The Year In Review

To the Editor: I would just like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Fischer’s “Exile in Midgar” piece. I thought it was a thoughtful peek behind the curtain at the life of a gamer. It was an interesting angle and carried through with heart and honesty.

I think it is a great example of the quality of content in your publication. Never have I been so instantly impressed by any journal online or otherwise.

Keep up the good work.

-Justin Holmes

To the Editor: I’ve never read anything posted on your website before, but I did read all the year-end articles written by various individuals and I’d just like to say thank you. Thank you for saying everything that I ever wanted to say in appreciation for being born in a time when I could experience the same things that those who wrote of their Christmas memories did. Thank you for allowing me to pull myself back to a time when all I had to worry about was how to get past the next boss. Thank you for helping me relive a part of my childhood that I’ll carry with me into the afterlife.

I could honestly cry myself a river thinking about how my life has been all the better for having parents who sacrificed past due bills in order to make sure I had a NES from Santa. God, I feel like the people who wrote these pieces somehow had access to my deepest thoughts, especially the one about Final Fantasy VII. FFVII is by far my favorite game. I could write a book on how that game altered the course of my life.

I sit here at my computer at 3:15 a.m. and wish I could give every child a way to live out my childhood. There’s nothing that anyone could give me that could possibly come close to replacing those days. Even now as a young adult, I wish somehow I could turn back time and be back to when I first learned how to play my NES. When I have my own child, I will do everything in my power to instill in him/her the value of connecting with games the way I did.

I’m really at a loss for words and I don’t know what else to say. You have a new fan, this I promise. I just wanted to write you and let you know that you stirred up in me something I haven’t felt in a long, long time. Thank you, thank you so much. I am so grateful. Merry Christmas and God bless.

-Josh