TL;DR: I just wanna play games for fun now.
Gaming is fun. It shouldn't be a job (unless you work in the industry). I was treating it like a competition, getting as many Xbox achievements as I could. Remember what gaming was like before points and trophies? The grind made me realize how much I missed just... being a gamer. Don't get me wrong, achievement hunting can be fun. I love RPGs and achievements can be like side quests. It has you complete tasks not necessarily required to finish the game.
Destroy 10 helicopters with that tank over there? Collect all of the whatchamacallits? Sure, that sounds like fun!
But then it becomes an obsession... more points means you're a better gamer, right? Not when you're straight up playing terrible games just to see your score go higher. I was ignoring some games because I didn't think that I could complete them. Seeing 90% completion and a string of 1k's in my gamercard made me smile. It's fun collecting stuff but I needed to draw the line after seeing myself sit for hours playing boring Japanese visual novels that I couldn't even read, just to get another 1000.
I don't have a lot of gamerscore compared to the people who have been hunting for years, but keep in mind that I've only had my Xbox for a year and a half and have over 120k gamerscore. That's pretty significant.
After realizing that I just wanted to be a gamer again, I dusted off the PS3 and played some great games that I had been ignoring. Akimi Village and Back to the Future: The Game have been my first PS3 games in a long while. It felt good to play them. Yes, I got 100% of the trophies. I don't think that I'll ever not care about achievements or trophies, I just don't want to treat them like a job anymore.
So what was my wake up call? Well it was a few things...
>Sitting for hours making text selections in Japanese games = boring.
>Seeing the games that I'm proud of completing (Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur, Portal 2, etc) get buried in my gamercard by games I didn't care at all about.
>I had a goal of 100 gamerscore everyday and then felt guilty when I just wanted to screw around in Minecraft with my buddies.
>Playing some pretty terrible games just for points. Now that I look back, that time could have been better spent playing a game I actually enjoyed.
From here on out I take this pledge:
*I will no longer ignore a game just because I can't 100% it.
*I will not play a terrible game just for the easy gamerscore/trophies.
*I will still hunt points/trophies but it will not become a job.
*I will enjoy my PS3 again and not let it collect dust.
There are still several unopened imported Japanese games that I'll play when I'm in a rut and trying to decide on my next game. I paid a lot for them (and the console) so I might as well play them.
I'll still get a little rush from each achievement pop or trophy bling. :)
Achievements are fun and I'll still call myself a hunter... I just need to be a gamer first.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being a hardcore achievement hunter because I believe people should play games however they prefer. Let's all be happy! :)
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