I published a massive story last night over at USgamer that’s somewhere between a feature, a blog post, and digressive stream-of-conscious. It represents several months’ worth of note-taking at interviews, events, and even in casual conversations, with a huge amount of supporting research to make sure I had numbers and dates correct. Thankfully, it’s been getting almost universal praise, which is a huge relief. After spending so much time chipping away at and rewriting this thing, I completely lost my sense of perspective about it. All I can see are all the things I wish I had more time to refine and expand on. But it was two weeks late as it is, and at some point you just have to rip off the bandage. Hopefully it came out OK.

It’s “almost universal praise,” because — as seemingly happens any time we write about Japan — a handful of anime dudes feel like I’m attacking their Constitutional right to infantilize and fetishize young girls. I’m not, guys. Wrap yourselves in a warm blanket of moé. Follow your tsundere bliss. Idealize trembling schoolgirls to the point that you’re ruined for real human interaction, for all I care. Your fantasies and fixations are your own business. I’m just saying that all, or even most, Japanese games are not moé games, and it’s counterproductive to conflate the two terms.

Anyway, the real hidden message in this story is that a retrogame bar has apparently opened a couple of blocks from my apartment and I really need to check it out.