My partner and I received the surprise gift of a PlayStation 4 for Christmas. It has both rekindled my interest in video games, and my interest in writing about video games. I used to think and write about video games a lot, to the point where I would entertain the notion of doing so professionally. I no longer imagine this, and likely never will again — I love writing but I lately feel sure that my best works will always take the form of software.

(My previous post held a clue to this, perhaps, especially when held against various previous-again posts.)

But I do want to write a little more about video games anyway, at least for a little while.

For now, I will continue to keep my posts about games separate, on the old Gameshelf blog, and naturally invite you to follow them there. I’ve so far written about Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Journey.

The Gameshelf is a storied place, you know! It launched as the announcement blog for a community-access TV show about tabletop and obscure digital games which I hosted and produced a decade ago. Then it was a games-criticism blog whose focus gradually, and perhaps inevitably, became less shy about mainstream video games. At some point my long-time friend and colleague Andrew Plotkin started using it as a project log and conference diary as well. He does so brilliantly and entertainingly, and I rather suspect that most of the Gameshelf’s current readership hangs around just to read his new stuff.

Which is fine! Though, I also imagine the confusion these readers must feel every time a new post in a different, drier voice appears, and they look and it’s by some other guy named Jason? Well, I keep doing it anyway, and naturally I’ll post here as I continue to eat media that isn’t video games. It’s just that I’ve been eating a lot of games lately. I’ve been away from them for a long time, and the field’s changed in some interesting ways that get me thinking.