To the MMORPG community,

I have the distinct pleasure of releasing a column on Thanksgiving in the United States this year. While Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October, and in most parts of the world today is just another day, I hope the sentiment is not lost on you dear readers. Today is a day to sit back and be a little more introspective than usual and appreciate what is good in your life and the larger world around you. For some that is turkey and football (full disclosure I’m currently boycotting the NFL) and for others that is just family and friends. So I hope you find some joy in reading this as I have in writing it.

I’m thankful for my family. I’ve been married to my wife for the last six years and she is a wonderful mother to my children. She pushes me to be a better person and I think for the most part she’s been successful. She also doesn’t play video games unless you include solitaire on your phone. This is great for me because it gives each of us our own personal little space. We have three kids, our son who is the oldest and two daughters ages 11, 9, and 4. They are a challenge but well worth it. I’ve made an effort to be more present with them so if you follow me on social media you may have noticed I’m never on anymore. Now you know why.

Now on to the games which is the real reason most of you are here. I’m thankful for Nintendo. Seriously. I’m interested in the prospect of the Switch and I’m glad that a company exists that is willing to take the risks they are. I know the Wii U is a bit of a black eye but don’t forget that the Wii sold over 100 million units and introduced entirely new demographics to gaming. That said if the Switch fails to gain momentum I hope we see Nintendo make the transition to a third party developer for the PlayStation and X Box.

I’m thankful for CD Projekt Red. The Witcher III and its two expansions over the past two years are some of the best storytelling we have seen in modern RPGs. I know we won’t see it for at least a few more years but Cyberpunk 2077 can’t come soon enough.

I’m thankful for Square Enix. Final Fantasy Explorers, World of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest Builders, Deus Ex, Rise of the Tomb Raider for the PS4, all released this year alone. They’ve had a few others that aren’t as noteworthy but that’s an amazing release list. That alone would be a monster in any other year but to top it all off we still have Final Fantasy XV due out next week (unless you live in Peru then you probably already have it). After 10 long years in development this open world mammoth will drop in our laps. It’s also been since 2009 since we have seen a mainline Final Fantasy entry. Hopefully it doesn’t take until 2023 until we see another. Speaking of Final Fantasy XV look for our review next week. We haven’t got our hands on review copies yet so I can’t speak to whether it is good or not yet but I’m willing to bet after all this time it’s better than what Conan let on.

Finally, I’m thankful for you, the readers. Without you visiting this site on a regular basis we couldn’t continue to do what it is we do. Play and pontificate on games. Sometimes we make sense and resonate with you and sometimes we don’t. Hopefully it’s more often the former rather than the later. I appreciate the trust you place in us and look forward to what the gaming world has in store for all of us this holiday season and into the next year.

Thanks again for reading,

Robert