I’ve been going through the back episodes of the Brainy Gamer podcast, and I must say that I am extremely annoyed with Mr. Abbott. The problem is his game recommendations: he has the most infuriating way of talking about games that I was aware of and favorably disposed to and turning them into games that I really have to play Right Now. Or at least Very Soon.
Just how much time do you think I have, Mr. Abbott? Sure, I can probably squeeze in a few hours to play Rez HD—if I’m remembering correctly, the original wasn’t that long—and I should be able to play A Mind Forever Voyaging when I’m on vacation, but but how on earth am I supposed to find time to play Persona 3? Or seriously explore Burnout Paradise? I hope No More Heroes isn’t too long, and I think I’ll manage to resist the lure of Odin Sphere, but I do have a day job! (And, on a more mainstream note, I’d like to play BioShock soon. And GTA IV. And I’m trying to avoid saying the word Oblivion too often.)
If my coworkers report a rise in my “working from home” at some point, you’ll know whom to blame. Good thing I only have one and a half podcasts left to listen to; mercifully, he only records one every three weeks or so, and at that rate I shouldn’t get into too much deeper a hole. But there’s no way I’m going back and looking through his older blog posts.
(Hmm, a more serious thought that this sparked: how about the idea of a video game club? Like a book club, a group of people who play the same game at the same time and talk about it. I realize that this happens all the time with new games right when they’re released, but how about trying it for older games?)
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How about this for a solution?:
Disclaimer: Games discussed on this podcast may be detrimental to your free time, career, and budget. Listeners are advised to proceed with caution. The Brainy Gamer cannot be held liable for any negative repercussions, but will happily assume responsibility for all positive ones.
;-)
Seriously, your video game club proposal is VERY interesting to me. I’ve been discussing a similar idea with my wife where I would choose a game on the site and invite people to play it along with me and post comments as we go along.
But I like your idea better because it sounds like something that could be hosted by various game-focused sites like yours and mine…sort of like a group of friends in a book club take turns hosting members in their homes. Is this sort of what you had in mind? I think it’s a terrific idea.
If you’d like to email me and discuss it further, maybe we could flesh out the idea and move forward with it. I can think of several excellent blogs/sites that would make excellent hosts and would probably jump at the chance to be involved.
Maybe this will make up for the many ways I’ve ruined your life. :P
7/1/2008 @ 10:19 am
You know, that Abbott guy is directly responsible for me playing Okami. He even tried to mail the thing to me, when I hesitated on buying it. What flagrant disregard for free time! ;-)
The game club is a great idea. Kotaku has something like it, but, well, that’s Kotaku; I feel like I remember another site that does something similar, but I can’t think of it now.
Michael, I actually think your site in particular would be well-suited to a game club. It seems to me that it acts as a nexus for our particular corner of the gaming blogosphere — David and I (as well as Corvus and Ben and L.B. and the rest) all read the Brainy Gamer, even if we don’t necessarily all read each others’ blogs. I think we’d have a sizable group interested in this sort of thing fairly quickly.
Anyway, it’s something to think about. Although I too have a backlog of games I’ve been meaning to play…
7/3/2008 @ 7:49 pm
[…] through old games and talking about them with other people: Michael Abbott and Dan Bruno noticed my throwaway comment on the subject, and, a weekend of e-mails later, the Vintage Game Club is […]
7/7/2008 @ 9:20 pm