Up front I should say something, I used to be terrible at actually completing games. In fact, I used to be terrible at completing much of anything. No matter what it was I tried I would have a grand vision of something awesome I would create and I would falter somewhere before the end. I would sometimes feel a little ashamed of this fact and so about a year ago I wanted to see how many games I had actually completed so I wrote all the games I knew I had complete down on a piece of A4 paper.

In all my 21 years living I cant even fill a page with the amount of games I can be sure I completed which is crazy when games are my primary hobby and are always on my mind. So I made a set of two goals:

1: Fill the page with completed games by the end of summer.

2: Complete one game a week since I have a grand collection of half finished games.

At the time this seemed like an acheivable goal, a week is a long time especially for an unemployed person. In the first day I finished Frontlines: Fuel of War (I was on the last level) and Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty (A 5 hour adventure I was 3 1/3 hours into). On the second day I finished Haze (I promised a friend, I hated every minute of it) and on the third I completed Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (On easy, the wii shooter controls are infuriating). Its plain to see that this is not the correct way to approach my goal, I had noble intentions of becoming better at finishing games and yet I was mostly punishing myself to acheive a goal.

I complete some games over the year, such as Bastion a day after release since it was such a wonderful game, and I managed to squeak into my second goal of finishing the page by the summer. On the 12th of August I completed the 11th game since Febuary, in 6 months I acheived very little towards my goal and hadent changed my habits.

I felt angry at myself, I intended to "better" myself but I hadent tried in 6 months to do anything. I am not quite sure what changed in me but I hate being angry, and I dont like being dissapointed in myself, so I actually changed my ways. In the 6 months since August I have completed 40 games. They vary in length from "And Yet it Moves" (an Indie platformer that took around 2 hours) to the 40-odd hours I put into Super Mario 3D Land to get every flag, every star coin and complete the hidden last, last stupid hard stage.

Someone on this forum recently asked about how to get better at completing games. I cant offer an answer, its very much a personal mindset thing, but I am glad to say that I have acheived this. In the 25 days of January I have complete 18 seperate full games. Some of them include such greats as Uncharted 2, Batman Arkham City/Asylum and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The primary thing I would say that changed how I play games is that I began to write them down. As a reward for finishing the game I got to write down the name of the game, and the date, on a piece of paper hanging above my TV. Theres is an odd part of me that looks forward to completing games to write them down, more than to see the end.

I am glad that I did this. A year ago I was lucky to play an hour of a game that I had looked forward to for years. More importantly I was lucky to play 2 hours of a game even with friends, regardless of my enjoyment. To some people it dosent sound like a lot but to me this is a very important thing, thing "issue" extend not just to games but everything else in my lift. I had a problem staying still for too long and I am glad to say that I overcame that myself.

I now just have to figure out what the 52'nd game I complete will be. I dont want it to be a "silly" game, im looking for an "important" game like, wishfully, Skyrim.

To anyone that read this, thanks. This is something thats been on my mind for a long time and its important to me.