The Kate-Rules for Gameplay

The Kate-Rules for Gameplay: 

1.  Games suited for a certain season should be played in that season. 
   E.g. Amped 3 is a snowboarding game and so should be played in winter.  Baja Edge of Control takes place in a desert and so should be played in the summer. Anything with zombies or is scary like Alan Wake should be played near Halloween.  Except Dead Island because it's on a resort island so it's a summer-zombie game. (I didn't say that the rules make sense to anyone but me)
2. Games in a franchise should be played in order. 
   You just don't play Assassin's Creed 3 before the original! Even if the stories aren't dependent on each other, I must play them in order.  I do like to see how the franchise has progressed and improved (or not).  And to miss a chunk of story? That is a heinous crime IMO!  Story telling is one of the biggest reasons that I love games.
3. No flippy-flopping!
   I pick a game, stick with it through the end, and hopefully get all the achievements for it before I put in another game.  Here's what happens when I flippy-flop (and is the reason why I have so many unfinished games): I get a game, get really into it, get close to the end, get a new game on sale for a great price that I'm excited to play, put it in, play it a while, go back to the old game and can't remember how to play or what I was in the middle of doing, get frustrated at the thought of starting it over, shelve it.
4. Don't be an achievement whore.
   I am totally an achievement whore as my Raptr profile can attest, but I am on the road to recovery. I refuse to play a game just for the achievement points.  If I am just not into a game (I'm looking at you, Dead or Alive 4 and PGR 3), I don't mind letting it sit there and collect dust as atonement for being so sucky. 
5. Must be complete.
   Most games now have DLC, season passes, or expansions.  If I a get a just-released game (which doesn't happen often) that I know is going to RULE and I'm going to play all the time like whatever the newest CoD game is, I will get the season pass and stay up-to-date on DLC at a discount.  I completely hate playing a game that has DLC or an expansion that I don't have, so I will wait until there's a sale on DLC or the GOTY edition to play it.  E.g. I got Skyrim last Christmas with the awesome dragon statue and I played it for a couple of weeks but then DLC came out that I wasn't going to get right away so I shelved it.  Just this week it was announced that Bethesda will not be releasing anymore content for it and in June 2013 will be selling a Legendary edition with all the DLC that was available for it.  Sweet.
6. Campaign Co-Op games get played with friends.
   Lots of games nowadays have campaign co-op.  I love co-op but only with RL friends who game, and I don't have many.  Hubby has his own Xbox360 too so I will catch a good deal on a second copy and cross my fingers that we have time to play together.  We never do.  We started Borderlands almost 4 months ago and only played via LAN twice.  Left For Dead is awesome in co-op but I only have one copy, so there it sits still in shrink wrap.  I'd like playing co-op with friends-list friends but I have a hard time understanding people sometimes because of my hearing loss, so even with using my Astro A-50 headset (which is sweet!), I feel like I don't always understand people and it's just frustrating.  Most of the time the problem is folks who use bad english or don't enunciate.
7. Be thorough.
   If I don't have the time or patience to  thoroughly play a game start-to-finish with all the side quests and collectibles, etc., then I just wait until I do.
8. Unfinished games get restarted.
   Sometimes I will go years without putting in a game and it's so awkward to feel like I'm coming into the middle of the story and this half-fleshed out character, so I'll just restart.  Time consuming, sure, but I will feel satisfied that I got the whole story in one sitting.

*Please note that my rules are a result of my perfectionist and neurotic self and not the way I think "normal" people should play ;)