Today is December 31, 2021! That means it’s the last day of the year.
While I may not have met my goal of 40 games beaten off my backlog, I managed to squeeze out 32 for the year.
This year was filled with many high-highs and a few lows as well.
So today, I’m gonna be going over my year as a gamer!
January and COVID-19
I started 2021 off with Covid-19. I had to self-isolate out of work for almost an entire month. It was at least 14–20 days of solitude.
As a gamer, I loved every single bit of it.
Aches and pains couldn’t stop me as I continued to game away.
My brother had Covid-19 at the same time as me, so we used our iPhones to FaceTime video chat each other. We played through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, during our time away from work.
It was an amazing opportunity that I got to share with my little brother, and despite the pandemic and disease, it was a fantastic break from work!
February and Starting My Goal
My initial goal of 2021 was to knock 40 more games off my 144-game-long backlog.
After I recovered from Covid-19 and said my good-byes to my brother, I immediately hopped on the grind. I beat BioShock 2 and Quantum Break, followed by Fable Anniversary.
I definitely enjoy playing video games that I’ve always wanted to try or am seemingly interested in. I rarely have a clear or direct path, and usually opt to play games that come to my mind. I shelved a lot of games in 2021 that I’ll eventually need to return to as well.
Middle of the Year
As the year went on, I beat a lot of good games, like Final Fantasy X and Persona 5, for the very first time!
I also beat a lot of quick games just to try and fill up my list. This is something I’d like to change in 2022, using a more “quality over quantity” approach.
Something I’m seriously trying not to do in 2022 is focus on what everyone else is doing. I had a goal of 40 and would play just about anything fast to get there. Some of my Twitter mutuals managed to push passed 40–50 games, and I didn’t actually meet my goal. With a small goal of 35 in mind for 2022, and nothing but quality across my entire backlog, I have no desire to chase FOMO or rush to fill up a list.
In 2022, I plan to just play games that I know for a fact I want to play, regardless of their length.
The games on my backlog are the most important games that are out right now. My shopping/wishlist just has to wait a little longer.
End of August and The Cold Season
I ended up losing my original Twitter account in August of 2021. I felt like I had the world at my finger-tips and just immediately lost it. I never managed to get all my mutuals back, I no longer have my original name, and it caused so much unnecessary fear, anxiety, and self-loathing that should’ve never hit me.
Around October I started feeling overwhelming bouts of anxiety and depression. As the seasons changed, I changed, and I started losing my sense of self. I started really questioning what I was doing, who I was, what was I supposed to be. This wasn’t inherently caused by the loss of my account, but it certainly made me feel like I didn’t matter as much with an alternative account.
I really got in my own head and it affected me for about two months.
The End
As I mentioned, I didn’t meet my initial goal of 40 games. I had a tiny bit of sadness in May and a huge bout of depression in October-December that really fucked with me.
I usually never like to take breaks. But mental health is important, and during those specific times, I just couldn’t bring myself to play anything.
The old saying goes: “It be like that sometimes”.
It really do.
But today is the very last day of 2021, and as I look back on my progress, I can at least be proud to say I hit my milestone with JRPGs, and officially reached 100 lifetime video games played. I beat Persona 5, Chrono Trigger, Shenmue, Super Mario RPG, Pokémon Heart Gold, and so many more.
Feeling Accomplished
Overall, it was a solid year of gaming for me.
My major accomplishments came in the form of beating Shenmue in a single 22-hour session — playing from 3AM to 11:30PM, and learning what made gaming in the 90’s so great with Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. I finally beat 100 video games for the first time which is a major milestone, and I reached 1500 followers on Twitter today!
2022 and Beyond
I don’t really know what 2022 has in store for me at all.
But I guess that’s the fun part, isn’t it?
I just know that I want to focus on my hobby and keep growing and growing. I am giving myself something to look forward to while also giving myself something to look back at.
When I’ve beaten A Link to the Past, Earthbound, Mother 3, all the Metal Gear, Scarlet Nexus, and beyond — I can look back with 150… no… 200…and smile at this someday.
We will just have to see.
Happy New Year!
