It feels weird, right? To have resolutions about games. Whether you are a video gamer or a tabletop player, it feels strange to take time to make resolutions about what is arguably a past time, a hobby, and try to organize it somehow. Heck, many people are concerned with lofty goals like ‘finally write that novel’ or ‘get around to using that gym membership I bought last year’.
Yet, I’ve found my life in gaming feeling a lot more fulfilling since starting the practice a few years ago. It might be that since I had a kid, I realized that gaming was becoming less about me actually playing games and more about wanting to play games. Spending breaks at work looking for store sales, then finally getting home and feeling too tired or distracted to actually sit down and play the games I wanted to play all day.
If gaming was as simple as it was when I was 10 years old, I probably wouldn’t feel the need for this: getting home from school, having just five sega genesis cartridges, and no car, no internet, and no credit card to just impulsively buy more stuff. But that’s not where we are in the 2020’s. No, we have steam sales every week and game passes that hand us libraries of games with various revolving doors. Social media and internet scrolling has advertisements of what to buy next constantly, making you feel behind. Meanwhile, more and more ‘live service’ games are designed to keep you playing weekly or daily quests even if you have long grown bored with the content.
Just a few years ago, my achievement percentage was less than 40%. I have it up to 43% now... can I get it to 45% before the end of the year?
For me, goals bring clarity and focus; it helps stave off the paradox of choice that in a lot of ways has us mindlessly purchasing games instead of interacting with the games we truly want to enjoy. Honestly, just setting my first resolution of “beat 10 games” was enough to keep me playing games I wanted to play, instead of just pining for the next purchase I could snag during a steam sale for a quick dopamine hit. Just writing down for myself something like “Finally paint a wargaming miniature like I have wanted to for a decade” let me actually enjoy a hobby that I’ve felt unable to access for years.
In a moment, I’m about to list some of the gaming goals and their rationale I’ve got for 2025. After that, I’ll invite you to do the same… with maybe a small incentive to sweeten the spot. With that all being said…
Gaming Resolution #1 - Twelve Games Beaten
This one is a no brainer, but my ADHD addled brain has me write down to force myself to track it. Everyone wants to beat the games they play, but I realized a few years ago a very frustrating habit of letting myself truly enjoy a game to about the halfway mark, then drop it as some new shiny advertisement for a new release distracted me.
Last year, I finally started Baldur's Gate 1, 20+ years after I first played it in high school. It's the completionist in me, but I really want to finish the first two Baldur's Gate games before starting the behemoth that is the third one.
Just writing down what games I get to roll credits on for the last few years has been incredibly satisfying. Last year I managed to beat 13 games, so I’m upgrading my goal to add a little hidden caveat: I’m not allowed to buy any new games until this resolution is finished. Trying to enjoy what you have rather than always pining for a shopping dopamine hit is healthy.
Plus, a friend got me Baldur’s Gate 3 for the holidays this year, and I really want to start playing it… after I finally beat the first and second one 20+ years after their release.
Gaming Resolution #2 - Steam Achievement Average Brought Up To 45%
Keeping the theme of the last resolution, this goal is to help me enjoy what I already have. I have… very mixed feelings about achievements. On one hand, I sincerely enjoy well-crafted achievements that give me a sense of satisfaction for reaching them. Games like Civilization 6 which have little tongue-in-cheek goals for doing fun things like winning a cultural victory with Genghis Khan can be really fun.
On the other hand, achievements can be a way to artificially extend the life of a game, sort of like the infamous coffee thermos collectibles of Alan Wake. In addition, becoming obsessed with achievements can become perfectionist: am I enjoying my attempt at a highest difficulty run in Darkest Dungeon, or should I just enjoy the chance to just beat the game normally? What happens if you play a game, don’t like it, and see there are still 90% of its achievements to collect? Do you feel forced to play a game you don’t like?
I've never beaten The Witcher 3, but currently hacking my way through it. Can I find some of its secret achievements as I progress through the story? Beating some contracts without the help of potions or bombs seems... hard.
For myself, I’ve made a sort of compromise, trying to get my steam achievement average up to about 45%. I’ve noticed over time that most games let you get about 30-60% of its achievements just by playing the game normally and beating it. So, I saw in my backlog a few games from years ago that I abandoned without beating and - you guessed it - only like 3 achievements unlocked. This resolution as a way to nudge myself back into playing some games I’ve really liked and shooting for fun and odd goals… while also not getting too obsessed about it. I’m currently sitting at 43%, especially after starting some huge games in 2024, so 45% is going to be tricky, but not undoable.
Gaming Resolution #3: Five Board Games, Eight Times
A few years back, people who liked board games realized just how quickly their game world was speeding up. Instead of just a few new releases to look forward to in a year, suddenly there were hundreds being released. Indeed, at GenCon 2016, there were 600 new board games published during that weekend alone.
To help combat this, Sarah Reed shared her ideas for a gaming challenge so board gamers would enjoy their own collections: play ten board games ten times each in a year - the 10 by 10 challenge. It was honestly genius. Studies had shown that most analog games were only being played 3-4 times, despite being $50 each. It was a way to avoid being entirely obsessed with filling shelves and enjoying what you already have.
Much like the last two resolutions, this is a way of enjoying what I already own. I bought or was given about a dozen board games in the last four years that I’ve barely been able to enjoy due to quarantine and fatherhood, and while the last year has seen me playing more board games than I have in years, I still feel woefully behind actually enjoying the collection I already have. In 2025, I’m hoping to complete this challenge here, giving me enough playthroughs so I can get some board game reviews done.
Gaming Resolution #4: Run A (Small) Tabletop RPG Campaign
Right before my kid was born, I had wrapped up a giant Dungeons and Dragons game. Two years long, nearly twenty players cycling in and out… it was a lot of fun to introduce the game to a lot of new players while in a bar setting.
Now that I finally have free time again, I want to get back into it, but the trick is managing to do it in a way that isn’t overwhelming. With that in mind, I’ve already scheduled a campaign of 3-5 sessions while still letting myself try something new I got at PAX Unplugged: The Wildsea. It’s a ttrpg unlike any I’ve played before, where the players craft a ship that sails… on top of mile-high trees? It’s a post-apocalyptic adventure but full of life and strangeness, letting you play as a sentient spider colonies or a moth-man who can control metal with their brain.
I’m excited to maybe get this resolution done early, and try something new and refreshing. It’s also a good reminder that you don’t need to go big with each resolution, just feel like you are getting to do things you’ve always wanted to!
Gaming Resolution #5: Paint 12 More Minis And Play Warhammer
It’s wild to me that I’ve had a fascination of Warhammer for about 25 years, and yet have barely played it. Part of it was the cost, the space, and the attention span. However, in the last year I’ve actually played some small games thanks to its new Spearhead format in Age of Sigmar, and multiple friends have boxes of it too now. I will never play down how much of an investment miniature wargaming can be, but I can say after a few skirmishes and hours and hours of painting and hobbying that it can also be wildly rewarding.
This year, I’m hoping to paint up some full squads of units. I got 12 painted last year, barely, and so its time to push that up to 15. The real dream is to play a full 1000 point game with fully painted miniatures and terrain, but if I can get fully painted Spearhead matches in, that’s a victory. This year, I hope to actually make it to a gaming store and play a game against some people I don’t know at the 1000 point range.
A game between my two Spearhead factions, Stormcast Eternals versus the Kruleboyz Orruks. It's great seeing some of the basic units having full paint, but there's still a lot of grey and white unpainted. If I can take this picture again in December and everything here is fully painted? I'll be a happy man.
After writing all these resolutions out, I realize a lot of my goals are about fulfilling hopes I had even going back to high school: finally playing through Baldur’s Gate, finally owning a warhammer army I can be proud of, and so on. They are small things in the grand scheme of life, but if I can find fulfillment in my hobbies, it’ll help me find fulfillment elsewhere too.
A Contest of Resolutions For 2025
With all of this being said, it's time for us to put our money where our mouth is. We really do enjoy the idea of gaming resolutions: setting goals shouldn’t just be for things we find frustrating, but also for the more enjoyable parts of life. To help spread the idea of gaming goals, we’re putting forward a humble challenge to set your own!
By entering our 2025 Resolutions contest, you can possibly win a free $10 gift card to the Steam store, or another gaming platform of your choice. All you have to do to enter is:
- You can leave your gaming resolution as a comment on this article, or by joining our discord channel and going to the “2025 gaming resolutions” section.
- Clearly state a gaming resolution that you have for the next year. “I hope in 2025 to…” or however you’d like.
- Leave at least 3-4 sentences explaining your resolution and why you are choosing it. So, if you are saying “Beat five games”, you might list some of the games you are trying to beat and why.
- Do the above points before 11:59pm on January 30th, and you have officially entered the contest!
- If we get at least ten entries into the contest, we’ll pull two gift cards for contestants instead of one, and then pull another one at 25 entries, for a total of $30 of gift cards to give away.
And that’s it! We’d love for you to list more than just one, but there’s no pressure. At the end of the day, it all goes back to our motto:
We hope your 2025 will be a great year, both out there in the real world and whenever you get a chance to pick up some dice or a controller. Again, we hope you join our discord and hang out with us as we play new games and enjoy old ones. Happy New Year!
