$119.01USD — that’s what I spent during Steam’s holiday sale. For less than the price of two new console games, I bought nineteen PC games, all from Steam. Although I was aware of sales at other stores, I bought nothing from them. Steam demanded my undivided attention; its two week store-wide sale grabbed me, and its daily sales held me tightly. Just as a clumsy analogy reinforcing a simple point, Steam’s sale refused to go unnoticed, and it refused to be forgotten. No other digital distributor’s sales accomplished this; apart from some festively redesigned websites, they were unremarkable.
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It seems that the thing to do at the end of each year on sites like this is to write a series of wrap-ups. Game of The Year, retrospective reports, trends analysis. People also like to make predictions for the impending new year. I really do disdain things like holidays and imposing tradition, and while I honestly have very little sentiment for New Years, I do think it’s appropriate to acknowledge what has happened as long as the world insists on operating cyclically.

But I won’t. In fact, I tried to just now. I got half a dozen items into a list before I scrapped it. Deciding what’s universally important isn’t for me. I’m not sure who it’s for; the real enthusiast press doesn’t do a good job of it either. Much of what they say is very hype-driven, lazy and predictable. I won’t do that, though that may be what people really want.

I’m going to go finish riding the planet around a star now.

Happy Day-After-Christmas Eve, everybody. We’re almost there.

We have a bunch of snow on the ground here. A white Christmas is rare here in Portland, Oregon. It’s been a blast sledding and playing with my niece in the snow. Here’s hoping you’re having a good time and a wonderful holiday.