It was just last night when me, a couple of my siblings,and some of my friends took a oft-delayed trip down to Canobie Lake pARK In Salem, NH. It was half an hour before closingtime that I came across the place's largest arcade (the Palace Arcade, or something like that). Me, my brother and a friend of his decided to go in and do soemthing I haven't done in a good three years (strangely enough, since the last time I came to the park). So we found The Simpsons arcade game and started up. Bad joysticks, but still fun and refreshing change of pace from the fancy PS2 pads...until our ride home decided he wasn't waiting around for the gates to close and for the traffic outsideto go on gridlock mode. So the three of us were pretty much pulled out on mid-quarter (on the third level, I think).
My reaction later was creepy: I knew I shouldn't be even annoyed at the fact that Iwasted **** quarter, but I was kinda pissed. It was more about the fact that I was interrupted mid-game that got to me...and that's something I hadn't experienced in a while. I've told people lately that I'm not hardcore anymore, that I haven't been since I stopped having (or making) time for Diablo II four or so years back. I don't really visit this site anymore, so that's more reason to think I'm a casual. That little incident last night, though, made me see I'm still 145% hardcore, and all the other little things I've hadn't really taken into account started showing up as evidence to that fact. The ongoing subscription to EGM, the repeated readings of Play at the mag rack, the Youtube visits to moffstarr and louischou's channels..and of course, the almost daily downloading of whatever SDA's got up. I suddenly remembered a post to some random thread a year or so ago: "I may not have the time to actually play anymore, but I keep up with the industry constantly, and that makes me hardcore enough". Funny how true that still seems now...I probably don't get more than two hours on a regular basis to pick up a controller, but I guess the kid who used to pick up a controller for five hours or more at a time is still floating around in my head somewhere.