This is going to be nothing more than the random thoughts of a twenty-something-year-old dude who very much enjoys gaming…were it not for the day-to-day annoyances of being a ‘big kid.’
Face it, when we were children, we thought being an adult meant eating ice cream whenever you wanted and watching late-night tv and having an infinite supply of money (because we were all going to grow up and be rich…somehow). We never thought that we would reach an age in which we would have interesting discussions with friends over new vacuum cleaners and superior toothpaste brands. We didn’t think we’d be losing sleep thinking about balancing bills and car payments.
Video games have always been a valuable source of entertainment for me, and as an adult I value their purpose in my life even more. Five years ago, I was meeting with friends every other day as we rotated between our houses and apartments. Someone would bring a case of PBR, another would grab food, and all brought console controllers and a stack of games. Those games were the social vehicle for us to just hang out and keep up with each other’s lives, and because of that I personally have positive memory associations related to them. After playing through Gears of War 3 with a buddy, we went to a bar and had a shot for a soldier who did not survive the campaign. When a pal broke the news to us that he was going to be a father, we later picked up copies of Diablo 3 to have one last great adventure together.
It’s been quite a while since we’ve had nights like that. Children, mortgages, marriages and job opportunities budged into our lives with elbows flying. Money once allocated to pre-orders on collector’s editions and monthly subscriptions became re-allocated to baby formula and car insurance. Besides these core changes, we still are gamers, albeit not in the same sense that we used to be.
This page will contain various game reviews, previews, links and articles on the games that my friends and I find relevant, regardless of whether or not they are the most up-to-date releases. Because, honestly, sometimes you just have to be happy with a few rounds of Civ 5 during the kid’s nap time.
