforward resolution to staying targeted on a objective that most individuals will inform you: journaling.

I’ve tried many apps that allow you to choose a recreation, make a number of notes, and monitor your backlog progress. To be trustworthy, I couldn’t discover a single one which labored for me. Most will need you to additionally monitor recreation time and, most frustratingly, the share accomplished. After months of journaling, each in depth and loosely, I’ve discovered {that a} public weblog works finest for me. It makes me take a bit extra delight in each taking screenshots and making a little bit of a presentation out of it, which I don’t really feel once I hold a non-public journal. I hear superb issues about subject journals, too, and although I’ve spent months experimenting, I nonetheless plan to attempt that out as nicely.

Making notes after taking part in video games and even frivolously chronicling my characters’ adventures helps engrave these experiences in my mind just a bit longer. The act of writing a word, so simple as what your subsequent goal could be, does rather a lot to create pleasure in the direction of the following time that you just get to play. After all this time, I’m satisfied that there isn’t a definitive manner to do that so long as you make the word. Journaling is a tough behavior to keep up. Making time earlier than mattress reasonably than taking part in that additional 5 minutes, or getting out the pen and paper and making the journal your individual, take loads of self-discipline. But journaling will assist a gaming session sit with you in a significant manner and create new funding into your pastime in addition to the remainder of your life for those who resolve to journal that as nicely.

The Resolution

My New Year’s decision for 2026 is to have enjoyable once I recreation. I need to hold checking if my distractions are serving my wants. I need to bear in mind what I take pleasure in and guarantee that the video games I play are consistent with my pursuits. And I need to journal and create creativeness and pleasure within the lengthy gaps when I’ve to be a accountable grownup reasonably than a gamer. I’m nonetheless refining my technique, however that is the blueprint that I need to begin 2026 with. It contains being extra trustworthy and lifelike with myself, and your self is the one individual that you just cheat if you promise that you’ll finally and eventually play The Witcher 3, solely to drop it after 2 or 3 periods. Make time for the stuff you love this 12 months and provides your self the instruments to understand them since you deserve the thrill that caring a few pastime can create. So Happy New Year, and naturally, pleased gaming.

Oh, yeah, and I’ll begin going to the health club each week, going to remedy, and all that stuff too.