Where to Begin..?

To those that know me, it's no secret that I love video games. For better or worse, they are a big part of who I am today. Ever since I received the NES on Christmas of 1986, I've been in love with them. Well, not in love. You know what I mean. But for 28 years I have been a gamer, ever since I first put the Super Mario Bros. cartridge into the NES console and pushed the power button. Who knew that that Christmas I would find a hobby that would consume a large portion of my free time for at least 3 decades? Certainly not me! And I have no plans of stopping now, though admittedly, I am a much less serious gamer nowadays as compared to yesteryear, and more of a collector. But don't get me wrong, I still play games regularly and moreso I do a lot of reflecting on the games I have played. That's what this blog is all about.

So, why "Kraken Soup for the Video Game Lover's Soul"? Because it just sounded right. I'm sure you've heard of those "Chicken Soup for the (blank) Lover's Soul" books. If not, you should look them up. They're pretty good. But I didn't want to use the term "Chicken Soup". Everyone likes chicken soup. Chicken soup has been done to death. So I chose Kraken Soup. It's a minor reference to my favorite video game of all time, Earthbound. Plus, no one actually eats kraken soup. What exactly is in kraken soup? So that sense of mystery is one that (hopefully) shrouds my blog. People will be drawn to my blog out of mere curiosity. Or maybe not. Who's to say? But this is my blog. A blog that has been a good two years in the making. My original intention was to write a World of Warcraft blog but seeing as I have recently been cured of the bug, I no longer play the game and thus no longer have any interest in writing about it, although it will probably come up in a blog post at some point. Then after months of contemplating, I decided it will be a video game review blog. Not long after that, I scrapped that idea because, to me, it was too formal, and everyone and their mother has a video game review blog. Sure, I will write up reviews from time to time, but they will be informal. In fact, almost everything I write will be informal to an extent. This is much less a gaming news blog than me just pouring my thoughts into a blank text box. I think about video games pretty often, but I figured, "why keep these thoughts to myself?" and thus, Kraken Soup for the Video Game Lover's Soul was born!

So now that I have finished my long introduction, I can finally write something of value. Or not - that's your call. Lately I have done a lot of reflecting on my status as a gamer. I mean, more than usual. Ever since I started working full time 6 years ago my dedication to gaming has been on a steep decline. I just don't have the money or time to dedicate myself to it like I used to. I still love it as much as I ever have, maybe even moreso today since I have the most amount of video game at my disposal. But like I said before, I do much less actual gaming than I do reflecting on the games I have played in the past. To be quite honest, this current generation of consoles could very well be my last, and I'm fine with that. I love my old consoles and I could play them all for a lifetime. Another great thing about old consoles is the fact that there are still a lot of games I haven't played for them. A lot of them are also much cheaper than brand new, current generation games. I just bought Wario World for the GameCube for $16. What new game costs $16? None. Sure it was used but it was in very good condition, so it might as well have been new. Also, collecting old video games is a hobby in itself. Growing up I was all about playing games, much less about collecting. Now I'm probably about equal part collector and gamer.

Anyway, this blog post was intended to only serve as an introduction, so I'm going to stop here. I'll most likely write up an actual video game-related post later on today. Or maybe not, who knows? Posts will go up as I feel fit, not on any strict schedule, although my intention is to post somewhat regularly. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment, and hopefully I'll see you back here later on! Until then - keep gaming!