E3 is the Super Bowl of video game news. Since that first event in 1995, I’ve been glued to my computer, hitting refresh like crazy and absorbing all of the news that came in. As a gaming enthusiast, it’s a thrill to get first dibs on this news and chat about it with others to the point where I would put everything aside so I could focus on this.
Then, in 2016, something more important happened.
Save for a brief moment in time when video game collecting was a coping mechanism for the harsh realities of adulthood, video game collecting has been more of a side-effect of being a gaming enthusiast. I bought what I wanted and didn’t really let stuff go. After moving into a house and getting a bunch of my brother and I’s Nintendo 64 and Gamecube stuff, I’m currently sitting on a pretty decent collection that looks really cool in my display units.
Now that I have all of this stuff back in my possession and a gaming setup that can capture and stream these old games, it has the gears in my head turning. What if I could build on this even further? What if I could make this the gaming collection of my dreams? Before I potentially veer deep into the game collecting rabbit hole, here are some of my thoughts before making the jump.
Years ago, when I moved out of my parents’ house, my brother and I split our shared gaming collection. As part of the agreement, he got everything related to the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. Recently, I went back to my old home to get that stuff, as I have the room for it now and my brother wasn’t planning on doing anything with those old games anyway. Well, at least that was the plan.
It goes without saying that video is a wildly important part of any modern content mix and has been for years now. Will be the first to admit that I’ve been behind the curve in this regard. Though I’m a long ways away from my early days of recording my screen with a webcam, there’s still much work to be done in order to get my output to a place I’m happy with.
While we’re here, let’s list off what’s been done and what is still a work in progress.
Game of the year is a weird award for an individual person to reward. Who am I, as one man, to make a bold declaration on which one of the thousands of video games is the best? Especially when I’ve probably played less than 20 of them this year?
The reality is, I can declare my own personal game of the year just like anyone else. How one comes to that conclusion is irrelevant. For me, it’s all about which game I played this year was the best and most impactful, with a tendency to weight the latter more heavily. In a year where I named Catherine my game of the year over Skyrim, I still believe I made the right call. I clamor for the day when a sequel to Catherine would arrive, though I’ve been largely over Skyrim since I completed it years ago.
Enough with the preamble. My 2017 game of the year is….
Coming off their biggest home console flop of all-time, most of us did not foresee a world in which Nintendo struck back with a vengeance. Little did we know that the new little console that The Big N unveiled towards the end of 2016 would become a juggernaut. And little did I know that the device would dominate my time and money in 2017.
Behind the scenes, my wife and I have been working hard on moving from our current residence to the one we own now: a house! We’re excited for our new home and all the change that comes with it. Lots to say about the matter in future posts!
In 2009, Street Fighter IV changed my life.
Having taken an extended hiatus from the fighting game genre, Street Fighter IV roped me in for good. The transition wasn’t instant, as I gave up the game initially after losing dozens of matches in a row online. However, once I watched my first fighting game tournament live stream, it opened my eyes to how great fighting games can be when you have a deeper understanding of how to play them. As I tried to emulate the likes of Gootecks, Mike Ross, and Justin Wong, I found myself falling in love with the genre in a way that I’d never loved any other type of game.
Since 2009, fighting games have grown to become my favourite of any gaming genre. Here’s why!
I entered the video game blogosphere in 2009 with one simple goal: share my thoughts on gaming with the world. There were no ambitions on my end to be the next IGN, PewDiePie, or Angry Video Game Nerd, but I felt like I had a lot of things to say and maybe I would find some sort of audience along the way. In that time, In Third Person has generated over 400,000 pageviews, over 30,000 video views on YouTube and Facebook. With the Amazon Affiliate program, I’ve even made a few dollars here and there. Nothing that allows me to quit my full time job, but some bonus scratch is always welcome.
Truly thankful to you and everyone else that has supported my musings for the better part of a decade. That being said, the world of being a content creator is very different in 2017. Seeing it evolve, and taking the lessons I’ve learned along the way, let me take a look in the mirror and see where I stand.
I started a music blog!
Jett’s Playlist is my new home for all things related to music. While I am no stranger to bending the content strategy of this site to speak about things outside of gaming, I feel like I have a lot to say about one of my favourite interests that would throw off what I’ve built here.
If you have any interest in checking out my thoughts on music, head over to Jett’s Playlist now! Right now, there’s a piece where I rank the four pre-release songs from Taylor Swift’s latest album, Reputation. For content like this and more, join me on my new blog!
In Third Person 