This isn't quite a review, but I feel like I have to unpack my experience now that it's over. Here are my thoughts, as scattered as they may be:
Without further ado, here's the full list of everything I finished in 2015:
Games: Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is my Game of the Year pick. It sucked me in like no other game I've ever played. I took a while to finish it, being distracted by Destiny, but I loved everything about being immersed in that world. It was a truly magical experience and now I can't wait for the next game from CD Projekt Red to come out. Destiny: The Taken King was excellent, too, and would have held my attention much longer if I wasn't trying to active get out of the habit of playing Destiny at the expense of all other games.
TV: Rick and Morty, for sure. Easily my favorite show of the year. Hilarious and honest, I loved every second of it and I plan to rewatch the whole thing soon. Aldnoah Zero and Psycho-Pass are my runners up. Aldnoah Zero is gripping, giant robot action that doesn't let up, with a soundtrack from the composer for Attack on Titan that just plain rocks. Psycho-Pass is the closest thing you're going to get to new Ghost in the Shell.
Movies: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still fresh in my mind, but I adored it. If not that, then Big Hero 6 would easily be it. I loved it. I watched a ton of movies in 2015 that I really liked. John Wick, Chef, Mad Max, Age of Ultron, Hot Fuzz, and Django Unchained could all also be in either of those spots.
Books: I mean, Matt Fraction's run on Hawkeye is excellent. Even with no other books on that list, I have no trouble calling this one out as a favorite.
What did you enjoy in 2015?
]]>I don't spend nearly as much time talking about the things I consume.
In 2014 I kept a detailed list of every single movie, TV show, game, and book that I finished. The key word here is "finished," because the point was to keep a log that would help me track how often I was completing things that I started. As I write this, I'm not sure to what end I want to discuss it, so I'm just going to start with an unadulterated list of all of those things.
Games (Platform(s) I played on)
TV Shows
Movies
Books
So that's it. That's absolutely everything that I completed in 2014. I have dates for most of those things, but I did a bad job keeping track from about June through October, so I didn't include them all. Here are my general thoughts:
What does this all mean?
First off, I'm going to do this again for 2015. It's really cool that I can look back at year-end and have a list like this. I forgot about many of these and I enjoy the reminder. It's also interesting to see just how many things I finished. It certainly doesn't feel like this much!
Beyond that, I learned that low stakes and and a low barrier for accessibility are the most important predictors for what gets finished. I'm far more likely to finish something I can experience right now that I don't have any prior investment in than I am to finish something I'm really looking forward to that I have to seek out. Perhaps knowledge of that investment barrier will help me overcome it and in 2015 I can make more of an effort to tackle the things I most want to experience instead of the second-best things I don't think twice about completing.
2014, you were a good year for media consumption. Here's to 2015 being even better.
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