RDR2 was the first Red Dead I played. Started the single player in 2020, maybe 2021. Mostly stayed online. Got to level 100, built up some assets, never finished the story. Picked it back up recently because of the newsletter. Got hooked again. Still not done. Still downloaded. No platinum.
Terraria. I've been meaning to have a proper playthrough. Beat the Moonlord. Earn the stars. I beat the bosses to enter hardmode and that's where it stopped. Loved every second. Still downloaded. Not finished.
The Witcher 3. Bought it because everyone said it was a masterpiece. Played the first few hours. Fell in love with Gwent even though I barely understood it. Never touched the main story again. Not downloaded.
Dark Souls 3. Christmas present. Beautiful atmosphere. Absolutely kicked my ass. Never finished. Still downloaded.
No Man's Sky. Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Elden Ring.
I could keep going. My PlayStation library isn't a collection. It's a graveyard of intention. Every game in there was a moment I told myself "this one." And every unfinished save file is evidence that I meant it for about two weeks.
The thing I realized while writing this: my life looks the same way.
This newsletter is in the graveyard right now. It goes right next to every social media page I set up, posted on, and then walked away from. Promises made in those posts. Failed attempts at connecting with people. The YouTube channel I was supposed to start. The plan to get active everywhere and do smart, cool shit.
All of it starts the same way. A sale. A rush. A tutorial level. Then it gets hard. Or I get distracted. And another thing joins the pile.
The newsletter almost became another one. One issue, two weeks of silence, and a clean slot next to everything else I started and didn't finish.
The real damage isn't the games I never opened. It's the ones I keep downloaded. The ones I scroll past every time, tell myself "soon," and never click. RDR2. Terraria. Dark Souls 3. Still taking up space on my hard drive like they're going to get played any day now.
My life has the same two categories.
Still installed: gaming playthroughs. Trophy hunting videos. Streaming. Travel. Ideas I keep scrolling past mentally, telling myself I'll get to them when the time is right.
Had to uninstall: every offer and product idea I tried to force. I had no idea what I was doing there. Deleted those. Made peace with it. Same way I made peace with The Witcher 3.
Finishing one game doesn't clear the backlog. But it changes something. It proves you can. It reminds you what the credits rolling feels like.
Picking RDR2 back up did that. Writing this newsletter issue is doing it right now.
The backlog doesn't disappear. But you stop being someone who only starts things. You become someone who finishes.
That shift is the whole game.
One game: RDR2. One project: this newsletter.
Finish both. See what changes.
-Fish
