General News - Story about CRPG Addict

HiddenX

HiddenX

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PC Gamer tells the story of the CRPG Addict:

The impossible quest to finish every CRPG in chronological order

A decade ago, Chester Bolingbroke set himself a mission that will never end.

It's one thing to attempt to set out to play every single game in an entire genre. But to finish each one in the order they released and then to blog detailed accounts of them is a quest beyond belief. That's what Chester Bolingbroke, author of CRPG Addict, set out to do in February 15, 2010, when he wrote the blog's first post. Over ten years later, he's still going.

So far, Chester has ventured through the very first mainframe-based computer role-playing games, charted the rise of Ultima, and battled through generations of computers. He's faced adversity, balancing the thousands of hours his adventure demands against the needs of his personal life. He's worked on it from his home in Maine, grappling with emulators and translations, and from hotels across the US while travelling for his job. He gave up on the whole endeavour once. But he's just as active now as he was when he started, and that's despite knowing that the whole thing is impossible.

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Thanks Shamroxor!

More information.
 
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Well I mean he writes a pretty popular blog about each game he plays. I often enjoy reading it because he's a good writer and goes into a ton of detail about each game and it can be fun and sometimes very nostalgic to read.
 
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Redglyph said:
People take up incredible challenges sometimes, but this is just sad.
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Oh, be nice! Everyone's free to spend their time how they like. His musings on obscure games are interesting and its presented with a lot of screenshots giving them good exposure for rediscovery.

I've expected him to burn out for a few years now, but he just keeps on truck'n!
 
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Sure, but I'm also free to have an opinion on that ;)

I can understand people who achieve incredible feats to inspire others, and those have a conclusion, it's time-limited. Here this is just insane, and let's be honest, a waste of time and talent since it's not even a hobby anymore.

Well, if some benefit from reading his blog, that's already something I guess.
 
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Yeah when your unpaid hobby becomes a full time job its time to stop and do some rethinking. Though if he loves what he does and is not bothered more power to him.
 
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I'm not big on calling judgment on this sort of thing.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
 
He honestly runs one of my favorite blog sites and does a really, really good job of cataloguing and describing old CRPGs. I love his work. Wish he could do that for a living. :)
 
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(I mean, honestly, he's leaving more of a legacy than most people will who spend their days commenting on various websites and social media sites, doing Youtube videos that will never be remembered, and watching endless amounts of TV/playing endless games WITHOUT blogging about it. Something like his project could easily be made into a CRPG book of sorts, like the wonderful CRPG book that already does exist.)

He's doing something and creating something with his gaming, and that has to be fulfilling in a way that most middle-management or wage slave jobs just aren't. More power to him for sharing his hobby in an entertaining and well-written way with the rest of us! I wish I had that kind of discipline.
 
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It’s a great blog and has accomplished its purpose of finding some great games from the past and introducing them to today’s players. I’ve played a dozen games I never would have ever considered before reading his reviews.
 
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I find his stamina impressive.
 
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It's a great blog for so many reasons. Great writing is the main reason, but there are lots of other useful things too. I think I know about most RPGs that have been created, and yet he still finds lots of obscure ones, a number of which I have added to my "to play" list. He and his community also identify all the bugs and other issues such that if I have a problem, it's a One-Stop resource. Like him and some other people on this site, I do keep a chart of all the games I have finished (and it makes game playing feel like not a complete waste of time and at least sort of an accomplishment), but he has taken it to a whole new level.

I guess I just can't imagine, given the theme of this site, that people here would criticize what he is doing.
 
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Nobody's criticizing it's called life experience. I once had a hobby that became an unpaid job. It's not fun and it came to a point where it's not worth it. He's decided otherwise.
 
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On a side note no one even uses the term CRPG anymore. There are no more purely Computer RPGs. That term only applies to RPGs like Pillar's of Eternity nowadays.
CRPG - "Computer" RPG. These were the original PC role playing games. … The term continued to be in use for all pc based rpgs up until the early to mid 2000s, when they started referring to games that stuck to the more traditional elements of the old school games.
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Though in his case yeah since most of the games he plays are made pre-1990's.
 
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Couchpotato said:
On a side note no one even uses the term CRPG anymore. There are no more purely Computer RPGs. That term only applies to RPGs like Pillar's of Eternity nowadays.
Though in his case yeah since most of the games he plays are made pre-1990's.
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It's not only the timeframe, he is specifically excluding console games to keep his list more manageable. I suppose the CRPG term also clarifies the blog is about digital RPGs and not tabletop/boardgame versions.
 
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I'd rather walk on broken glass than play through an entire genre of games in chronological order without picking and choosing, but good for him if he actually enjoys it.
 
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