For the past two years it has been a struggle to come up with a year-end list of my favorite video games. I used to love making them and I am completely honest when I say that the struggle made me question if the time for my enjoyment of video games simply past.

I have been a paying member of Giant Bomb since the very start and I have been listening to the crew since their early The Hot Spot days. When the whole Giant Bomb thingy started, I got really into the longer videos and often watched them while playing different games. I am a big fan of sports and racing games and those games are almost made to have something on in the background to enjoy.

Two years ago, after a couple of rough months, I started watching Twitch to get the time go by. I started following streamers who played the games I enjoyed and at the start really learned a whole lot about the games I played and started to play them a bit more seriously. I am not going to lie – it added to the experience. The sheer excitement of watching people discovering new things in competitive games was awesome and I got a lot better at the game.

My newfound interest got me away from Giant Bomb. I still listened to the podcasts but the almost everything else I was skipping. I started to play less and less games because you know how it is on Twitch – everything sucks and people who play a different game than the one you are watching are confused. So, I skipped Assassin’s Creed because someone told someone that it wasn’t that good. I skipped Spider-Man, God of War and almost every game that wasn’t the ones I played while watching some of my favorite streamers.

I told a friend this past November that it felt like I just didn’t enjoy games anymore. All the fun was in these couple of games I was playing and watching at the same time. I returned to the different chats and realized how all the drama, all the negativity and all the highly questionable ways these streamers was trying to kick the dirt up to get even more views just made me not enjoy the games. I already knew everything sucked. You know, Twitch chat knows everything.

I unfollowed all the channels except for two and started playing Jade Empire again. It just ignited that flame of fun within me again. I actually played the games and didn’t just have it on as one part of something else I was doing. I went back to a lot of games I missed, and it wasn’t until these last couple of days when a video of one of those streamers I enjoyed watching popped up when I realized how extremely negative and drama driven almost everything is now. I went ahead and popped in to one of the streams I enjoyed and there the chat was fighting over how Fortnite players are lame and that everything about them sucks now.

I turned it on, went ahead and played Fortnite for the first time in months and had a blast. Just as with all those other games I missed during this time.

I don’t want to tell which streamers I followed, but I can assure you that this is about highly respected people and not ones that are truly problematic with a bunch of drama in their streams. Obviously, this was my experience and maybe I’m just weak who fell for all the negativity. However, when I see the console wars raging again and all the comments on different forums and posts, I see so clearly where they come from and it makes me sad. I am not saying that you should stop watching Twitch, all I want to say is that it’s easy to get dragged into all the negativity and video games should be fun. It should be about enjoyment and a good time, not a bunch of drama and hate because you like a certain game.

That’s all. Thanks for reading. <3

(Giant Bomb or any people affiliated with the sites are NOT part of the ones I’m talking about here. I’m very glad I found my way back here.)