So I here I sit on a plane on my way back from Seattle. Flights across the country generally give one a lot of time to think about things. This particular trip took me to an event unlike any other I’ve been to. The event was called the Community Lock-In for Halo 3. Microsoft’s biggest game ever was set to launch on the Xbox 360 on September 25th, and they were kind enough to invite 17 members of the Xbox and Video Game community to their headquarters to get a taste of the game. I don’t know if you’d call a 12 hour marathon session a taste, I guess that’s more like a buffet. The event was great, and I met a lot of really awesome people from a lot of sites that I’ve checked out from time to time. We were even taken to the Best Buy midnight launch where we got to wander around and help promote the game and just generally take in the insanity that ensued there. And trust me, it was pretty fucking insane.

So yeah, I’m on a plane and my mind is wandering. Marty O’Donnel’s (who I got to meet) Halo Soundtrack is blasting through my headphones and I’m looking out an airplane window at gorgeous setting sun and an amber sea of clouds. Ironically, in Amber Clad is the track playing on my Halo 3 Zune. See a trend here? I’m in fucking Halo mode. I’m constantly thinking about it. Between the total conversion of Evil Avatar.com and the contest we are doing over there to help promote it, to the taste of the campaign I got yesterday all I want to do is eat, breath and dream Halo.

Oh shit, there goes Steve Vai jamming that theme out. Tight.

Speaking of the campaign, how bout that opening cinematic. I mean, jesus christ could it get any fucking better? I mean, ok, we knew the chief wasn’t dead (obviously) but that’s not what was so great about it. It’s that possibility of what’s going on with Cortana and the chief. There’s some higher level shit happening there, and I simply could not WAIT to find out. Cortana mentions how the AIs are allowed to choose their Spartan, this was actually something from the Halo books. And the way she talks about the chief, well it frickin tugs on my heart strings.

Anyway, enough about Halo for now, I just can’t wait to get home and play it.

You know, it’s weird. These past two years of my life have been pretty surreal.

I’ve been playing video games as long as I can remember. I can remember gaming on the Atari 300xl with my dad, playing Bruce Lee, Ghost Busters and Orc Attack. I remember getting my NES and firing up Zelda for the first time, and trying to figure the way out of that damn forest. I remember buying a Sega Genesis with my own money, and playing Sonic the Hedgehog amazed at all the colors on the screen. I can remember when PC Gaming began to consume my life, my dad bringing home a shareware copy of Doom from the office, making mods for the game, and programming text adventures in Qbasic. Gaming was my life, gaming is my life. But these past two years, how fucking nuts is this.

I mean…I’m in the industry. As a gamer. As a journalist. As a fan. I’ve met gaming heroes from my past like Peter Molyneux. I’ve had dinner with executives. I’ve gone to events and played games well before anyone else. I’ve been literally flown across the country on company wallets just so they can meet me, hear what I have to say and play their games. How the fuck did this happen? It’s just so totally surreal that everyday what I write and what I say, is read by thousands of gamers and scrutinized, relied upon, and enjoyed. I’m really trying to take this all in and enjoy it the most I can. I’m approaching 30, and the real life, the life outside of gaming is slowly consuming things. I’ve got a wonderful wife that puts up with my habits, and it’s almost time to start to raise a family. These spur of the moment cross country trips will be a thing of the past, and I wonder how things are going to change. I mean, I work a full time job, devote 20+ hours a week to EvilAvatar.com and play games. There’s not much time for anything else, hell if you’ve read my blog you know I’ve changed my sleeping schedule just so I can have more time to play!

Ah not to be such a downer, I know this is some time away. I just came to this realization recently and it really made me appreciate everything that I’ve been so lucky to have done, and appreciate and enjoy the people I have met and will meet that much more.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 8:29 am and is filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.