Writing Under the Influence

No, not THAT kind of influence. Never mind the whiskey glass.

Hello out there! How’s everybody holding up these days? That’s a bit of a loaded question, I know. For me, things have been a bit slow around these parts. I mean, yesterday marked two weeks since my last article was published. My original intention was to post every week. But life, that ever-busy kerfuffle that it is, said otherwise.

I went back to the drawing board and started entertaining the idea of posting on a bi-weekly basis. But if 20 years of online publishing has taught me anything, it’s that weekly hard deadlines of any kind are the quickest way to burnout. And if I’m burned out, it’ll be a lot longer than two weeks before I find that creative spark again.

All that to say, it looks like I’m going to throw caution to the wind and write wherever I can handle at the moment. Might be weekly. Might be bi-weekly or longer between posts. I have no idea how many subscribers this little corner of Substack will grow to have over the weeks, months, and [hopefully] years to come. But I do know that churning out half-baked drivel for the sake of having “lots of content” won’t attract long-term readers. I gotta pace myself.

But I’m not here to discuss failed Substack goals and burnout. On the contrary, I would like to introduce a new segment that will be added to this newsletter soon. If you have read any of my game reviews up to this point, you’ve likely noticed the little anecdotes about my personal history with that game or series, as promised in my first post. As much as I enjoy including those little tidbits of information, I wanted to expand on those moments outside of the typical review format.

Therefore, I will soon be adding a new article series to The 8-Bit Perspective called “Under the Influence.” Alcohol pun aside, these articles will be all about my discovery of some of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) games and how the experience influenced me as someone who enjoys video games, hence the title of this post.

I’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time and am looking forward to sharing my precious memories with you, dear readers. Hopefully, it’ll spark some memories of your own that you would like to share as well.

The first article will explore my discovery of the Metroid series. I have a long history with Metroid, and will likely need to break it up into two or three parts, depending on how many games in the series I include and how much I have to say about them. I’m currently smoothing out a rough draft I have about the first game, and I’m working on my thoughts for Metroid II. But I’ll leave it at that for now.

In the meantime, if you’re new to The 8-Bit Perspective, use my time of reprieve to check out my earlier entries. If you see anything that resonates with you, please share your thoughts in the comments section. I do reply to them, I promise. And for all of you out there, keep playing, keep reading, and keep the conversation going.

I’ll see you around.