The Bad Enough Dudes Primer
By Brian • 19 February 2022
So what happens when you love video games, but frequently take a break from them for weeks or months at a time?
If you’re like me, and most of the games you play are old and bereft of the modern amenities and quality-of-life improvements we’ve come to know and love from our current-gen adventures, returning to a game in-progress after a lengthy hiatus can be frustrating. I drop back into the action without a quest log, so I can’t remember what I’m doing; without a map, so I can’t remember my whereabouts; and without any memory of how to play, so I have to relearn the controls, usually by looking them up online because I don’t have the manual. This becomes especially problematic with two of my favorite genres—roleplaying games and Metroidvanias, where some clue of where I am and what I was last doing proves critical to furthering my adventure. Sadly, if I can’t remember any of that, I start over or abandon the game for something else, at least for the time being. I’ve started Final Fantasy IV three times now and still have never made it through due to a long break somewhere in the middle. Maybe the fourth time will be the charm?
This kept happening. I fancy myself an artist and a designer in my spare time, so “projects” dominate many of my nights and weekends. I’m also a husband and dad committed to my family. Throw in the occasional life crisis, business trip, change of residence, or vacation, and…well, sorry, games. Get in the back.
Anyway, the solution to all of this was pretty simple. I started taking notes. Not only did this help me pick up where I left off more seamlessly, I could also keep track of items I missed, people I needed to go back and talk to later, clues to puzzles, and other stuff that I would have forgotten whether or not I took a long break from play. This seems like a rather practical solution I should have thought of years ago, but it turns out we’re not all blessed with planning skills or efficiency. Did you know I’ve been writing this introduction for months now?
I also realized I could use my notes to blog about my gaming! I’ve always wanted to keep a running game journal, not only for my own (probably unnecessary) records, but for others to also maybe peruse. I can’t play every game ever, and neither can you, but maybe you’ll enjoy reading about a few of them, in case you never get around to playing them, yourself.
Since this is the first Bad Enough Dudes post, and the blog would otherwise be devoid of content, I took the liberty of including some classic posts about video games from my blogs of yesteryear, to give you some reading material until I can get some new posts published.
Lastly, my brother Craig plans to join me for the occasional feature, in the event that we need to explore a bigger topic, like our favorite NES games or an argument about Mega Man or something. Or maybe when he just has something he needs to say! Expect him to drop in from time to time to tag-team some of the writing. He’s otherwise busy hosting a brilliant podcast about movies, so be sure to check that out, as well.
No, hold on, one more thing: this is all for fun! I don’t have a schedule, I don’t have aspirations to build a blogging empire, and I’m not planning to offer any NFTs…[shifty eyes]…yet. It’s just us and the games. Well, when we have the time to play them.
We’re not bad dudes. We’re just bad enough.
Enjoy!
