Hi, Zach here.
You may have noticed the dearth of content since around the end of October or so, with one review appearing in the interim. I can give you a pretty good reason for it:
I AM REALLY TIRED
All in all, that’s the simple version. The long version goes like this:
I’ve been writing on Theology Gaming, without fail, every week, for the past four and a half years. That’s millions, and millions, of words worth of writing on things I enjoy, things I don’t enjoy, and even things I really hated. Almost everything I played for the past few years found its way under my eye of intense scrutiny, and you can imagine such an approach (let alone adding theology to it) takes a mental toll. Video games should entertain, primarily, and for a long time I can say video games felt more like a job, than something which provides a sense of joy or a life lesson. So, this is why I gave the backseat to Theology Gaming: all the video content and writing in the world can’t make up for tiredness.
Further, the real home of Theology Gaming lies in its Facebook group. That’s been true for a long time, but I can say definitively that the conversations there really elicit what I wanted from this project much more than reams and reams of text by one person can. New people keep joining, and the conversations around games from a Christ-focused perspective continued. Of course, things never really take the form you imagine after you start them, but I’d rather go with the tide than try to swim myself to death going against it.
More than that, though, I feel as if the quality of the content I produced decreased substantially due to my arbitrary “update once a day” policy. I eventually shrank this from 7 days a week (man, those days were fun), to 5 days, and eventually five days proved trying as well. I enjoy writing, of course, but writing every day, about what seems like the same things, made the whole process repetitive and uninteresting. Just look at the the giant archive of essays on the site to see what I mean. It did give me a liking of video content on Youtube (and our Extra Lives stream turned out to be a success – expect more streaming in the future from Theology Gaming!). I want to do more video stuff, but that takes time to ramp up.
Anyway, long story short: I want to write things that have time and quality put into them. Expect to see articles “when they are done” in typical Blizzard fashion. I prefer long-form writing about games I really love and have great passion for – love or hatred – since those produce the best writing. I have a few that I’ve left in reserve for a long time, and once they are edited you’ll see them in due time. Specifically, Dark Souls, Metal Gear Solid V, and Bloodborne all have some incredibly interesting content in the works here at Theology Gaming. Also, Pat Gann has an article on DoDonPachi: Resurrection which I haven’t published yet, so stay tuned!
Hopefully that answers your questions about why we suddenly stopped publishing things. We’re getting around to shifting the way we make and deliver content.
