How I Learned A Game Can Be Too Good

When I read about a new party management game where you get to craft your own equipment for your parties of units that go out and explore the world I was already interested. When I read that there were over 25 classes for you to outfit, I grew more interested. When I read that it was on sale for only $2?! I couldn't pass it up!

I fell in love with the micro-management of equipping the very best gear that I would accrue over time while my parties of warriors and fire mages and monks fought on their own in the background. And since I could micro-manage the craftsmen in the town, between what they would be making for my units and what would sell the most money, I always kept busy. And the devs were kind enough to keep a rolling set of time-limited quests for me to pursue so I always had to chase "just one more" completion reward before the quests expired and new ones took their place.

It was an addicting loop that I was happily enjoying - I'm a sucker for "big number go up" games, and especially ones where I can just pop in from time to time and claim idle rewards, so I don't have to feel glued to the screen all the time. But... my micro-managing was getting out of hand!

Every time I received a new staff or new sword or axe, it always had to go to the exact person who needed it most (usually active party-members first, and then the reserves later). And their old gear became hand-me-down to the next person who would use it best, and so on and so forth. Through all 25 characters I had probably accrued by that point (I had to keep all of the max-rarity units I obtained, for completions sake, and one of each class at the highest rarity I had been able to find them). By the time I got through the new physical weapons, I'd have to go back through for the physical armor, and then the magical weapons, and the magical armor.

Considering I could only field one party at the time combined with two ships of combined units and town members, I really didn't need to outfit 90% of those units! It ended up being an endless cycle where by the time I'd fully rolled-down all the new equipment, it was basically time to start the whole process again! And don't forget to spend the experience on the units too! All so you can earn more skill points for each unit that you need to distribute!

I'm going to be honest, every time I'd open up the game "just to collect the idle rewards and set up the new expeditions" that 5 minutes I'd allocate would quickly turn into 30 minutes in the blink of an eye! If I wasn't self-employed and setting my own hours, this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I wasn't getting work done! I'd started to cut into my valuable work time, which meant I wasn't making as much money as I should have been, and my savings were never going to actually start to build back up.

This was probably the first time I'd realized that a video game even COULD be so addicting and distracting that it was getting detrimental to my normal everyday life. I actually had to tell myself I'd never get back on it. And to my credit, I haven't since - except to screenshot the main menu for this article. Sure, I haven't deleted it from my computer, and it still haunts me from its spot on my Desktop every time I open my computer, but it's a constant reminder of how much I should be focusing on what's really important.

So any time you find yourself constantly turning 5-minute dungeons in your favorite dungeon crawler into 30-minute plus sittings, remember to pace yourself, or limit yourself to only that one dungeon. Optimize post-exploration if you want (unless that's the real time-sink), but try to break down your focus sessions into more manageable increments.

Like, I've recently started the Oblivion Remaster, and I've been limiting myself to just one or two quests per sitting. Would I love to clear dungeon after dungeon? Of course! But there's a strong satisfaction in knowing my inventory is clearer and more prepared for the dungeon. And a strong satisfaction in knowing that I got done exactly what I'd wanted to, without feeling like the game took up all of my free time.

So just remember: you control where your free time goes, not your games. And if you're getting frustrated by how fast you're losing that free time, then just slow things down! You don't have to do every quest right now, you don't have to 100% the game all in one sitting. Pace yourself, smell the roses. Maybe you'll get more enjoyment out of the game when it doesn't feel like it's controlling you. Or maybe you won't burn out so fast on the game when you don't feel like the micro-optimization and need for instant completion is taking up all your brain power. Rome wasn't built in a day, and for good reason - everyone would probably have keeled over from exhaustion.