14 DAY TRIAL // Last year I was pretty sure that, given a little bit of time and enough energy, I could definitely turn my extended family interested in the joys of modern gaming, social, lightweight and on the move, between eating copious amounts of pork and drinking some of the best wine this country has to offer.
My relatives were a little interested and some of them then joined me on Facebook with the record holder being one of my cousins who played Dragon Age: Legends for about two months.
Since then I reconsidered my position about holiday gaming and decided that, especially after the loaded fall launch season, the best idea was to drop video games entirely for Christmas and focus on other pleasures of life, including quality family time, reading and just lying on the couch, overstuffed, watching some dumb show or another.
Sure, there are plenty of gamers who are waiting for the free days of Christmas and New Year’s Eve in order to catch up on the games that they have missed this season, which for me include the likes of Modern Warfare 3, Batman: Arkham City and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.
But I do believe that I am better served by simply skipping any actual gaming for three days on Christmas and three days at the beginning of 2012 in order to get some excitement back and to get ready for the big releases that will take place in the first few months of 2012.
So my advice would be to leave the PSP or the 3DS at home if traveling (getting Angry Birds off the smartphone might also be a good idea) and resolve not to touch a home console for at least a few days towards the end of 2011 and spend them doing those unattractive things that you always put off because of the appeal of gaming.
It might just give you a better appreciation of gaming in 2012.