Over the last few years I have amassed a huge library of videogames. In my childhood, getting a videogame was a huge deal. I would play the same game for many months before being given another by my parents. Back then, cartridges cost upwards of 90 dollars, so a little bit had to go a long way. My first system was a NES with two games: Mario and Final Fantasy. Those lasted me well over a year. I beat the entirety of each game and played through again, multiple times.

What happened to this? Today, I seem to have gamer ADHD. I'll play a few hours and then never touch a game again, but constantly seek a new experience. It's as if I take in what the game is all about and just don't care after the quick novelty of playing a new game wears off. I almost have to force myself to beat a game, usually out of guilt for paying out money without getting a justified value.

I'm beginning to think I enjoy the spirit and community of gaming more than the actual games. Kind of like a "car guy" that buys all the car magazines, goes to auto shows, and is a part of the local car club but he drives a Camry. I love games, I always have, but maybe I enjoy the buzz and hype that surrounds the industry more so than the actual end product it produces.

This is not to say I do not play games. I get my fair share of 10-20 hours in a week. This amount of time does not justify my huge stash of games though, some I've hardly played or, even more embarrassing, my huge list of steam games, some I've never downloaded.

Is this a sign of absent minded consumerism on my part? Like a shopaholic buying fifty purses a year even though there are one hundred with tags stacked in the closet? Perhaps I am chasing that magical moment I had when I was younger, playing Mario on the NES. I've come to realize I can never have that again. Just like drugs, the next hit is not as great as the last and never will be. Instead of chasing that high, I should be enjoying what is right in front of me.

Seeing this problem, I decided to get LA Noire and the Witcher 2. Two adult oriented games that are high quality and will give me no logical excuse to want other games. I decided to beat these before getting anymore games. Then Gamestop runs a special, buy two pre-owned games and get one free... Now, I'm back to being a raving ADHD gamer. In the end, its not the worst vice to have :D