The state of the 8BitMind (2022 Edition)

So, it’s middle of 2022, and I’ve recovered my info to get back into writing. When I chose the name of this blog, it was kinda a way to express the amount of change that has gone into gaming in my lifetime. We started with 8-bit games and we’re moving to games where if your computer has 8GB of RAM, you’re going to be locked out of most top-level games. So what’s the state of mind?

Thankfully, the pandemic is down to embers, and while I’m sure that there will be flareups as the virus mutates to get around the various treatments out there (I’m actually on a total of FOUR shots now, the two main shots and two boosters, because of my auto-immune health conditions), we will not be back to the 2019-20-21 peak, where I was literally house bound because of this kind of thing.

But we’re left with the aftereffects. We’ve lost the better part of three YEARS to the pandemic. Time we will not get back. Expecting to go back to the pre-pandemic is naively optimistic to the point of foolishness and Pollyanna-wishing. You don’t get through that without scars. For too many people, those scars are physical. Even those who caught COVID-19 and lived through it can be affected, as people are suffering from the long-term effects of the virus. In my case, the scars are mental, but they’re no-less real.

I haven’t seen some family members since the pandemic started and going out to do anything these days is a chore. My anxiety and depression has spiked about such-things, so I have to literally convince myself that it’s ok to drive two miles down to the grocery store to get some cereal and milk. Now, I’m learning to deal with some of it (treatment changes and options that are available to me here in the Northeast that just aren’t available legally elsewhere, for example).

But that brings me to the gaming side of the aftereffects of the pandemic. Now, I admit I was grossly optimistic about having a gaming group and always being able to try out new RPG’s or Board-Games with, only to have the Pandemic annihilate the chances of that group ever getting together again to subatomic particles.

So, I have multiple hundreds of dollars of board games and RPG’s that I backed, pre-pandemic, that are realistically never going to be played. RPG’s aren’t as bad, they can at least be read, and RPG’s have made an online surge, so at least I have that as an option.

However, the board games have no such option. I have a pile of shame that threatens to overload my brother’s kitchen table. Now, it’s not always a completely bad thing to have a backlog of shame, but come later this year, I will be moving to a new location, and space will be at a premium. So, I’m trying to figure out how to A) get these games into the hands of someone that will play them as they deserve and B) get some money back for moving expenses.

Video game wise, I find myself playing a few games semi-obsessively. Heck, I even play a rather, ahem, skeezy game because it has a pretty good translation of tetris in it.

So, what does 2022 look like? I think it’s going to be finding the new “normal” and establishing it. Wish me luck.