2023 was a fantastic year for video games…and I say that as someone who skipped most of the heavy hitters this year. But, for now, it’s time to put on my retrospective cardigan and reflect on my favorite gaming experiences this year.

A strange thing happened this month. After years of writing every day and identifying as a writer, I had an epiphany: Maybe my hobbies are changing.

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is an incredibly informative-yet-entertaining look behind the closed doors of the gaming industry.

Pillars of Eternity is a masterpiece, a beautiful and moving homage to some of the most formative video games of the past 30 years.

Jason Schreier is a pretty well-regarded author in terms of video games history, and given Kotaku’s reputation for breaking news, I really couldn’t expect this story to come from anywhere else.

Part of my (actual) job is research, and I’ve spent the past month working on a pretty extensive rebrand for my employer. I put a lot of time into researching Millennials and Generation Z, and I’m more than a little surprised to admit that my findings actually line up with my own experiences on discussion boards and chat forums about video games.

There’s been an uptick in disgruntled games journalists lately, and as I researched the past few years of issues, it feels like things have finally come to a head. Specifically, I think the best (recent) examples can be traced back to Bethesda’s review policy.

Originally, I wrote out an outline for an article entitled “The Cost of Development.” The plan was to cover some recent issues and controversies in the gaming industry, specifically in relation to some of the biggest and most revered AAA names in the industry. After all, the past calendar year gave us a slew of “us” vs. “them” conflicts.

So far, 2017 has been a curious year for video games. We’ve already seen a new console, huge disappointments, and more than a few gaming controversies.

Some coworkers and I are on a professional development kick. We’re learning more about marketing as a field and, for me, that takes the form of online classes and seminars.

I’m quickly realizing that writing the second part of this series will be even more difficult than my original post (which you can read here). I’ve always been a lover of stories, and video games deliver a level of interactivity and empowerment that match the emotional impact of most novels (while not as deep or as long, admittedly).

I've mentioned before that video games are a huge passion for me. However, I've realized that this space doesn't exactly reflect how important gaming is to me. So it only seems fair to give you some background on my gaming interests...which is most easily tackled with a list of my favorite titles.