My New Year's Resolution

I'm going to chat just a bit about new year's resolutions.  A lot of people like to blow off new year's resolutions, because they have no realistic expectations of actually achieving them.  For myself, that's never been a reason not to make them.  I relish new years resolutions - I usually make two or three a year at least.  I've been making the same two default ones - Eat Better, Exercise More, for the past five years.  But for once, I want to talk about one I'm actually endeavoring to succeed in.


My new year's resolution is something I started working on back in 2009.  I suppose the fact that I've been working on it off and on for over three years now is testimony to just how much I want to succeed at it. In some years I've had a great deal of success, and in some years I not so much.  So enough talking around it - let's get to it.

My new year's resolution in 2013 is to be a better finisher.

You see, as I said, this started back in '09, when I started working on Atomic City Adventures. It was August of '11 before I finished that game, but finish it I did - lock stock and barrel.  And when I completed that titanic effort, I realized that I could finish things.  All my life I have been a fantastic starter of things.  I start games, I start books, I start writing books, I start working on games.  But traditionally, I have been a terrible finisher.  Too many times, and too often, I'm distracted by something else that comes along, or worse, I'm just lured by the appeal that comes from the beginning stages of a project - when the sky is the limit and everything is fresh.  Too rarely do I finish the things that I start.

This blog is called Of Course I'll Play It, because, for a long time, I was known among my peers as the guy that will play just about every MMO.  Regardless of how crappy, or how foreign, or obscure, you could count on me as the guy to pick it up and give it a try - and usually for even a few months.  Well I'm not changing the name of the blog, but quite honestly I've decided to work harder to not be that guy.  I'd rather be the guy that actually finishes the things that he starts.

As some of you may have noticed, since pretty much September, I've been playing exactly one game.  It's not so much that Guild Wars 2 is the end-all be-all of MMO's.  It really isn't.  It's a fine game, and so far I'm still quite enjoying my time with it.  But I'm not willing to run off and try other games until I've finished Guild Wars 2.  How do you finish an MMO?  Well quite simply, you achieve your goals.  My goals with Guild Wars 2 are thus:  I want to have at least three level 80 characters with one max crafting profession for each of them, for one of them to be fully outfitted in exotic armor and weapons, to have fully completed the personal story on at least one of them, and to have at seen each of the dungeons in the game.  Overall, a pretty modest set of goals, actually.  But I haven't achieved it yet, and so, I suspect, you'll continue to see screenshots and anecdotes and design analysis for Guild Wars 2 from me for some time yet.  But there's a reason for this.  It's because I'm not done yet.

With luck, I can carry over some of this attitude into the rest of my life.  I have a fence that needs repair.  I have a shower that needs caulking.  And don't get me started on projects at work that need finishing.

Anyway.. enough philosophizing.  That's what I am going to try to accomplish in 2013.  And where ever you are, and what ever you're doing, I hope you and yours have a truly fantastic year.

Happy New Years