The Art of Taking Time Off - jkra0512's Blog

jkra0512's Blog

The Art of Taking Time Off

Posted on December 16, 2008 at 07:46 AM.

(3)

Hello Readers,

It's been awhile since I wrote an entry not having the Hoyas as the subject. I'm afraid I might have forgotten how to do this, so please bear with me.

Today's subject is the art of taking time off from your favorite game. How many times have you listened to a CD for 5 weeks, but on that sixth week you can't take it anymore? Or maybe, you find something else that sixth week and you wistfully forget about the last 5 weeks of your life?

Well, it's different for gaming I think, not by much. Usually for me, I'll play a new game so much for about 2-3 weeks that by the end of that week it becomes too easy or too difficult and I lose interest.

But there are caveats, boy I love caveats. This year's NCAA Football offered the Online Dynasty feature and this just in: many people enjoyed it, including yours truly. Many people have written or expressed their fondness of this feature and I'll bring nothing new to the table other than the plain fact that this feature saved me from buying Madden.

I love the college game much more than the pro game, there is just something to be loved about players playing for the love of the game *ahem* and a future NFL contract. I feel the college game is as pure as *insert favorite bottled water* and EA did a great job giving me a feature to prolong that love of the game.

NCAA Football is usually set down at the end of September and I pick up Madden or NHL to play. The reason for leaving the game is because the gameplay gets stale, there is nothing new the game offers aside from meaningless achievements, like dancing with mascots. (I've gotten all the mascot ones, who doesn't? Easy points!) NCAA Football isn't the only game that hits the wall for the season. I believe every sports game, for me at least, does this.

Right now, I'm at a crossroads with NCAA Basketball '09. Crossroads might be too harsh of a clique, but I took a weekend off from it *gasp*. For those of you who read my blog irregularly, will know I write a dynasty blog for my Georgetown Hoyas. Those who read it enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it. I have to say thank you for those who read it and comment on it, I really feel my journalism degree is getting some use writing to you guys.

/sentimental feelings

Back to our regularly scheduled program...

Sometimes it is refreshing to take some time off from your favorite games. It's like a girlfriend, sometimes you need some time away to realize how much you need them. Then you find out you don't need them, you just need what they offer. Do I need NCAA '09 and all its basketball goodness, or am I addicted to its awesomeness?

What a predicament to have! Either way, it's a win-win for me. On second thought maybe that's why I'm always single...But, that is neither here or there.

Taking time off from a game can invigorate it. You pop that disk in after a few days of not playing it and you remember why you loved it so much, or in the case of some EA games, why you hated it and put it down in the first place. Most of you can admit you put down a game, gave it a second chance, and it became a great game. Sometimes you just don't get it the first time around, then all of the sudden it clicks when you replay it. Man, I wish life was like that, anyway!

Quick thanks to a few people who have made my NCAA '09 Basketball much more enjoyable:

1- roadlesstrvld4, thanks for the awesome sliders. Without you I think I would destroy teams by 100 every game and would have put down this game long ago. You get one of these:

2- Jason2112, the updated rosters you put out were amazing and very helpful in isolating upsets to rare occurrences. You get:

3- OS team who named the rosters, awesome job with these guys I hate playing games without the real player names. You get:

Sincerely,
jkra0512

Comments

# 1 rudyjuly2 @ Dec 16

Sometimes taking time off from your game can feel like cheating on your girl lol. Plus I always worry about rust setting in.

I'm playing Uncharted again right now and am taking a break from NCAA Football 09. I've played a lot of it so far but I'm playing Uncharted again and loving it. It's refreshing to play a non sports game and be able to play for 10 minutes or an hour. With football, I have to devote a full hour or I can't get a dynasty game in. I'm also getting Star Wars Force Unleashed for Christmas and am looking forward to playing that.

Even though I've loved playing NCAA football, some things always bugged me and one is the cpu running game. It's just crap on all levels.

# 2 DubTrey1 @ Dec 16

Great post jkra - I feel the same way, and like rudyjuly said before me - you do feel like when you take that time off, you get rusty. I stopped playing COD4 for a long stretch when GTAIV came out - went back to it and got faced all over the place. Nasty.

And again, right to give props to the "gurus" here on OS who help extend the life and in some cases the playability of games with sliders, rosters etc. OS is the place.

# 3 Jason2112 @ Dec 16

Took the words out of my mouth on this subject bro. I took a day off but had to get back to it. I've had such a great season, it's too addicting. 12 games have been within 10 points at the final buzzer and I've won 11 of em. If not for that, I too may have needed a longer break from NCAA Basketball '09.