How are things going?

Didn't see your monthly check-in at 12in12. Hope all's good.

I'm not big on "high fantasy," either—which is funny, because I was very big into Dungeons & Dragons in college and for a couple years afterward. But I love the gameplay and storytelling potential of D&D; and because I used to run games more often than play them, I got to craft a world that featured only the fantasy elements I actually liked. I'm not opposed to swords or magic or monsters, but I get bored easily in low-tech settings, especially when there are too many elves (I don't know what it is about elves).

Funny you should mention Dragon Age; I played through Origins a few years ago, and I couldn't get into it at all. A lot of it had to do with the gameplay, but even once I got the hang of it, I simply couldn't stay engaged with the universe, and I eventually gave up on reading all the background information I was offered. If you're excruciatingly bored, I wrote a post a while back about my less-than-magical experience with the game (though I'll admit it's not one of my better articles): [Link]

I've finally come to accept that I don't HAVE TO beat every game in my backlog; if there's a game I'm not enjoying and don't want to finish, I'll drop it and take it off the list. Except if it's an installment in an otherwise favorite series. Fanboy obligation has pushed me to (though not always ) some games that I absolutely would not have bothered with if they didn't have "Metroid" or "Mega Man" or "Chrono" in the title. Right now I'm stalled on Mega Man Battle Network 4, which is not a terrible game, but it's not a style of game I tend to enjoy. The first two installments were good enough that I didn't mind going outside my comfort zone, but the gameplay is starting to overstay its welcome.

Well, if you enjoyed one of the weakest ones, imagine how much better the "good" ones will be, eh? I'm usually not big into supernatural or overly somber games, but the premise certainly sounds interesting.

I think the difference is that I'm finally playing games again (instead of spending all my time *making* them), so I've been able to finish up things that have been stalled on my list for a while. I might also have removed one or two of my project-related games since the last time you checked in. I finished my Make a Good Mega Man Level Contest 2 streaming project, and I recognized that I'm taking so long to record a playthrough of Mega Man 8 that it wasn't worth the clutter of keeping it on the list.

I have to say, it's been a tremendous joy to play games just for the fun of it again. Even when the game's I'm playing are...not so great. The more I dig into my backlog, the more I realize that I've already played most of the truly great games that I own (or else my standards keep getting higher). Still, being able to enjoy my favorite pastime with no one looking over my shoulder in any capacity is refreshing.