As this year comes to a crawl of a close, still a few months away yet, but there is something slowly coming to the curtain call, and that is this current close on this generation of gaming consoles. Sure, you can give me your derision but i am a man that feels the passing of time should be marked by something, even if that mark is insignificant and moronic. Some people do it with big events, but for me; such a man that i am, games hold a fairly high regard in this aspect.
Yes, this generation of consoles have been the longest living as of date, but i feel that all of life should be marked by something, some do it by jobs, or marriage or kids, but the last great mark i had was graduating high school and the last generation of gaming consoles, such is the low of a man that doesn't do much. But the end of this era marks something within me. Something that not even i can scoff at. The end of this generation of gaming is; and even though i feel i had more fun on the previous generation, holds a regard i feel must be recorded here for all, but mostly likely just for myself; since i'm pretty sure i'm the only one that has ever and will ever read these pages. During the end of the PlayStation 2 era just when the wick was about done, i played some truly fantastic games. And i played those games with both Genesis and Mike in that ratty two bedroom apartment when time could be ignored and games and drinking were the norm for passing the time. Sure the next (at this time current) generation proved to be a little bit more oriented to getting more than one player on a game single game, but with the 360 and the Wii, i remember just being drunk and playing bowling or being up to the late hours of the night (or early morning) playing Call of Duty: World at War: Nazi Zombies with Genesis taking cigarette breaks and rethinking out strategy for the next time we beat our high score.
And these were great times. Greater than i had considered them of when i felt the loss of the American arcade. When arcades had come and gone, even in my early age there was a fair amount of lamenting, but it was never as deep seeded as this. The Wii, PS3 and 360 were, for me, held to a standard in which i formed many, many new friendships. I found new life in gaming in this generation and maybe that's all this is; an old man's (31) longing/feeling the passing of time. Lamenting for something once so loved.
But maybe it's just because i will no longer have those experiences with my two closes gamer friends, Genesis and Mike. My future could go either bleak or grand depending on how it goes from here. And it's that uncertainty that i dislike the most. Through games i miss my friends. Before, gaming was a singular experience with the three of us, but when were there, in that time, we had a real and just chance to do it together. Sure we might have failed a few times in that, but we still had games we had with each other. DQ9, or even Borderlands 1 and 2.
I will miss that time with an intensity no one that isn't a gamer would understand.
