A Train Wreck

While seemingly every where I turn at the start of 2019 I see people talking about how it’s a great time to start blogging because blogging is super hot and rewarding and it’s all fine and nothing is on fire and burning right to the ground around us, *I* am sitting here wondering what the heck is even the point of this blog anymore.

Gaming in 2018 was a train wreck, in my humble opinion, which means the main topic of conversation to write about here is how much gaming is a train wreck. But you can’t really say that out loud or gamers get really defensive and start to push back about how, no, it’s *not* a train wreck, it’s all fine, this thing we’ve invested so much time and money into is perfectly fine and it’s even growing beyond our wildest dreams and the future looks brighter than ever, right, right? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to say to convince ourselves that everything is fine?? That’s how rationalization works, right??

But I’ve also been thinking about the tone of my writing in the latter half of 2018 and how most of the comments reflected back to me seem to indicate that I’m way too harsh in my criticisms, even though I often spend a whole lot of time trying to tone them down. I mean, in 2018, I probably spent about 75% of my writing time editing, going over every sentence to make sure it has exactly one and only one meaning that is perfectly clear.

Still, every time I see myself quoted in MassivelyOP’s Global Chat column I cringe, because I think to myself, “Is *that* what I sound like?? Is *that* the message people are getting from my writing??” I mean, I admit I tend to put some sarcastic bite into my writing because that’s the whole point of writing, to make people think and laugh and cause some sort of reaction. But it seems like the only reactions I ever cause are *negative* ones and I’m not super thrilled about that. On the other hand, talking about rainbows and puppies is not really my thing.

So there’s a blog post I guess. I’ll just do that thing where I blurt out unedited stream-of-consciousness rambling. This one happens to be the biggest trope of all blogging: A blog post about blogging. And it’s kind of a rant, to boot, the second-biggest blogging trope. Yep, it’s all burning to the ground, like one of my RimWorld colonies. All that’s missing is a Labrador retriever yelping in pain because they can’t get out of the burning building.

P. S. Tweets embedded just for @Scopique!

P. P. S. Oh god now I have to find an image for this. Blogging is such a pain sometimes!

P. P. P. S. I even changed my initial title, “Blogging Is a Train Wreck,” which would surely have drawn a lot of eyeballs, to simply, “A Train Wreck,” which will hopefully pass by unnoticed.