Another video game website – how original.

Yet, the very fact that there are so many should tell you something: games are not only something that people feel passionate about playing, but an awful lot of those gamers feel passionate enough to spend their time and energy talking about games with others.  If you’re reading this right now, chance are that gaming has played a part in your life for as long as you can remember.

Take me, for instance.  I’ll be turning thirty in just a few months, and some quick math tells me that I’ve been gaming for around twenty-two of those thirty years.  That’s a hell of a lot longer than I’ve been involved with most of my other hobbies, save perhaps reading and writing.  I’ve probably spent a lot more money on gaming than either of those others; my deep desire for a Nintendo was what made me eagerly rake leaves or pull weeds or whatever chore I could do to earn a few dollars from family or neighbors.  I’ve gone from Intellevisions and Apple IIEs to Xbox 360s and Wiis and a multitude of other systems in between.  Gaming has changed a lot over the years, and so have I.

The thing I’ve noticed, though, is that a lot of talk about gaming these days seems to take place in a bubble.  Sure, you have people talk about retro gaming, and how great things have used to be, and you’ve got coverage of every new thing coming out under the sun, but a lot people tend to view these things as isolated islands in some vast ocean.  Gaming is a continuum, and all that is now has stemmed from something that came before.  Taking a long view of gaming gives an amazing look at how things have grown, evolved, and sometimes even taken steps backwards.  Again, something that happens right along with our own lives.

I’m starting Spectacle Rock to try and create a place where the long view is encouraged, where a little perspective can help us make sense of the games we love, and maybe in some small way help shape their future.  Douglas Adams warns us that, in an infinite universe, the worst thing you can have is a sense of perspective; fortunately, gaming is not yet infinite, it’s just got a lot of history behind it, with each passing day adding even more.

So whether you have been gaming since the days of Space War, or whether you have no idea that Final Fantasies existed before VII, I hope Spectacle Rock can help you take a longer view of things.  Read, enjoy, discuss; then get back to the games.