So while this article is coming out in 2023, I am working on it a bit early. My numbers for 2022 won’t be final, but that’s okay, it’s mainly going to be plays of one game, Orchard, that get added to the list in the last few days. But let’s talk about goals and how I did with my gaming goals in 2022 and what I’m going to try and do in 2023 as well. Now, these are just like my Nerds-Year resolutions. I come up with them, but they aren’t and end all for what I want to do. I might do more and I might do less or I might throw it out the window part way through the year.

2022 Gaming Goals

365 Game Challenge

So this one was easily completed, right now I am sitting at over 600 plays and might finish with close to 700, though, I suspect I’ll be just short. A lot of them are Orchard, over 200 because I take the game in to work and I play it when I have five minutes between meetings. That’s mainly if I don’t have an e-mail to respond to or I’m needing to clear my brain. So this one was a success.

Added Challenges

I added a few more challenges throughout the year, all which I thought I was going to be able to complete. The first one was a 20 by 5 challenge. That is 20 games played five times. I also did a 10 by 10 challenge, 10 games played 10 times. That last one just snuck in. And then because I knew it was done, I did a solo game challenge of 100 solo game plays. So nothing in here was too challenging though that 10 by 10 I got done with two days to spare.

Buying on Demand

So this one was hit or miss for me. I started out strong in the year and then it tailed off post GenCon. Let’s recap what this one was. It was the idea that I would buy a game when I was ready to play the game. And generally I’ve done a solid job with that. So that meant fewer pre-orders, things like that. And I definitely had fewer of those throughout the year.

However, there were a few, Village Rails and First Rat that I did pre-orders for that I maybe should have waited on. Now, both of them I played at GenCon which is why I blame GenCon. For the most part, though, it has been buying in stock games. Not always right when I was going to play them, but a lot of them I’ve gotten to the table.

Under 100 Unplayed

Now, this one I flirted with for a while and then it got trashed, haha. I am down to a lower number of unplayed games, or I was before some came in around the holidays. But that said, I did play around 100 games for the first time this year. Some of those were at GenCon so not part of my collection, in fact a number of them were. Others I played and had different games leave my collection and new ones come in. So it has been a good year for playing new games and finding some really good new games.

2023 Gaming Goals

So I’m going to add in a few this year but ones that I generally expect to hit. And these are mainly for my own fun.

365 Game Challenge

Same as previous two years, I want to play through 365 different game plays. This should be simple, so the stretch of this goal is to hit 1000 game plays for the year. That’d be adding in over 300 to what I did this year. We’ll see if that can happen or how close I can get anyways.

365 Solo Challenge

Like the one above, but this one is for solo games. I’m not sure that I would have quite made it this year, but I suspect I might have or might have nearly. But I think I’ll be able to get to that number this year, especially at the speed I’m playing Orchard.

Limit Crowdfunding

Now, what does this even mean and how is this a measured goal? It’s not, but I want to slow down a little bit on crowdfunding. And I did in the latter part of 2022, really the second half was much slower. Now some of that was that Kickstarter and Gamefound were just much slower. But I want to keep that slower pace. A lot of these big campaign games, they still might get me, but I did a solid job of not backing those medium weight games that’ll show up to retail and I want to do that again.

That said, I am pretty sure that I’ll back some games like the Chip Theory Games Elder Scrolls, more Marvel United from CMON, Rogue Angels and Stonesaga are on that list as well. And most likely there’ll be another game that I really want to back as well, or a follow-up to something that I already own.

Why Set Goals

So as I wrap up, let’s as the question, why set goals? Because they are fun. Like I said, I don’t use them as a hard and fast rule, I can break them, but they are things that I want to keep to. Some of it is just a way to encourage myself to play more games. Others, like the Crowdfunding one is to limit maybe how many games that I back. I was going to say some in, but these won’t come in 2023, let’s be fair. But I also don’t want to regulate my gaming hobby so that it feels like work.

That is the challenge with something like getting my unplayed games to under 100. I still want to do that, but when I regulate it, it makes it feel more like work. Am I doing this because I want to play these games right now, I do want to play them. Or am I do doing it because I feel like I need to get that number down. So that is why that one is not on the list. I do love to play new games, though, so we’ll see, maybe I’ll hit that goal.

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