Out of the Game

Let’s go back to 2003.  Warcraft 3 had just come out for the PC.  I chewed through that game in no time.  But then a funny thing happened.  In the middle of watching the introduction video to the expansion, it occurred to me that I had never started, much less beaten, the expansion for Warcraft 2, which I owned.  I thought to myself, “I should play that before I consider playing the expansion to Warcraft 3.  In fact, I probably shouldn’t even have played Warcraft 3 to begin with.”

So, I dug out Warcraft 2 and reinstalled the expansion.  After beating it, I looked at this wonderful stack of PC games that I had slowly been purchasing over the months and not bothering to play.  Well, I couldn’t very well move onto fresh new games if I had bought all these other games.  What a horrible waste of money!

I made a list of all my games, along with their release years.  If I didn’t play them in the order in which they came out, I’d never get around to playing them, because I would continually pass them up for newer ones with better graphics.  Of course, this is unacceptable.  Like I said, my money can’t go to waste.  And what’s a bigger waste than to buy something and never play it.

By the time 2009 came rolling around, I was caught up to 2001.  The game I was on then was Baldur’s Gate II: Shadow of Alm.  I beat the game around September last year, and started in on the expansion in time for the Extra Life event in October.

I haven’t played it since…

It nags at me constantly, like needing to file taxes, or sort through old photo albums, or getting around to running that bag of old clothes to Good Will.  Its been on my “To Do” lists for months, just moving from one to the next to the next to the next.

I’ve finally admitted to myself - about seven hours ago, not that that moment in time is significant for any reason whatsoever - that I’m never going to play it through.  Hell, I don’t want to play it, and dammit I shouldn’t have to play just because I paid for it.  I don’t feel bad about trading in books I’ve never read.  Just I’ve dumped all that time and energy into it doesn’t mean I can’t jump ship without feeling like a quitter.  I DON’T EVEN LIKE THE GAME!  I’m bored out of my mind.  Its stupid, and monotonous. I quit.  This sucks.  What the hell am I doing to myself?  Screw this shit, and every other PC game I’ve been sitting on for the last decade.

Little kids are probably looking at me like, “Hey Gramps, you know they don’t make floppy disks anymore, right?  We don’t put AAs into our music devices, either.  Did you know that an iPod can hold a little bit more music than your Walkman;  you don’t even have to rewind it to hear the same song; I know. I know.  This is a lot to take in.  You might want to sit down.  You don’t seem so well.  Can I call someone for you?  What was that?... what’s a ‘payphone’?  You mean you don’t have a phone in your pocket.  Um, what’s with the hockey puck?... Oh, that’s your phone?... Does it even have a camera?  Can you make calls on that, or does it just light up?”