The Gamer Chronicle Inaugural Address

Okay, so I've written this intro like five times and none of them sound clever enough.  So out goes clever and in comes the straight and skinny:

Welcome to the inaugural post of The Gamer Chronicle!

If you're involved in much of the video gaming world, or even perused through a bookstore, you may have noticed that game publishers no longer stop at just making video games.  We now see a plethora of tie-in products, all designed to enhance our experience.  Well, and make the publisher more money, but that's another topic for a different blog.

The primary goal of this blog is to, as the name suggests, chronicle my experience as I not only plough through these games, but also the tie-in fiction.  Literary novels, movies, comic books (oh pardon me, graphics novels), webisodes, whatever.  If it's a piece of official fiction tied to the game, I'm going to experience it and write about it here.

Here's the kicker: I'm going to do it chronologically.  This means that whatever event occurs first within the game's universe that has been turned into media, that will be my starting point.  To illustrate this, I will explain how my approach to Mass Effect, the first game universe I will chronicle.

While the Mass Effect game was released earlier, the earliest story (as of this writing) within the overarching universe is detailed in Mass Effect: Evolution, a comic boo- graphic novel showing some of the Illusive Man's background.  This will be the starting point for the venture.  Of course, if new material comes out, I will first curse the developers for not getting it done earlier and then give it a write-up, making the appropriate annotations indicating its place in the story's fictional history.

My hope is that this blog will evolve over time, adding more information and types of content along the way.  I already have a few ideas in my head like creating a running timeline that I update as I complete each piece of fiction.  Posts will include not only my write-ups, but also any other bits and crumbs I find lying around the Internet.

Other games I hope to go through include Bioshock, StarCraft, and, at some point, I may even brave the massive library that is Halo.  If anyone has any suggestions for other game with great stories that I can chronicle, by all means drop me a line.

Disclaimer: I do not envision this becoming another wiki for these games.  It is intended to show my experience as I journey through the stories and as such will include my honest opinion.  Also, since this is a discussion on story, the blog will include spoilers.  A disclaimer will appear at the start of every post, so if what you read gives something away you haven't experienced already, it's your own dang fault.

I hope to have my first post for Mass Effect up at the start of next week with a new post every week thereafter.

See you guys then!