CarrionCrow: I just need to shift gears, stop obsessing over it and start spending a hell of a lot less money on it.
Already have my budget for the new year worked out, and it sure as hell doesn't include coin to cover what I've been doing.
You've got the relaxed approach. Quite a bit healthier.
You come back for more because you still enjoy the process. When you stop enjoying it, get annoyed, start asking yourself all the time why you keep buying things when you already have hundreds, then you'll shift over to primarily playing rather than buying.
11 hours, 48 minutes. But who's counting.
The investment of time and money has been pretty big, and to stay focused for as long as you have is some achievement. It'll make me smile as well as you when you clear the last hurdle and wait for the cameras to flash and a microphone to be shoved in your ear.
I've got a sort of advantage in terms of expenditure and desire to own in that I didn't grow up with this stuff. I remember Pong, for god's sake, and that thing made me wonder what all the fuss was about. But I've been thinking about what brings me back, and its the combination of artistry, control and freedom. PC games are about the biggest exercise in escapism there is. Combine that with the way the world is trying with renewed waves of determination to strangle itself and I can see where the attraction is. I like my cave. Its out of harm's way and I've got my games for company.
11 hours 34... I'm not counting, either.