So what is this Blog about? Why is it named The Incompletionist and why all this talk about Piles of Shames in so many different areas?
Well, so where and how to start…
At one point, it all comes down to an epic struggle…
(1) Between the amount of stuff that is offered and the limitedness of my time and energy to consume all that is offered – the classic Pile of Shame.
(2) Between my tendency (=my nice phrase for obsessiveness) to always complete everything I have started, and
(3) Between my mood swings of discarding such started ‘projects’ somewhere along the way.
This does not really sound very conclusive. What I mean is: I cannot not finish a book, even it is boring; I have to finish it to judge if it is really that boring. Or, I cannot not finish a game I have started and which then – somewhere in the middle – becomes so boring or a grind.
When I then stop in the middle of playing, I push the completion away into the future, adding some strands of thought like “I will finish it later, when I have the mood for it…” or “I will finish it, when I have more time…”
And then, gradually, these discarded and incomplete books, games, or anime series sit and lurk, very comfortably, all around me.
Read me? Play me? Watch me?
They become more and more persistent and annoying in their tone:
Complete reading me. Complete playing me. Complete watching me.
But I can’t convince myself at all to complete them … and then, at a certain point of suffering, I just have to.
This is so annoying. No fun. And depressing.
In addition, I am in my first ever gaming depression after so many years of happy gaming, all because I played my first Assassin’s Creed game (Origins), disgusted and burned out by Ubisoft’s Open World formula of endlessly and mindlessly stretching a game into infinity with inferior story and useless question marks over their god-damn huge maps in Egypt… what a horrible experience.
So, I thought, why not start a blog about that, about all these aspects mentioned above. I wanted to start a Blog anyway for more than a decade, without knowing what I should actually write about. Now, here is a chance. A topic. My topic.
So what is this blog about again?
Ok. It is about my many piles of shame around me. My PhD, my hobbies (reading, gaming, watching) and my compensation behavior and any thoughts that maybe come along. I guess more clarity will evolve over time. Hopefully.
And, why should I read this blog?
Not sure really. My main motivation is of course to reflect about myself and maybe strike some chords within yourself. Maybe, this could become a tune that you can resonate and read along too.
Wait, who are you anyway?
I am Aleks and from Austria. I pursue my PhD endeavor in business administration and research on the power of gaming communities and their formation in MMOs. I am also working in academia and am happy to teach and work with awesome people.
What games are you playing?
Well, this is a difficult question. I have a love – hate relationship with service games, like MMOs or Looter-Shooters. I become burned out rather soon, and then I switch to single player games. When playing single player games, I miss the online component, so I (re)start an MMO again, until I become burned out again. See a pattern here? I will expand on this at a later time.