Let me tell you a couple of things about myself — the me that exists as of 23:35, July 27, 2023.

Firstly, I have a brain that, when presented with a sufficient number of options to freely choose between, refuses to make any sort of decision whatsoever and simply shuts down, melting into an unproductive goop and causing me to stare at a wall for a good half hour at least before finally being able to achieve anything.

This situation, which is not uncommon, is colloquially referred to as “analysis paralysis”.

Secondly, by extension, this means that if I have clearly demarcated Things To Do At Specific Times, I can generally get on with them without issue. There doesn’t even need to be a hard deadline in place; just a small but manageable list, preferably in rough order of priority, of things to do. I don’t have a problem at work, for example, because a good 95% of the time I have that list to hand, meaning that I have something I can focus on at all times without having to make any sorts of difficult decisions.

Thirdly, there are a lot of video games that I want to play. I mean, technically I want to play everything on my shelves, but at present for the sake of simplicity I’m keeping it to things that I am either actively playing right now, or feel a strong compulsion to play sooner rather than later. Here’s the list:

• I want to finish Mary Skelter 2 on Nintendo Switch, and subsequently move on to the remake of Mary Skelter Nightmares that unlocks when you complete that game, and then Mary Skelter Finale. Each of those games are in the region of 100 hours each. I am presently 62 hours into Mary Skelter 2.
• I want to start playing Final Fantasy XIV again. When I last left the game, I had finished the Shadowbringers campaign, and was about halfway through the two raid cycles that came between the end of base Shadowbringers and the beginning of Endwalker. At the very least, I want to play to the end of the Endwalker story, but I would also like to be more actively involved in the game as a social event.
• I want to play through the entire Trails series. I recently started a replay of Trails in the Sky (I played it a good few years back on PSP) and was having a great time, but also became conscious of my not having finished Mary Skelter 2. For the unfamiliar, the Trails series, to date, consists of three Trails in the Sky games, four Trails of Cold Steel games, Trails to Azure and Trails from Zero as a duology, and most recently, Trails into Reverie. Each game is somewhere in the region of 100 hours apiece. I am presently 5 hours into Trails in the Sky.

• I want to spend some time playing the various “simulator” games that I own, as I enjoy them a great deal. There are no specific ones that I want to focus on, but I want to make more time for them generally. Most of these have no real “end” and can be enjoyed fairly casually.
• I want to spend some time playing the various retro games I own for classic platforms, as I have a lovely, well-equipped room full of authentic retro hardware that I want to make more use of. Again, I have no specific priorities here; I simply want to make more time for retro gaming generally.
• I want to spend some time playing the “smaller-scale” games I have on my shelves, such as indie titles, arcade-style games or games that simply have a deliberately more limited scope or runtime. Yet again, I have no specific priorities here, but I do want to make time for these without feeling like I have to sacrifice something else.

There are other things I could add to the list, but I think that’s probably plenty for now. Hopefully you can see my issue, though. When it comes to the end of the working day or time to get up on a weekend, I am confronted with the question “so what do you want to play?” — and things tend to unfold predictably from here.

I get stricken with the aforementioned analysis paralysis before, after a delay of anywhere from ten minutes to three hours depending on my overall mental state, defaulting to what I deem the “highest priority” of the list above, which is Mary Skelter 2. This is never a bad choice, as I enjoy Mary Skelter 2 a great deal, but occasionally while playing it I feel “guilt” that I’m not spending some time with something else.

So that got me pondering. Would there be value in specifically making time for as many things on the above list as possible? Would there be value in establishing an actual “schedule” for my hobby? It seems ridiculous, right? Video games are a silly, throwaway hobby that you just do if there’s nothing better to do, right? No need to take them seriously enough to make a schedule!

Perhaps once that might have been true — but today, gaming is an all-encompassing hobby in its own right, like film, theatre, music or any of the other arts — or, indeed, any other hobby. And that means that I think there absolutely could be value in organising one’s time a little better… or at all.

If you think about other hobbies, particularly sports, then those often run to a schedule, after all, don’t they? If you’re really into playing football, for example, then you don’t just spend all your time playing football aimlessly — you spend time training specific disciplines, having practice games, bonding with your teammates, playing competitive matches and, just as importantly, having some time off when you need to.

So why shouldn’t one enjoy their gaming time to some sort of schedule? Well, I don’t know. At this exact moment in time, as I type this, I don’t know whether or not one should enjoy their gaming time to some sort of schedule. But that’s what I’m going to attempt to find out over the course of the next week or so.

I’ve devised a “focus” for myself for every day of the week, so that I can concentrate on something specific without feeling guilty that I’m not doing one of the other things on my list. I’ve kept each day’s focus only semi-specific (i.e. I’m not prescribing a specific game) so that there’s some flexibility in there — and, of course, the rest of my life will be fitting around this schedule, too.

I’m starting to go swimming more frequently, for example, so many evenings there will be at least a couple of hours taken up by getting to and from the pool and incompetently performing a rough approximation of breast stroke for an indeterminate period of time. I haven’t specifically scheduled this as yet, though the pool itself has its own schedule that I’m beholden to. That can’t change, so I have to work with that.

So here’s the plan.

• On Monday, I play a smaller-scope game or a visual novel. If the game or visual novel in question is longer than can be beaten or appreciated in a single session, I will commit to it and attempt to beat it over the long term, on the condition that I am enjoying it. If I am not enjoying it, I am under no obligation to drag myself through its entirety just to say I’ve done it.
• On Tuesday, I will concentrate on simming. Ideally I will pick a single sim and spend a protracted session with it, but I recognise that sometimes I might not know exactly what I’m in the mood for. Again, if I start something and decide I’m not actually in the mood for that after all, I am under no obligation to stick with it and can feel free to switch at any point, within the “simming” group.
• On Wednesday, I settle down to make some progress on a “Big Game” — likely Mary Skelter 2, but possibly Trails depending on mood. I am to pick the Big Game to focus on and stick with it for the evening. These are games that I want to make progress with and eventually beat, so this is focused time for working towards that.

• On Thursday, I will start playing Final Fantasy XIV again. The game will ideally become as much a weekly social activity as it is a gaming experience to enjoy, but my priority initially is to work through all the story-related stuff I haven’t yet seen.
• On Friday, I will devote my time to retro-related pursuits, either retro rereleases on modern platforms (primarily Switch and Evercade) or on the “real hardware” in the dedicated room. Since retro games are often designed to be enjoyed in smaller bursts, I am to feel no guilt at enjoying a number of different games over the course of Friday’s gaming.
• On Saturday, I will dedicate some more time to progress on a “Big Game”. Since we rarely do much on Saturdays, this is a good opportunity to make a significant amount of progress with some focused time.
• On Sunday, if I have the energy, inclination and inspiration to do so, I will make a video or two, and then leave the remainder of my time as completely “free choice” to close out the week — be it taking the opportunity to make some more progress on a “Big Game”, or winding down with some simple retro stuff.

This may seem strict, particularly to those of you with good self-control and who are not prone to analysis paralysis. And perhaps it is — but that’s partly what this experiment is about. Something’s not quite working for me right now, so I feel like I need to change things up a bit — and I think this will be an interesting approach to try.

I hasten to add that I am not advocating this as an ideal solution to the situation, nor am I suggesting that everyone absolutely must do things the same way I do. Everyone enjoys their hobbies in different ways, after all, and the way you enjoy gaming may well be working for you just fine the way it is.

For me, though, I want to make sure that I take the time to enjoy all the things that I want to enjoy — and I want to be able to do so without feeling misplaced, misguided “guilt” at any point.

So let’s see how this goes for a week, staring Monday. I will chronicle my experiences here on MoeGamer for those curious!

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