These games and their creators are why, in the face of a million bald space marines, quick time events, unskippable cutscenes, freemium pay models, always-online DRM, day one DLC, tacked-on multiplayer, invasive social aspects, unfixed bugs, shoddy ports, anonymous slurs, brand elitists, painful E3 presentations, corporate asshats, and everything else that�s screaming in my ear for me to finally cut myself off and for Pete�s sake get to that god-awful backlog, I�m still keeping my gaze fixed firmly upon the industry and slipping a handful of my dwindling dollars into its crumbling, oft-forgotten corners. There aren�t a whole lot like me, I�m sure, but we are indeed here, and we are paying attention. And (very) occasionally blogging.
Heaven only knows what the future holds, of course: maybe next year, if the DS and Vita are crushed underfoot by the likes of the iPad, if the Wii U never finds its footing, if the PS4 is above all a Facebook/Youtube pseudopod and the Durango further chains us to the whims of our ISPs and their servers, I�ll finally bid the industry a fond farewell and retreat to video games as I want to experience them, ignorant of any and all protest the current gatekeepers care to disseminate. Sometime between now and then, however, I�ll be strolling out of that booby-trapped fun park with a hunky new squeeze on one arm and Uncle Keiji on the other.
Ready or not, next year, here I come.
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