This is usually around the time of year I make the terrible life choice of beginning my Game of the Year blog gauntlet. Around two solid weeks of extensive posts listing my best and worst video games and movies of the past 12 months as I saw them. Coupled with an intensive time of year within my job in retail, it seems like a terrible idea on my part. And yet it’s something I look forward to doing every year.
Before you start to think this is my building up to saying I’m going to skip doing them this year, don’t worry, my Game of the Year stuff is already well underway on the back end. It’s just, as I prepare my posts for the coming days, I noticed something: This year, there has been a significant change to how I approach video games.
It’s because of something that I’ve mentioned a number of times on my blog over the course of this year. It’s not just something that’s affecting me either, it’s something of a shift in the industry itself. On a number of occasions, you might have read me write about “games as a service”; games that come out and continue to pump content over months or sometimes years. Sometimes for free, sometimes through paid expansions.
As I started compiling my list of video games I’ve played in 2018, I realised that a significant portion of the games I’ve invested my time and enjoyment into have been out for over a year. Anyone who reads my blog with any regularity will probably already know which ones I’m talking about.
It’s because of this change that I realised that I was in a bit of a pickle when it comes to compiling my top 10 games of the year list. It I turned it into a list of games that only came out in 2018, then I would be doing disservice to the games that I actually spent the most time with this year.
In addition to this, I found myself buying far fewer new games this past 12 months. This comes as a result of being much more savvy with my purchases as game prices increase and my free time does the opposite. I value my time more thus have become much more cagey about buying brand new games on the day of their release.
Saving for a house does that to a person.
But frugality wasn’t the sole culprit for my changing gaming habits. Thanks to Xbox Game Pass, I have had access to brand new games I had previously been excited to play. And yet, with them at my fingertips for no extra charge, I had no drive to play them.
I’m starting to value my time more than playing a game that has been getting reviewed poorly, along with scathing word of mouth. There was a time I would always ignore this and dive into the game anyway, at the very least I’d get a blog out of it. That’s certainly changed this year.
So, as I prepare to kick off my Game of the Year blogstravogansa, I’ll let you know how I’m planning on doing things differently:
Firstly, I am adding a new entry into the batch; I’m going to write about my five favourite old games of 2018; Five games I enjoyed the most in 2018 that didn’t come out in 2018, be it games I never got to the year they came out, or simply games I’ve never stopped playing.
Then I’m going to alter the order and write about the 4 most disappointing games of 2018 I didn’t play. As previously mentioned, I didn’t actually play any disappointing games this year thanks to being extra picky, so I’m going to talk about the four games that I’m disappointed that they couldn’t do enough to get me on board, despite looking forward to them at some point.
Then we get into the main bulk of things, and because I’m an insane person, I’m going to do something extra special and not just write about my 10 favourite video games of 2018 over the course of the final 10 days of the year, but I’m going to also write 10 posts talking about my favourite 10 anime of the year also, meaning you’ll be getting two posts a day…
And I’ll be finishing things off by posting a list of my 10 favourite movies of 2018. A list which has traditionally always been late. And even as I write this, I am doubting my ability to get that one together as promised. We’ll see how things change there by the time we get to the 31st I suppose.
So I’ve basically doubled my workload from previous years, but I’ve gotten back into watching anime in a way that I felt like it deserved the same level of attention that I give to video games during the end of the year.
Thankfully, I’ve been planning this pretty far in advance and hopefully all will come off without a hitch (I’m actually writing this very post on Halloween, shhh).
Starting Wednesday, we’re going to get a rush of posts right up until the end of the year. So buckle up guys and let’s get started…
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 