#0000 - The Why

You may wonder what the hell is the point of playing and writing about a thousand video games. Well, it sure isn't for your sake. If you're a hardcore gamer or even a collector, then you know what a backlog is. You also know that as women and jobs come and go, the backlog is a constant presence that just gets heavier with time. I realized I was screwed when I looked at my own "to-play" list and saw that it had hit the big G. Yup, a thousand freaking games I'd never played. My first instinct was to panic, crap my pants, and consider selling the entire collection. Instead I did the logical thing and forgot about the list and just went back to acquiring more games. Because, you know, that's what's important.

Until one night I was lying awake in bed and it hit me like a gold-plated World Championships cartridge that there was really no point in owning all those games if I never played them. I was acting like a glorified pack rat, hoarding games for all those systems for no reason other than to enlarge my e-dick. That's pretty dumb, not to mention something of a slap in the face to all those forgotten game developers who slaved long hours to create the cartridges that held my bookcases to the floor. Right then and there I vowed that I would not only saw down my backlog, I would keep myself honest by running a blog to tally the progress. To do this right, however, I needed a couple of rules. Or really, one rule.

Beating the game is optional. You've got to understand, my voyage is more about a mass rush of diverse stimulus than playing 'delete the cells' with an Excel spreadsheet. This is about seeing what the gaming world has to offer. It's about jumping out there and floundering in a sea of cartridges and discs and forming a bigger picture of the gaming world of the past thirty years. It's about gathering to myself the collective vision of countless artists, directors, programmers, and technicians. I don't need to see the final credits for every game - I've got Moby Games for that! More practically, I don't have the time to spend six hours at the minimum for a thousand different games. I'm pretty sure the Internets will explode before I get that done. As it is, even if I play a game for an hour or two a day I'm still looking at three years. Three years! Cut me some slack, man!

So here I am. Poised at the entrance to the arcade of dreams with a credit in my sweaty fist. By the time I come out I might be a changed man, I'm not sure. But it's a fact I will have shot, cut, punched, and kicked a whole bunch of pixels and polygons.

Wish me luck.