Progress & Perfectionism

 I would like to avoid only writing my completely-biased, admittedly-opinionated reviews of the games I play. Hell, I'd even like to update more often than just on Wednesdays; but for now, that's what you're getting, seeing as how I'm in an extremely lazy mood, and could care less. No, really. I love you all. I swear.

Ahem.

 What I will do, though, is at least give little insights as to what I've been up to, in between reviews. Something is better than nothing, as they say. They... do say that, right? Hrm.

 I suffer from being a perfectionist, and would probably be diagnosed with severe OCD if I decided to actually tell my doctor about my anal tendencies (rimshot!). As a result, I find it necessary to do everything I can in a game, find nearly every item (if not every item), complete every side quest and objective, and plan out my progression in advance. Why? Because I'm probably legally insane, or simply OCD... or maybe it's something else. Hmm. Moving on.

 Where I'm going with this is that I tend to take an exorbitant amount of time completing games, and it usually takes me twice, if not three times the amount of time that it would a normal gamer to complete them (and yes, I keep this in mind when listing game completion time in my reviews). I'm not really going to apologize for doing that, 'cause it's just what I do. Who knows, maybe someone will find it inspiring, or maybe even informative... more than likely, simply a form of amusement; but it's what I do, yo. I do want to make it clear, though, so if anyone happens to be interested in knowing about my gameplay in illustrious detail, I'm in the terrible habit of keeping track of nearly everything.

... and I do mean nearly everything.

 From stats, to personal strategies, to whatever else I end up thinking of. I keep all of this seemingly useless information in the form of Google docs (I really do love you guys, Google) so anyone who wishes to peek at the stuff can feel free and do so in real-time. Oooh, fancy.

 If I'm playing a game that I'm working toward completing, it's likely that I'll have a "game data" document and will be updating it as I play the game. I'll almost always link to these Google docs both on the "game schedule" sidebar and in my "game completion" doc (didja call that one?). My data won't be perfect, nor will it be necessarily complete, but it'll be there. I have an entire folder dedicated to storing this stuff, so if you'd ever like to browse through, you're more than welcome to. Not like you'd want to, but... it's there, if you do -- and if you do, sweet. I feel special, now.

 With that out of the way, I can tell you that I'm making progress on my playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics, which I'm about 50 hours into, and am at the beginning of the final chapter -- and I'm still relatively early into Dragon Quest IX, which will more than likely end up being an long-term, ongoing game, seeing as how it promises endless gameplay after the story mode is completed. I'll surely spend hours upon hours maxing out my characters and working toward 100% completion, even though that's near-impossible with how much content the game offers. Also, simultaneously, I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, and haven't made too much progress due to being hopelessly addicted to leveling several characters and playing several time-consuming games at once. Fail.

Sure would've been nice to have gotten into the Japanese Phantasy Star Online 2 closed beta... but then again, that would've slowed down my snails-pace of a progress even further. More fail.

... but it's PSO2. Who am I kidding? THE WORLD STOPS FOR PSO2, I tell you. STOPS!!!

Fanboygasm complete. Games... incomplete. And quite so. I'll... keep working on that. Yeah. Tomorrow.

Long Time No See!

 Indeed, it's been nearly a year since I've made an update... meaning that my "beat a game every week for a year" resolution was an epic failure. Go me, eh?

 Stuff happened, I moved to northern Virginia, and got caught up with life, resulting in the complete neglection of my "gaming schedule" and writing regularly.

 So I apologize for the ridiculous hiatus, and admit defeat. However, that doesn't mean I'm hanging this blog up to dry, oh no, no, no. In fact, I've completely updated this blog, from its general "look" (I'm not too keen on the super-fancy, animation templates that Blogger provides, though, sorry) to its individual posts (I've implemented a more analytical scoring method for my reviews), and even have a new "purpose" in mind.

 As I mentioned before, I moved to live with my boyfriend of nearly three years, Brad aka "Damo", although it is temporary; we'll be moving back to the middle Tennessee area as soon as he's done with his four years of service as a US Marine. Living with someone is a prime opportunity to truly get to know someone, and, despite knowing that Brad is quite the anime-loving, video game-playing guy I fell in love with, there's some things I simply didn't know...

  The best RPGs ever released (in my opinion) -- the "classics", as many refer to them -- are largely unknown to Brad.

 I know, right?! I couldn't even believe it, myself. Never having played Chrono Trigger? Never having heard of the masterpiece that is EarthBound, or spending hours upon hours customizing a massive army of characters in Final Fantasy Tactics?

 I refuse to allow Brad to go on without experiencing what I believe are games that should not be passed up by anyone who thinks of themselves as a "gamer". So... why not do a bit of encouraging?

 Indeed, the new purpose for my blog presented itself to me like a ethereal epitome:. I'm going to continue to play (and re-play, in many cases) games, mostly RPGs, and do so with Brad at my side, in order to share with him what he's been missing out on for all of these years; and I'm going to share the experiences (and potentially frustrations) of doing so with all of you -- sans the crazy game-a-week plan that I had given myself, before. This time, I'm simply going to adhere to a "play-as-I-please" schedule, and I'll make sure to post a minimum of once a week, every Wednesday.

 So, for those of you who, like Brad, never felt like playing through Chrono Trigger (seriously, why haven't you...?), for those of you who've never been able to find a copy of EarthBound, and for those of you who simply don't have the motivation, time or patience to play through some of the best games of all time, I will.

 I'm going to continue to play through games and write about them for Brad, for all of you, and for myself. Games, particularly role-playing ones, are truly amazing experiences, and hopefully I will be able share that passion, or even ignite a new one, for anyone who wishes to pay my geeky ramblings any attention.

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 Thanks to those of you who're still following this blog after nearly a year-long hiatus, and for your support of my gaming obsession (er... passion! PASSION!!!) and my desire to chronicle my experiences in a blog. I'll be posting again soon about the games I'm currently playing! Game on, everyone!