Off On A Tangent: 100 Posts

It's weird to think that this is the 100^th post on Poverty Game Night. When I started this about four months ago, I didn't know if it was going to last a week or if I was going to make more than a couple of posts, but somehow I've made it this far. I've started a few creative endeavors and followed through on far fewer. So, I find it bewildering that I've written about approximately a hundred games, produced approximately a hundred pages of pure text, and taken approximately eight hundred (though many were not used) screenshots. I've even been able to write about some games that I really love and stretch my creative muscle.

The genesis of Poverty Game Night, the blog, was in the parties of the same name. At first I thought it would be fun to play some terrible fighting games with friends, and that turned into purchasing and playing bad video games of any kind. I had a accrued a severe amount of games that had cost me very little money, and it seemed like a waste to have them just sitting around waiting to be played at parties that happened once every few months. I am kind of proud of the names I devised for these events, so I might as well repeat them here.

Hobo-Genius: A History of Poverty Fighters

Poverty Game Night 2: The Movie: The Game: The Party

Poverty Game Night III: 3rd World Warrior

So, what was I to do with all this crap that I had acquired? I had spent two American dollars on a Power Rangers GBA game, and there was no way I could let that go to waste. I guess you could say it was financial decision to open the site, to soothe the pains of having spent money on Trigger Man. At the very least, it has developed into an interesting hobby. Going to used games stores is more fun when I go in expecting to not walk out with anything good, but with something that might be interesting. Also, friends telling me that they have enjoyed what I have written has been nice to hear.

It is weird for me to write about video games because I've never been a fan of the structure of reviews in games media. In the last few years I have taken to listening to podcasts and in doing so I realized that I find value in people describing their experience with a game. Scores and grades are arbitrary, but if someone can articulate what they like and dislike about a game, then the ultimate judgment falls where it should be, with the individual. It all comes down to personal tastes, but if a game is just saddled with a low score, people dismiss it without any other thought instead of trying to find out about the game at all.

Ultimately, my goal with this site is to shine light on games by describing my experience with them, and I suppose providing a little bit of context for them as well. I've written about a lot of games that haven't worked for me, but I like to think that I've provided enough detail on them for someone that doesn't share my tastes to see whether it contains something that interests them or not. I'm not naïve enough to think that I'm doing some sort of public service, and I know that most people just want to read about games that they already feel strongly about in order to get validation of their opinions, but if I somehow get people to appreciate or even just understand games they had dismissed out of hand previously, then that would be pretty cool.