To Hell With 2017, Bring On 2018

This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #98. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.

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Gavin Craig has a lot of games on his shelf that he’s never played. Backlog is his attempt to correct that.

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As 2017 turns to 2018, I have a brief wish list for the year ahead. In 2018, it would be fantastic if:

• I had time to play Nier: Automata.
• We excised the word “prequel” from our vocabulary, or, even better, if it became absolutely unnecessary.
• More of my friends were financially and professionally secure
• Complete strangers, too, while I’m at it. Dignified work and wages for everyone. Everyone.
• I’m going to get off the economic kick, I promise, but health care is a big part of financial and professional security.
• And going back to the word “dignity,” working to make sure that people’s basic needs are met isn’t just a good idea because it means that they’re more likely to be able to be productive contributors to the economy, it’s something that we should do because they are human and, hopefully, so are we.
• Less nonconsensual groping, and just none of that Louis CK/Charlie Rose shit. Zero.
• The NES Classic and SNES Classic consoles were more broadly available.
• Quietude, within and without.
• Tangiers finally comes out, and it’s even half as interesting as I’ve hoped.
• I write a couple of the longer pieces that have been brewing in my head.
• I get paid a reasonable rate for said pieces.
• Season 2 of Westworld doesn’t suck.
• I had a way to watch Season 2 of Westworld.
• I saw more old friends and colleagues in person more often.
• It made any kind of sense to play Dragon Age: Inquisition again to play close attention to the portrayal and function of religious expression (and ambivalence in both that expression and its reception).
• (That’s a soft pitch. Feel free to make an offer.)
• I figured out how to record a podcast and got my hands on a decent microphone.
• I got to have some really good conversations with people about books.
• (That’s also a soft pitch, but it’s already taken. Unless you have a better offer.)
• (Just kidding, Stu. Mostly.)
• I found a really comfortable pair of brown semi-formal shoes to replace the old pair I’ve just about killed.
• While I’m at it, hell, a dog. I’d love a dog. Don’t tell my wife
• The HBO Watchmen adaptation collapsed and we got a really great Fantastic Four comic instead.
• More people seemed to realize that Star Wars has at least as long and proud a tradition of being really bad as it does of being really good. Or even pretty good.
• It’s okay. Not everything we love has to be great.
• But it’s also okay for other people to not love all the things we love.
• I read more works in translation.
• My friends and family end the year happy and healthy.
• And you as well, dear reader.

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Gavin Craig is a writer and critic who lives outside of Washington, D.C. Follow him on Twitter @CraigGav.