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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