Why Does It Have To Be Black Friday?

      Today is indeed a Black Friday. Yesterday I suffered a fate that I wouldn't wish on the worst of my enemies, affecting that which is most dear to me. Yes, I was robbed. I wasn't robbed of anything tangible, I don't think a loss of anything material can impact me as this has. No, I was robbed of my time. And worst of all, I saw it coming.
 
      Yesterday I lost three thousand points from my Gamerscore. Maybe I'm being melodramatic, but nonetheless, it sucks ass. Due to my dorm's inability to sign on to Xbox Live, the last time I was on was after the release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. That's right baby, way back in September. I made the mistake of recovering my Gamertag on a friend's Xbox to hit up some Co-Op on Gears of War 2, so when I tried to recover it once more on my own Xbox, I passed out. A flash of white-hot rage washed over me as I saw my score drop drastically from 10,000 points to a mere 7,000.

       I know, I know; the Gamerscore proves to be nothing but a pissing contest between OCD gamers but dammit, I want it back. I lost Gears of War 2, Ninja Gaiden II, Lego Batman AND Lego Star Wars, Fable II, OTRSPOD, and Fallout 3. FALLOUT 3! Do you know how long those side quests take? Two years! (Not really). As we all know, hindsight is 20/20 and by the time I realized my mistake it was too late, and thus the rage-coma ensued.

Maybe I should see this as a sign to start playing games for fun rather than the intense treasure hunting endeavor that would rival most episodes of CSI. I mean Las Vegas, not New York, that one sucks monkey ass. Maybe I shouldn't play through the game searching every crevice and every corner until I've memorized the entire adventure, robbing it of any replay value. Or maybe it's time to start rebuilding my score, brick by tedious, 20 point brick.

Colin - 11/29/08