R.I.P. ...for the moment.

Friends. Rivals. All the awesome people I've conversed with in the slightest during the last couple of years. I've been forced to make a very difficult decision regarding the future of this blog. There's a little too much going on in my life right now, and as much as I'd like to keep all the promises I've made in the last few months (hell, just keeping one would be nice, I guess...), I simply can't. I've tried to come up with a balanced schedule, but I just can't. The more I really TRY to concentrate on this dear hobby of mine, writing about stuff I love, the more I lose interest in it. Kinda ironic.

I once said I wasn't doing this for anyone except myself, but as more time passed and more feedback flew in some way or the other, I noticed that I wanted to write about video games to people that are really interested in them as much as I am. I wanted to be there with new stuff every time you had your morning coffee at the computer. I wanted to provoke you people, I wanted to make you laugh, I wanted you to talk about games you'd perhaps forgotten long ago, I wanted you to have fun. I know I succeeded in all that to some extent, judging by the feedback. However, at the core of it all was me, myself and I.

I originally started writing this stuff for therapeutic reasons. I've slowly reached a point I'm no longer in need of any sort of self-therapy. I have a job, an apartment, and a girlfriend I love more than anything else in this world. I didn't have any of these factors in my life back when I wrote my first, crappy reviews way back when. My job's eating away at my spare time more and more every passing month, and when it comes down to my girl or busting my ass to keep this blog in some sort of check, my girl wins. She's an avid gamer too, so we spend a lot of time on video games even when we're together. So, finding the time to write is a problem, finding the time to play or finding enough good material to review are not.

So, my decision? Everything points to quitting, I know that, but I'm not quitting the blog. You see, if I did that, I'd feel relieved at first, and be proud of what I've achieved. But that wouldn't last - I know myself quite well. In months - perhaps even weeks - I'd regret it. I thought about it long and hard, and then I figured out what to do.

First, I'm scratching out the mere possibility of taking on my whole collection at once. It's simply not possible. Then, I'm announcing a break. I'm not sure how long it's going to be, but the idea is to write reviews into a kind of reserve in my own pace and time. I want to return to the roots of the blog, back to the time I wasn't even sure if I ever wanted to start one and had a million reviews in my reserves; reviews written with passion, enthusiasm and with a huge glint in the corner of my eye. Reviews written because I wanted to play (or just happened to recently play) the respective games, not because they were on some schedule of mine - the very same schedule that forced me to just buzz through some lesser, but good games and have a sour aftertaste because I knew they had so much more to offer than just a quick playthrough.

I'll update what's going on in my (no-)life periodically, but I'm pulling the plug on the VGTune feature along with the reviews, for now. Regardless of how long this break will last, I promise that I will return to give you hell. Thanks for all of your support thus far and I hope to get that same support when I decide the time is ripe for me to return to action.

Keelah se'lai.