Jump to content

NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

Tom's goodbye letters


Tom

Recommended Posts

TS2, my MUD. I gave you years of my life, hours of my sleep. I helped you grow, kindled your community. Even now, after years I don't log in, you are part of who I am, and for that I'm grateful. My first social gaming experience, you connected me with real, flesh and bone friends at a time when I was most vulnerable. Keeping in touch with some of them for years has been a blessing. Roleplaying, creating content, organizing meetups has been a blast and helped me develop leadership and creativity. And yet the dust has already settled on your cover, and the time has come to seal your pages forever.

Farewell, Bodruithog the Warrior. Your statue stands tall in the Guild of Mercenaries in recognition of your valor and generosity. Now your temple crumbles. You shall be forgotten.

Farewell, Balgair the Paladin. Your spirit dwells with the Immortals in honor of your contributions to the Celestial Empire. Now your heaven shatters. You shall be forgotten.

Farewell, Bran the Druid Warrior. The spells you bestowed upon your people are still loved and praised. Now your magic is void. You shall be forgotten.

Farewell, Fayamish the Mage. You sucked. Big time.

Edited by Tom
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, Hearthstone. You are the best game I've ever played. If it weren't for you I might still be a gamer. You made me feel smart and resourceful like a ballsy chess player. Reaching 12 wins in arena made me jump from excitement. When I kicked ass in ranked play with my own decks, without ever spending real money, I knew I was good. Even grinding for gold has never been a chore.

More than everything, you kept my mind occupied when I was dumbstruck with grief. Sleepless night after sleepless night, until my body was numb too.

Praise to your inventors, and eternal glory to Jason Hayes, who I put on my personal podium of video game music composers together with Michael Land and Koji Kondo.

Thank you for what you have done for me. It's time to let you go.

Well played.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope you don't mind if I write a goodbye letter of my own. I feel like a public goodbye letter would be good for just letting go and feeling okay with it.

Goodbye Civilization V. You were the last holdout of gaming I ever had. You offered me a quality and patient turn based game that would patiently wait for my input in order to be a responsible adult, husband, and father. You (really it was me) never let that happen. You swept my mind into a million unique worlds, each with it's own challenges, and away from my present moment and location every moment of every day. You taught me how to balance my resources and adopt general strategies to unique situations. However, my mental resources, time, and strategy in real life were wasted trying to maximize the time I played. You gave me the thrill of overcoming the odds due to a well executed plan but robbed me of the thrill of spending a month away from work getting to know my new baby. You rewarded me for aggressive strategy in the game, but left me listless and anxious in reality.

I'm done with you now. Thanks for the good times in the worlds you gave me and for the misery you gave me in my own world. It's time for me to spend my days shaping victory in my own life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I like this. I might as well pitch in, if you don't mind:

Farewell, Starcraft 2. You encapsulated my mind and drove me to be the best that I could be at a time where I didn't think I had much that I was good at. You made me rage, made me cry, made me scream with joy, and occasionally, made me die laughing. You let me meet some good people, and you'll always be remembered as the first game that really made me feel like I wasn't good at video games. I can still see your boxes, sitting on my bookshelf, collecting dust, solembly awaiting your turn to be reopened. But alas, that day will not come, until far in the future, when you have been all but forgotten. For now, you'll have to wait your turn for me to play a different game: LIFE.

Farewell, Call of Duty, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Hearthstone, Gears of War, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Runescape, Maplestory, Zelda, Bioshock, Team Fortress, Planetside, League of Legends, and all others who stood by your side. You escorted me out of my bedroom, out of my head, and into other worlds that I could only imagine living within in my dreams. You served your purpose well as the panic room, that protected my younger self from the turmoil that arose as my family fell apart around me. You kept me from getting involved in the wrong crowd, and you kept me safe from the outside world. Although now, I think you may have been keeping me a bit TOO safe for my own good. For now, you'll have to find new players to grasp onto. I'm putting you down to rest.

And finally, farewell to you, Counter Strike: Global Offensive. If I'm going to miss anybody, it would have to be you. I put over 500 hours into you, in just a year and a half, and that's not counting all of the time I spent writing about you, thinking about you, even watching you be played by those who were considered to be the best of the best. We had some good times. The clans we made, the games we played. Most importantly, the people we met. All of those terrorists, and all of those cops, that we murdered together, whether it be by bullets, knives, fire, or explosives, those are just a blur. But the people who we talked to, the people who we met together, those are going to be the hardest to let go of. Sometimes I wish I had stuck around just a day longer, to say my goodbyes, but there's no looking back now...

If I was ever to come back to you, it would be as a new man. One looking for the answers as to why we spent the time together that we did. By then, you'll most likely be a shell of your former self, and the relationship that we built with each other and with those that we met will be long gone. Perhaps those we met will have moved on as well. All I know for certain is that you'll live on a while longer without me. I'm just one of ten million others, who's decided on this day to put my gun down for good.

GG.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...