Dispatches from Taipei: Making the Big Move

In all the panic and frantic packing that accompanies trying to shove your life into two suitcases for a year and a half jaunt halfway across the world, I found myself oddly contemplative when it came time to pack up my games. Despite feeling like I didn’t have time to breathe, I took some time to pore over my game shelf, carefully selecting the tiny handful of games that would be accompanying me. I’ve collected my fair share of games over the years, and I don’t sit and contemplate my game shelf frequently (looking at the boxes marching in neat rows tends to give me heart palpitations when I consider how much money I’m looking at, especially when I think about the games that weren’t really worth that $50). But it was a trip down memory lane when I had to go tearing through my shelf to decide which games were going to be making the long trek to Taiwan with me. Some of my very favorites had already found temporary homes with friends who were itching to play them; I also realized just how many bad games I have hanging around, and made a mental note that I really need to clean those out when I get home next year.

Somehow, despite years of playing video games, writing for a game site, and loads of money spent on games and gaming-related stuff over the years, it took that frantic packing for me to say “Yes, yes I am a gamer.” Sure, I wax philosophic over my favorite games, love to debate the future of the industry, and spend ungodly amounts of time playing games, reviewing them, and writing about them here on TGC, but normal people do that too, right? It wasn’t until I was taking things out of my suitcases to make room for the real essentials – my PS2 topping the list – and explaining to my technophobe mother that my foot-high vinyl statuette of a game character really did need to come with me, so we had to get rid of things like food and utensils to make room, that I sat back and finally admitted to myself that I am indeed a serious gamer. OK, that final frantic spree through a game store helped – there’s nothing like the terrible realization that it’s going to require some hefty international shipping fees to get games in English to drive you to whip out the AmEx. Most people would probably be ticking off their list of things they need to do, essentials they needed to have, but no, not I. While I managed to forget things like basic toiletries, I have my PS2, DS, and assorted games with me (even some new ones to tide me over for a few months), and I sure was glad to have them when I was up at 5 am with jetlag – a bar of Dial soap hardly provides the entertainment value of Animal Crossing.

The first thing I checked on after arriving in my temporary lodgings here in Taipei was my PS2 (it made it safely ensconced amongst clothes, to my great relief). When I took out my DS and decided to look in on my Animal Crossing town, I felt for the briefest second like I was at home again, despite the sounds of a strange city outside my window. Most of my treasured belongings stayed back in the States, but my gaming stuff is here with me, a tangible reminder of home. I’m not quite sure when gaming became a fairly important part of my life; I always thought of myself as more the casual type until quite recently. When I found myself poking through my laptop bag in a Japanese airport while waiting for a connecting flight – just to make sure that my DS was, in fact, safe inside its case and hadn’t met an untimely end while I was trying to cram the bag under the seat in front of me for the long-haul flight across the Pacific – I realized I crossed the line somewhere. Where and when? I’m not sure, but I have to admit it makes me feel a lot better to know that my little corner of games and gaming stuff will be making an appearance once I find and apartment and stop living out of a suitcase: a familiar slice of home in an unfamiliar country.