I’ve always been motivated to finish games. When I was young, games were too tough to finish, and I don’t really remember getting to the end credits of very many of them, but it was always something I would strive for while playing games. C64, Amiga and Master System games are generally brutally hard!
Somewhere around the year 1996, I found that completing games was starting to get easier. I’m not certain if it was a change in direction for game developers, or my gaming chops getting better. Perhaps some combination of both. In my early days of a PC gamer, I was finishing games like Duke 3D, Quake, Monster Truck Madness, Tomb Raider, Death Rally, and Descent II.
Skip ahead to 2008, and I was working in a shop environment, doing the boring job of working a machine, running parts. There were days when I would have to run 300 of the same thing, over and over, and my mind would wander. I got thinking about games, and thought it would be nice to have a list of games that I had finished over time. I started making a hand-written list of games that I could remember finishing, and the list grew and grew… I was actually a little impressed with myself what it looked like, as I was remembering these titles.
Later on, in 2009 I found a website called backloggery.com that would easily allow me to track what games I had played, and what games I had finished. I still keep it updated to this day.
So, why write about it?
I find that it gives me motivation to play and finish games. I have enjoyed writing about the games I play for a long time, as it gives me an outlet to get my thoughts on the experience into words, where I can go back and reminisce about it later by reading the article. I believe the earliest game I wrote a review for was Lego Racers II in June 2002.
That’s really it. I don’t expect many people to read all this stuff, and I don’t expect to make any money from doing this. It’s a self-expression thing for me, and I am really enjoying it. If you find it entertaining or interesting, I am happy!