My Gaming Status: Now and then

I was thinking the other day about how the volume and passthrough of my gaming has changed since I was in gradeschool.

As memory serves, my parents rarely bought me games. Understandably so; games were upwards of $50 or more in many cases. Even Commodore 64 games were spendy back in the day. So how did we bide our time?

Aside from borrowing games and what not, I remember having to rehash through old games constantly when I wanted a gaming fix. Christmas and my birthday were always a long ways off. Naturally I didn't have a job, so mom and dad were the hand that fed. So when whenver I or my friends procured a new title...we played the hell out of it. The Ninja Gaidens and Street Fighter were particularly bad.

Ugh, so much Ghostbusters...

Fast forward to today; I make my own money, and can buy games whenever I want. Continue reading... While this sounds like a good thing, I'm beginning to question it. Now I buy new games before I've finished playing the old ones. Too many options and just not enough time. It's even worse owning all the consoles and handhelds.

Currently, I have at least a dozen games I have to complete. Some I don't even get very far in before trading them in (Call of Duty 3 and Crackdown come to mind). Only the stellar games are getting my time, which is cutting me off from some potentially memorable experiences. Right now, I've got Bullet Witch, Lost Planet, Metroid Prime 3, Resident Evil 4 (Wii), Sonic and the Secret Rings, Dead or Alive 4, Phantasy Star Universe, Tiger Woods 07/08, Guitar Hero II, Bioshock, and more on the plate. I've already accepted I'll never get around to these unless I stop buying games for a while.

Sounds easy enough, but the problem is there's too many stellar titles coming out now. Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, Halo 3, Stranglehold, Timeshift, Mario Galaxy, and others. While Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Halo are not optional...I'm thinking I can start holding off on the others. Finish what I have first, and by the time I'm ready to move on...the other games will be cheaper.

Maybe going back to the getting-a-new-game-is-rare situation of being a child gamer isn't such a bad thing.