By Todd Russell
So, won’t be the Cal Ripken of gaming, at least this round.
Eventually every streak ends, and that was the case this last Tuesday June 17, 2025, when for the first time I didn’t play a different game. The streak started on January 1, 2022 and I made it over 3 1/2 years, logging every game to Twitter and in a diary in the PGM Discord. I’d say that was long enough, but in a sad way, it wasn’t.
I really wanted to make it to 10,000+ days … but looking back, the parameters were far too limiting. I did play games on Tuesday, just not anything new. Same with Wednesday and same the day I sat to write this article Thursday 6/19/2025. Technically, I haven’t missed a day playing at least one game every day, but those weren’t the parameters.
Maybe they should have been? If I do this ever again and no idea if I will, that would be probably the way I’d structure the parameters: just play a game, any type of game, every day for as many days in a row. This way I can get credit for playing Iron Maiden pinball 100 days in a row or playing chess online or … whatever.
My co-host of the Score Chasing Recap Show and PGM author Bradygoat is still going with his streak. Now he can catch up and eclipse my mark, if he likes.
As for other streaks I’ve been a part of that aren’t gaming-related? I think a little bit more impressive streak was back in 2011 into 2012 when I wrote a new short story every day using prompts that I did not know in advance each day on writing.com. Over that time I managed to write 141 days, 141 new short stories. Although I have a very fertile imagination, I don’t think it would be possible for me to do that again.
Sadly, I wasn’t active on writing.com for over 5 years and they purged my account, but you can still see the story count from my old (and now also gone) writing website above. There are actually a few stories that can also be read through the WayBackMachine writing.com archives. The rest that I didn’t make publicly available are in offline storage (hopefully!).
What will the next streak attempt be?
The next logical streak most likely will not be gaming-related. The pattern for me online has been pretty consistent: when more focused on non-fiction, articles and essay writing then not as much fiction work. When I’m more focused on fiction, then not as much non-fiction, articles and essays.
It’s almost like I can’t really balance the two very well. Different sides of the brain maybe? I don’t know. My article writing output here at PGM over the last few weeks, although you wonderful readers would not notice, has dramatically declined. I was writing something like 5-10 articles every week and as far into the future as 107 days, sort of hovering over 100 articles out, which was my goal. Scheduled articles has come down from 107 to … this:
While that might seem like, hey, that’s still almost two months ahead — and it is — it means I’ve just been burning up a lot of the work I already had staged for the future. If I don’t start writing more, at least a few articles every week, then I’m going to run down the backlog and be back to having no cushion. Like when PGM started two years ago 🙂
Anyway, it’s not that I haven’t been doing anything writing-oriented. Actually, I’ve been doing more creative writing.
Poetry has become a focus of mine. Or rather music lyrics as poetry. I’m telling stories inside of AI generated songs. This has been something relatively “new” for me, and I’ve been publishing some of this through my AI band AI Kills (see: 6-6-2025 today is release day for AI KILLS third album STILLBIRTH)
It seems most logical I’m going to continue to focus on something music-oriented. Maybe creating a new song every week for AI Kills or something like that? I think daily might be just too lofty, but maybe I try a daily streak for that. The music is only part of creating these songs, I also want to craft the lyrics and often tell some kind of story. Am not sure I can do a song a day, but creating a song a week seems realistic. Alas, no plans yet to do anything, I’m just going to relax for now.
It feels a lot less stressful when these streaks are over to just chill and relax. Not having that “hey, I still need to do ___ today or the streak will end!” Felt the same way about when my Stern Pinball Insider Connected streak ended (see: My Daily Stern Pinball Insider Connected Streak Ended at 162 Days)
Maybe these streaks aren’t that good of an idea after all. They do keep you focused on an activity, but then again maybe too focused on any one thing isn’t positive.
Or is it?
Did the game a day challenge for a bit. Like you said, had to find something new to play every day was fun for a bit but after a while started feeling like a chore. Stopped my streak on a vacation cause I was doing other things with the family. I do play games mostly everyday but alot of times it’s the same game.