For the past few years, I’ve bounced around only a handful of games. The main reason for that is World of Warcraft, and for good reason. Like most MMORPGs, it requires a dedicated time commitment over months and years. This past November, WoW celebrated its 18th anniversary, and I’ve played for 11 of those 18 years.
But there was a time when most of my time was spent playing single-player, narrative based games with the occasional multiplayer. I remember specifically after finishing Batman: Arkham Asylum, which lasted about 9 or 10 hours, and telling myself, ‘This is why I play MMOs. They never end.’ My fear was always I’d beat a game and then run out of things to play. In reality, that will never happen.
There is no possible scenario where I run out of things to play, whether single-player narrative game, or multiplayer. Not only have I amassed a backlog of games that it would probably take decades to actually finish, but new games come out every single day. Even right now I have enough games already installed that it would take me months before I needed something new.
So how did I get here? A combination of not using my time wisely, and a lot of focus on World of Warcraft. In the Legion expansion, I was playing by myself, leveling up each class and gearing them appropriately. It took nearly the entire expansion to achieve that with all 12 classes. In the Battle for Azeroth expansion, things split up more evenly, and it made sense to have a character on both the Horde and Alliance side. In the Shadowlands expansion, subfactions called covenants were introduced, effectively creating a situation where it was ideal to have four characters, one in each covenant.
Now in the Dragonflight expansion, I’m limiting myself to only one character, yet I’m already tempted to try to roll an alt. Maybe I’ll change classes each patch, but as of right the goal is to stick to one character, and use my free time better. I was crazy enough that besides World of Warcraft, I’d have a second live-service game I’d be playing on the side. Sometimes that was playing the new season in Diablo 3, or a season in Destiny 2.
So what does playing more games actually mean? Part of it means playing more single-player, narrative games, like I already said. Games like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty campaigns, and Far Cry. RPGs like Final Fantasy Origins, Cyberpunk 2077, and Dragon Quest XI. And diving into new genres, visual novels like The Nonary Games, strategy games like Satellite Reign, and roguelikes such as Hades. The other part is focusing less on live-service games, or games that continually ask me to log in either daily or weekly. There is some overlap on that with Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMO with a heavy story focus, but I may just catch up on the previous expansions without participating in any of the endgame activities. I can tell myself right now though, if and when I do stop playing World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic is what I’d pick up its stead.
So that’s where I’m starting. Currently I’m playing through Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, though I’ve got a multitude of other games already installed I can start after. I’m going to try my best not to limit myself to playing games in order or with a context in mind, but that’s another topic for another time.
The Trench Run 