Keepalive: The Changing Face of This Blog

written by Blain Newport on Tuesday, November 10, 2009

This post was two hours late.

It's the holiday season. It's supposed to be a flurry of gaming releases. Why don't I care enough to even keep up with the blog?

Well, I'm spending hours daily recording, compressing, and uploading video. By the time that's done I feel like I've done my bit. And I'm not really thinking that much about games and gaming. I still log on to Steam in the evening to hang out with some PA forum folks (the Distinguished Gentlemen of Dubious Circumstance I think I wrote about earlier). But it's more social than gamey. And it's not really super good at being either.

I just don't see any new frontiers I want to explore right now. I picked up Mass Effect when it was $10 on Steam, but I haven't finished a BioWare game since Shattered Steel (a game so old most people don't even know it exists). I picked up World of Goo when it was whatever price you felt like paying for it. But I really just wanted to support the experiment, and a developer ballsy enough to release a PC game with no copy protection.

I don't really want to play any of those games.

Maybe I'm just being extra lazy. I'm watching a lot of Stargate on Hulu. I get my escape that way. But that's not really it. It's more the "been there, done that" feeling. I know Call of Cthulhu (which I bought months ago on a Steam sale then didn't bother to play in October) will surprise and frighten. But I don't want that.

It's a weird thing about being a gamer. I get to choose the world I live in, at least while gaming. And none of them seem very interesting right now. Zeno Clash is really pretty grim for all it's color. Saints Row 2 is pretty inert. I could maybe take a trip back to San Andreas. I'm actually having a pretty good time playing through Batman again for the secret walkthrough, but that experience is being rationed. And it's a repeat anyway.

Nah. I was right to take a break. And it's nice to leave gaming as a social thing for the time being. I'm sure I'll buy the new consoles and enjoy catching up when the time comes. And I'm sure my social groups will drag me into other games as they come around. But I think it's time to be lazy now.

I suppose I should finish my Fallout 3 journal at some point too. :P Between that and D&D, I should find enough to write about.

It's not the same, though. I would have liked to have gone a full year with daily updates about video games. I'll still accomplish that goal. But it feels like I've lost my passion for it. There's nothing I need to play, no game's progress I need to follow, and no podcast I need to listen to. Gaming has done it's part. Whatever it was I wanted, I feel like I got it.

What's next?