I'd say that on average I complete far less than a quarter of the games I play on a yearly basis. It's not the fact that I work in the industry. It's not the fact that I buy a lot of games. It's not even the fact that I play games to completion for work purposes even when I don't necessarily like them. It's more to do with how my brain functions and how easily I can get bored or distracted. But I think that's about to change.

In the two-and-a-half decades that I've been playing games I've continued to bump up against the same problem time and time again: I just don't have to the motivation to stick with most games all the way through to the end. Boredom is sometimes the cause, or perhaps one dumb puzzle or hard checkpoint will be enough to stop me dead in my tracks. Sometimes I'd play a game that I absolutely loved but could still never find the presence of mind to see it through to its conclusion.

Why didn't these digital forms of entertainment keep me fixed to my TV? Why could I happily watch hours and hours of my favorite TV shows and never experience the same problems? There have been just one or two exceptions to the rule -- some obvious ones and some completely bizarre ones.

Brad McQuaid's EverQuest has got a lot to answer for, shite character models notwithstanding.

The biggest no-brainers come in the shape of World of Warcraft, and before that, EverQuest. MMORPGs engross me like no other form of videogames can. I'm exactly the kind of person that MMO developers know inside out, and for that I make no apologies. It's only me and a few other million players around the globe.

But what about the likes of Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64? Can anyone tell me why I've "100 percented" that game at least a dozen times? Yes, I prefer Banjo over Super Mario 64. Shoot me. Here's another one: Call of Duty 4. I love me some first-person shooters, but Infinity Ward put something in this one that eclipses every other shooter I've ever played. I can't get enough. My last example is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Again, I've beaten the snot out of this one on my ailing SNES countless times.