Earlier this week news broke that Game Informer—the locally headquartered, 33-year-old video game magazine that shut down last summer—will soon come back from the dead. Great news, and here's hoping its new crypto-financed savior doesn't fuck things up.
That got us thinking: The Racket community has never discussed video games, a $200 billion industry whose boosters believe it's poised to out-earn Hollywood.
Me? I'm not much of a gamer these days. I've dabbled in retro emulation (this $50 handheld comes loaded with thousands of throwback games... don't dwell on the legality and/or illegality), and, recently, I've been enjoying NCAA 14, perhaps the last great football game, on the ol' modded PS3. I'm mostly a nostalgic observer through podcasts like Get Played, which is hosted by the hilarious Nick Wiger, Heather Anne Campbell, and Matt Apodaca.
That said, some of my best childhood memories involve beating Metal Gear Solid on PS1 (that car chase!), raising cute 'n' ferocious teams of Pokemon via Gameboy Color, and spending staggering amounts of time fine-tuning NFL franchises on the Madden series for PS2. Like so many others, my COVID pod acquired a Nintendo Switch—the second best-selling system ever, just behind PS2—around 2020, and my wife (Borat) enjoyed Breath of the Wild and Animal Crossing.
How about you? What's your personal history with gaming? Do you still game? How do you navigate the number of hours your kids game? Has the current ninth generation of home consoles flopped, and are greedy corporate game development companies to blame? Pumped for or skeptical of the Switch 2? Remember Duck Hunt?
As always, feel free to ignore this prompt and talk about whatever you want. This is your open thread, after all.
Take us out, briefly viral '00s kid band Black Out!
