Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Very well, one quest. But mark you! Never another! Don't say we didn't warn you.

Last year around this time, the GIA's own Andrew Kaufmann showed up out of the blue and put up a long letters column, one without any letters, ironically, but full of interesting ruminations and his own take on life, the universe, and everything.

And now it's my turn to return from the Old Columnist's Home (nice place - ping pong tables, shuffleboard, and tapioca pudding on Sundays) and do my own Christmastime col. Of course, this'll be somewhat different, since I'm not able to wax philosophically nearly as well as AK, and I've actually got some letters to deal with tonight. Still, I hope this'll provide some small distraction for those of you surfing the web tonight or tomorrow morning, waiting to open your presents.

Onward.

Folks, what we have here is a prime example of failure to understand what this holiday is all about. Or rather, what this non-denominational season of giving is all about. Having Final Fantasy X, or whatever your game of choice at the moment is, is a good thing, but you won't enjoy it nearly as much unless you appreciate it in the context of the moment.

Ok, truth to tell, perhaps not everybody can do that - even if you do celebrate Christmas/Haunakka/etc. at this time of year, you may not be in a position to enjoy much of anything because of family stress, work, whatever. But for me, and likely for several others as well, this is the best time of the year to do some serious gaming. You're done with school for a while, so you've got plenty of time to vegetate in front of the TV, the weather doesn't make going outside all that interesting, and many of the year's best games come out around this time, to cash in on the spending season. When December rolls around, I start to get in a happy mood, not just because I get to see friends and family again, but because I get to pig out on games for about two weeks straight. Compared to that, FFX, great as it is, is just icing on the cake.

Depending on how charitable you're feeling at the moment, I guess you could either take a moment to share in Brother Chocobo's pain, or you could just feel really happy that you're not him. Selfish bastard that I am, I think I'll take option 2...

That reminds me, I need to start putting together my short list of top 3 games of the year for the site's annual feature. That said, I suppose I should get my two cents in on this issue before Erin gets hold of it as a proper topic: 2001 was an interesting, innovative year for games, and there were certainly some gems, but it wasn't a particularly "good" year in comparison to 2000 (see the RPGs listed above).

Truth is, things are still getting settled this year - companies are just beginning to get a handle on the power of the PS2, but most of them aren't there yet. The Gamecube's an exceedingly sweet little system (and one that I had no qualms about buying on launch, unlike the PS2) but great as Pikmin, Super Smash Melee, and Super Monkey Ball are, they're not games I frothed at the mouth for, both before and after playing them.

On the other hand, 2002 shall kick ass. That is all.

Truth is, Christmases in general get a little less exciting as you get older, but that's true of a lot of stuff. I suppose, tho, that if I needed to look for a silver lining, I'd point out that one of the nice things about this Christmas, as compared to the distant ones of my youth, is that gaming is now as big as I thought it was/should be way back then.

When I was a kid, games were the coolest things imaginable - from the time I got my NES onward, the most important gift of the season was the one Nintendo cart my parents rationed me to. No other present, no matter how thoughtful or heartfelt, could measure up. (Which wasn't that good a thing, in hindsight.) But the point is, at the time, I couldn't see why games weren't massively popular with everyone on earth, young and old, boy and girl, rather than being the niche fad they were at the time... and more importantly, why loyal gamers like myself kept getting shafted over things like the FFV translation.

Even now, the march towards gaming acceptance goes on, but take a look at the situation today. Not one, but three major consoles are out there, competing for shelf space and mindshare. Nearly every Japanese game of note gets translated with a fair amount of rapidity. And games are increasingly popular, if not with everyone on earth, then with an increasingly large segment of the population. My childhood hobby has grown into an increasingly rich pasttime... too bad I can't quite muster up the interest for it I once had, tho.

The menu interface is fine.

I didn't know about the Alannis Morrisette thing.

I didn't WANT to know about the Alannis Morrisette thing.

Excuse me while I go wash that mental image from my brain...

Excellent point. Well made. Nothing to add. Good stopping point.

Closing comments:

Wow, it's amazing how rusty you get at this without practice. Between my general inability to do a decent job of this, and the fact that it is, y'know, Christmas, there won't be a column put up tomorrow. Erin should be back on Wednesday tho, so send her emails to your heart's content.

Meantime, good to be back, and I'd like to take this moment to wish y'all happy holidays and a great New Year. Catch you folks later.

-Chris Jones, trying to figure out who did which tracks on the FFX soundtrack