Enough is Enough

I know that Christmas time with me is hard. I'm not an easy person to shop for. The good part about this is that I'm pretty forgiving on what gifts I get. Knife set? Sure, I'll take that, I'll use it all the time and chop up some stuff in the kitchen. Pajamas? I love those. Socks? Yeah, I'll rock those, I can use that.

But when I give you a clear heads up, MONTHS (yes, that's right, more than one month) ahead of time about what I want, and then you get me an accessory for something that I don't even own, I just don't know.

I'm trying to keep this as innocent and as non-angry as possible, but it just hit me today. My 'big' gift for Christmas was an accessory for something that I don't even own. I do not own an ipad, a stand that has fancy arcade buttons and joystick for an ipad seems a little . . . off.

I like the idea. Mentally I understand where they were coming from. I like video games. This gift was supposed to let me be able to play video games, so it was win/win. But the reality of it is that I'm never going to use it. It's a little bulky, awkward to use on my lap, and not to mention I don't even know the password for the apps store to download any of the programs to use with it. Let's also talk about the games, I don't like arcade games. I'm always down for a quick game of DDR or something like that, but to think that I'm just itching to play some ripped off 8 bit old school arcade game, is a bit off. I just don't like old arcade games.

The person gave it to me with the best of intentions and I really like where they were coming from, and it's super thoughtful, but the sad reality of it is that it's a gift for something that I don't own, which allows me to do something that I'm not a huge fan of. The best way I can explain it for those that don't understand is that it's like getting a person who loves romance novels, a dragon breathing fire as a book lamp. It's dealing with books, and you know that the person you are buying it for loves books, and it'll help them read more books, it's just a little off. The intentions behind it are pure and you absolutely love the person who gets it for you because you know that they are trying, but at the same time you just sort of shake your head and smile because you know that you're never going to use it.

For future reference-
-I don't enjoy casual games. I play them only when there's nothing else going on, and can steal someone else's phone because my phone can do just about nothing on it.

-For the most part, I don't like old games. Unless I played it while growing up and want to go back and revisit it, I do not have the desire to deal with old games.

-I like getting a story from my game. Role playing games are the typical response to this, and if a game has a good story, I will sit through anything. I can forgive bad graphics, bad gameplay, and even play a first person shooter, as long as there's a good story to go along with it. This is why I don't like playing fighters, straight platformers, first person shooters, and most action games. However, I'll willingly break into any of those genre's if there's a good story attached. If the game doesn't tell a story, chances are I'm not touching it.

-I have a bookshelf of games that I want to work through, adding to that list is a dangerous if you do not talk to me first. You go crazy and grab something that I'm not even interested in, that means that your game goes to the end of the list, after the first playthrough games, and sometimes even after the revisit list. Chances are if you just randomly pick a game to throw onto my bookshelf, it's not going to end well for that game. If you go with the clearance rack, random game just because it was cheep, there's almost a guarantee  that it will drop so low on the list that you'll be lucky in two years if I had played it.

-I don't need, or want, most peripherals.

-If it has the number three, or higher on it, and I do not have one and two, don't get it. I'm not about to start a series midway. If I do have one and two, and three has been out for quite some time, ask me what I think about three before getting three. I either like the series but haven't hunted down three yet, or I heard such bad things about three, I'm not going to worry about it unless it's a gift, or so cheap that it turns into a 'meh, might as well' sort of purchase.