“Deep into that darkness. I stood there. Wondering... Fearing... Doubting...”

Not too many things come for free in this world. Almost everything a person owns, almost everything people cherish, stem from a green piece of paper with the face of a long dead face on it, which to most people bares no significance at all. With that said, the video game industry is a cesspool of overflowing money which has made it one of the largest, if not largest entertainment businesses in the world today. Games sell in the millions, and on top of that they’re tagged at a hefty price, with the majority of game titles retailing for fifty bucks a pop. You would think that a price tag that steep would stop people from purchasing games in droves, some even on a weekly basis of purchasing at least one new game a week. The problem here is that people become addicted. Yes, gaming is an addiction. I came to this realization when I was walking to work one day thinking about all my financial woes. I’m in the final stages of purchasing a car, and in order to get enough money saved in time for the final transaction I need to work like a dog, putting in more than fifty hours a week at work at the age of seventeen. I then asked myself “I’ve been working since the age of 15…Where the fuck did all my money go?” Well, that’s not a hard question to answer at all, because all I had to do was take a look at my videogame collection. Ever since the GameCube’s launch in November two years ago, I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on videogames alone. I’ve owned more than sixty GameCube titles, around twenty something Xbox games, purchased an Xbox twice so far, and even owned a PlayStation 2 and handful of PS2 titles at one point. I would buy a game play it to death, sell it and get another almost on a weekly basis, because I had the money to do so and I did this for more than a year. If I wanted to, I could easily blame my video game obsession on this very website, always wanting to purchase a new game with the intention of reviewing the title ASAP. However, that would just be a lame excuse of me trying to cover up my own stupidity. But just recently I dropped this obsession. Thankfully, a drought of game releases hit earlier this year and I began to think about gaming. I was unhappy, and I couldn’t find too many games that I actually found enjoyable and not until now did I realize why this truly was. Because I never let myself enjoy them. I never savored the game for all its worth. I never got my moneys worth. So I decided to go back to my collection and complete games that I had left unfinished, such as Skies of Arcadia Legends and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. I took my dear sweet fucking time with them, and now I feel like those fifty dollars were well spent. However, lately the release dates are beginning to pick up, with games like Knight of the Old Republic, Wrestlemania XIX, Viewtiful Joe, and F-Zero GX on the horizon. In preparation I already began to prey, hoping that my addiction won’t resurface. However, I do want to try out all of these titles, but I just don’t want to rush through them just for the sake of playing them, and not really enjoying them. Remember, not only is money power, but it’s also civilization’s bane.