I’m moving country, and all I can think about is games.
I am relocating to halfway around the world, and amidst all of the things I need to do in the next six days to make that happen, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time thinking about what effect it’s going to have on my gaming.
Perhaps it isn’t disproportionate at all. The fact I keep finding myself returning to the topic - in the face of some pretty stressful “real life” considerations – probably tells me more about my attitude to gaming than I had anticipated. Have I not assigned an appropriate degree of importance to my hobby? Perhaps, at a time I’m abandoning just about everything else to start afresh, gaming is suddenly more important to me than ever?
The background: within the next week or so, I will shortly be leaving my life in London behind to pursue a job in the Middle East. I love my home city and I always will, but I have been looking for ways to make myself an International Man of Mystery for a few years now, and this opportunity presented itself as one not to be missed. Truthfully, getting a year or two under my belt will make it much easier for me to move to other parts of the world in the future, and at root that’s my real goal.
Back to the games. I’m what I suppose the hardcore gamers would consider an casual, and the casuals would consider a hardcore gamer. I’ve had a pretty typical path, I think: starting my gaming journey on now-decrepit, then state-of-the-art Pentiums, and watching my friends fight the Sega / Nintendo console war out on the playground. From there it was time for me to start buying systems of my own, and these days I split my gaming between the usual array of devices - Android phone, iPad, Wii U, laptop and – mostly – Xbox One.
“These days” being the ones that are about to change. And whilst I have no doubts they may well alter my gaming in unpredictable ways, I can already see some immediate upheavals.
Weighing up the platforms.
I’m going to have to sell the Xbox One.
I can’t take it with me. It’s huge. I have suitcases it literally wouldn’t fit in; and even if it did, the sheer mass alone would make me fear for the cargo bay doors.
This leads naturally to a further thought. Do I switch platform? I don’t think relocating will increase the reasons to own both consoles, so I’ll probably end up having to choose one or the other again. I honestly didn't think I would have cause to re-think my platform this soon.
Do I seize the opportunity to get my hands on those lovely PlayStation exclusives I’ve been missing? I fear the 1.5TB of accumulated 360 and Xbox One games, currently sat on an external hard drive, might make my mind up for me – but part of me is keen to throw caution to the wind.
On the other hand, I might well be that most fabled of gamers – an Xbox owner who upgrades to the forthcoming S model.
Expecting the unexpected.
The imminent and sudden change headed my way does raise some other interesting possibilities.
For instance, a Steam box suddenly looks unexpectedly compelling. I have been considering getting back into proper PC gaming for a while, and by the time of the Scorpio and Neo announcements, had pretty much decided I was going to build a monster rig instead of upgrading console every few years.
Now it looks like I’ll be doing some world-hopping, however, I might need to abandon plans involving anything too bulky. A halfway house like the Steam machines – which seemed like a quirky choice at first – might suddenly fit my unique situation rather nicely.
It’s also possible an increase in travel will get me back into handheld gaming. A totally unused Nintendo DS, sat dustily in a cupboard, will attest to the fact I became a dedicated couch potato some time ago, and even the iPad doesn’t get many ten minute break outs these days. My phone has all of six games installed, and I haven’t opened half of them.
I’m already feeling a faint tug to explore some systems which haven’t been of interest to me in a long time, and that’s got a nice tingle of rebellion about it.
Revisiting the old favourites.
Regardless of what I decide to do, there’s going to be at least a few weeks – maybe even a month or two, if I decide to wait for something like the Xbox One S to arrive – where I may have little choice but to resort to some neglected options.
For me, this means rediscovering my Wii U, and seeing just how far I can push my MacBook Air these days.
Whilst the thought of going without AAA for a while has me concerned, ultimately I hope to be forced into revisiting (or discovering anew) some forgotten gems. I know for a fact Wind Waker is sitting there waiting for me, and I never did finish Super Mario 3D World. I also have a Steam back catalogue that has been largely untouched for many months, with a bunch of titles – some old favourites, many more yet to be discovered - awaiting their turn to sap away my spare time.
Opinions, advice and thoughts, please!
Will this be enough to see me through? Will I find myself instantly regretting the loss of major console gaming, at a time I might need some familiar escape the most?
I honestly don’t know yet, but I’m excited to find out.
I'd like to hear from any duder out there with some advice. Am I worrying about the right or the wrong things? To what degree should I take the opportunity to change things up; or should I stick with what I know, given all the other changes going on?
Perhaps most importantly - what's the thing I should be thinking about, which I'm not yet?
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