Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A Mental Crisis of Brobdingnagian Proportions

I feel that Brobdingnagian doesn't get enough parlance in the common vernacular. Also, neither do "parlance" and "vernacular." Anyway, I was thinking I should do a blog post today, but I couldn't think of a topic. Actually, I did think of a topic, but it was videogames. And since I just did a full week on a videogame, I rooted around in my head for something else. "What do I write on besides videogames," I thought.

And I couldn't think of anything.

At this time of year, I am in full research mode. I'm writing a dissertation proposal (still--sigh) on videogames. I'm reading scholarly books on videogames. I try to read at least three short articles on videogames a week. I'm auditing a graduate course on videogames this term. A month ago, I went to Ottawa to give a paper on videogames for a videogame grad conference.

But the videogames have seeped into my leisure time as well. In between reading chapters on videogames, I go to the site Rock Paper Shotgun and read 3 year old blog posts on videogames. I go to Eurogamer and browse reviews of videogames. I read webcomics about people who play videogames (Ctrl Alt Del, PvP, Penny Arcade), people who are in videogames (MegaTokyo, 8-bit Theatre, Guilded Age), and people in games that they generally make into videogames of varying quality (Order of the Stick, Erfworld, Goblins). I talk about videogames with my roommates and friends. And in my leisure time, whether it's the DS when I'm watching TV, the Xbox 360, or the computer, I play videogames.

So really, the fact that I blog about videogames isn't so surprising. What's surprising is that I find time to do anything else.

Marshall McLuhan once said that games are "extensions, not of our private but of our social selves." In my case, I think I'm covering the social selves of about six other people.

Later Days.

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