Gaming is my primary hobby, and like any long-term hobby, sometimes you have to take a good hard look at whether you’re still having a good time or not. It’s been an interesting year, but in 2025 I’ll be making some changes to minimize my frustration with my favorite pastime.
5 Buy Even Fewer Games
About halfway through 2024, I decided to put a moratorium on buying games and I almost managed to stick to it. The only exception was for games that were on my wishlist and went on a deep sale. My video game purchases in the latter half of 2024 have been dramatically less than before, and I want to keep the momentum going.
I intend to lean heavily on my gaming subscriptions, such as PS Plus and PC Game Pass, along with my staggering backlog of existing games.
4 Spend More Time With Consoles
According to my various video game wrap-ups, I spent a mere 30 hours on my PS5 in 2024 and an equally paltry 60 hours on my Nintendo Switch. I genuinely enjoy console gaming just as much as PC gaming, so I want to rebalance things a little in 2025. There are a ton of console exclusives on my list to play, many of which I already bought a few years ago, and I have no reason to ignore them any longer.
3 Try Games Outside My Comfort Zone
Everyone has their favorite genres, and for me, that’s generally RPGs, racing games, and various forms of strategy games. While it’s nice to stick within the realm of what’s comfortable, I do want to try some things that I wouldn’t usually play.
I’ve fallen out of first-person shooters in the last few years, so a return to that would be nice, but I want to dabble in the quirky stuff too. I’m still not going to play online against (or with) strangers—there are some lines I just don’t want to cross.
2 Spend Less Time Worrying About Graphics
I’ve never been the type of person to buy (or afford) the very latest in PC hardware, but I have appreciated good graphics, and tried to access the best level of it my budget can accommodate. However, I spent most of my time this year playing older games on my handheld PC, and by and large, I’ve been unbothered by the latest shiny games with their super-advanced graphics.
I think I want to keep that sentiment going, and care less about how good the graphics in games are. Instead, I’m looking for games with great art direction, amazing gameplay, and, if at all possible, gripping narratives. If there are some nice traced rays as well, I’ll consider that a bonus.
1 Actually Finish Games
I know I’m by far not the only one guilty of this, and I have always lived by the rule that you should stop playing when the game stops being fun. However, that doesn’t explain games that I have stopped playing while they’re still fun. Part of this is the allure of new games that everyone’s talking about, but since I won’t be buying those anyway, it won’t matter anymore.
Also, since I’ll be relying on subscription services so much, there’s actually an incentive to finish games before they are removed from the service. I’m also trying to take my time with the games I’m actively playing and really enjoy them. Effectively, I need to pretend other games don’t exist until I see the end credits role.
The best way to achieve this is probably less social media, and that’s a New Year’s resolution we should all be considering—gamer or not.
