I am nearing 11 years since I created my PSN ID. I did not anticipate just how obsessed I would become with earning trophies and how many games I would play over the years in pursuit of collecting these shiny things that pop up for a few seconds and have no intrinsic value whatsoever. After over 6 years of figurate blood, literal sweat, and tears of rage, I hit my 100 Platinum milestone with Call of Duty: World at War, one of my first PS3 games.

Now, another 4 years and some change later, I have doubled that and hit the 200 Platinum milestone. After 9 months from first playing it, I finally earned the platinum for Red Dead Redemption 2. I made sure this milestone was something memorable. And, of course, it was very time consuming. In total, I put nearly 150 hours into the game.

So now what? Well, for a little while I was planning on #200 on being my last platinum. I'm at a point in my life where I don't value trophies quite as much as I used to. And I did not want to continue stressing myself out over trophies and distracting myself from just enjoying the game. Earning trophies and enjoying a game always came hand in hand for me. In other words, they enhanced my enjoyment. But, after almost 11 years, I have had enough experience of the opposite being the case to truly question this hobby within a hobby of mine.

After some discussion with myself, I have decided that I will continue to collect trophies and go for platinums... albeit in a much more limited capacity. It's a tough habit to break, but I do fully intend to push trophies to the side a bit so I can use my time (that is much more limited now) to play more games instead of trying to get every last drop out of every single game I play via trophies. So I guess I consider myself a "semi-retired" trophy hunter now.

Lastly, a quick update on my life outside of gaming. I had my first internship in a more professional setting over the summer. It was a good experience that forced me out of my comfort zone in several ways. University is still going well, I've completed 3 semesters in a row with all A's. I'm a "senior" now, so this is my last year. I'm starting to feel a bit burned out, so I'm just trying to push through it at this point. Still don't have a firm idea as far as what I want to do with my life. I'm 25 now, so I feel like I should have figured that out by now lol. Need to find more joy and motivation in something that isn't gaming, I guess. Not that I intend to abandon gaming any time soon. Just need more distractions to keep the existential dread away.