1. Play more games with friends

I’m a notoriously lone-wolf type of gamer. Even when I’d play something like Minecraft on a server with friends, I’d wander off in some random direction and start building my base away from everyone else.

It’s not that I don’t like playing games with others, it’s just that I prefer to do things on my own for the most part. I’ve been getting better about it and so one of the things I’d like to work on this year is playing more multiplayer games with my friends.

While this doesn’t mean that I’ll stop playing single player games it does mean that I won’t be playing them all the time. I still see them as a way to relax and unwind from those around me but I do think it’s important to spend more time with my friends and family that are gamers.

2. Don’t over-hype games

I feel like that is a big bad habit that most of us have and we have seen an extreme case of it this year in the form of No Man’s Sky. I know that it can be hard to stifle our excitement for upcoming titles, especially if we’ve been waiting for years but we have to understand that games are big, hard to create, and prone to falling short of lofty expectations.

Even though there are a number of titles I’m anxiously awaiting, like Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord for example, I’m not allowing myself to climb aboard the hype train and fluff it up to something that it won’t be. It’s alright to get excited about upcoming games but let’s not do another NMS.

3. Get better at MOBAs

Full disclosure, I’m a Bronze 5 League of Legends player with a Platinum 4 roommate. It’s not that I’m particularly bad at the game, it’s that I’m a filthy casual and don’t take the time to learn the strategy and mechanics going on behind the scenes to “git gud” at it.

My goal is to play more MOBAs this year and actually take the time to learn more about the items and mechanics. I’ll likely only pick a small pool of champs to play and probably only play SMITE & League of Legends but my hope is to be a better player and enjoy being a team asset and not a feeder.

4. Actually finish a game or a demo

This is a bit less about being a gamer and more of a developer goal of mine for the year. This year alone I’ve started prototyping close to 8 different games and all of them are still in the prototyping stage for one reason or another.

To be fair, though, it took me a bit of tinkering before I settled on what engine I was primarily going to be making games in and, if you’re interested, I wrote this article on it awhile back.

I guess in a general gamer sense it could be actually finishing the games that we start playing. I know that I personally have a pretty big back catalog of games I need to finish and most of the other gamers I know do too. This year will be the year that I finish projects instead of getting distracted and starting new ones.

5. Not just get games on Steam because they’re on sale

Another thing that myself, and many of my gamer friends are guilty of is getting games on Steam either because they’re on a massive sale or because they’re bundled with games that we’d like. Of my current 240 game library, I haven’t played 60 of the games that I own. And of the 180 games that I have played, 96 of them have been played for less than 12 hours.

With such a back catalog of games, I have plenty to keep me busy this coming year and my bank account with thank me for it.

I know that a lot of time I make resolutions, like most other people, and only stick with it for a few months if that. But this year I will really be putting in the extra effort to be a better gamer and to build better gaming habits.

What are some of your gamer resolutions for 2017? What’s the one thing you wish to change the most? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!