In August of 2015, I started a video game blog called Adventure Rules. I began it originally as a video game parody news site (think Palette Swap but not nearly as good) that over time transitioned into a blog featuring video game and tabletop game reviews, guides, and essays. I posted on that blog - sometimes a little, sometimes a lot - throughout the next decade. In 2025, I exported all of my articles and deleted the site. It was a decision driven by a number of factors. I had barely posted at all over the course of the previous year yet was paying for a custom domain and ad-free experience. I had a lot of articles built up over a decade of posting that I wanted to remove from the internet, either because my perspective had changed or the articles included references to elements of my personal life that had changed. And I was in the throes of a depressive episode during which I was particularly defeatist, destructive, and hopeless. Despite this last factor, I don't regret deleting Adventure Rules; it truly had grown into an artifact of an old life to which I was desperately clinging. Letting go was an important step. But now that the dust has settled and I've had a lot of time to reflect on the reasons why I wanted it gone, I recognize that the practice of blogging itself is something that could still bring joy, reflection and connection into my life.
Enter: the Adventure Journal.
My original blog was named after the in-game player's manual in Pokémon. The joke was that it was a tutorial of sorts for real life; even as the site changed, I kept the name because the idea of a guide still made sense, transitioning from a satirical guide on real-life problems to a practical guide on what games to buy and how to beat them. This new blog I've decided to stick to a similar theme, but adjust to new circumstances and a new vision. The Adventure Journal is frequently used in games to refer to the record of your character's adventures - in other words, your save file. You record the events of your adventure in the adventure journal so you don't lose your progress. In real life, the practice of journaling is not just about chronicling, but also reflection. Journaling encourages you to think about your experiences and work through them, exploring your thoughts and ideas through writing to reach greater understanding and realization.
These ideas power this new beginning in my blogging journey. The Adventure Journal is meant to be a place of reflection. It is more personal than Adventure Rules. It is about the ways that the stories we enjoy can serve as avenues to teach us about the world and ourselves. My first article, Paper Mario is a MAN, is a good example of the type of writing you can expect here.
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As far as why I would start blogging again after deleting an entire website already, the idea for the blog was planted during therapy. Journaling has been a really effective therapy technique for me - when I write down my frustrations, my anxieties, and the things that make me sad, I can reflect on them later and recognize the cognitive distortions in my thinking. During my most recent session, I recognized something about my relationship to journaling: I only do it when I'm upset. I've been using journaling as sort of a triage, a "break glass in case of emergency" measure to help me unpack and understand my most difficult moments. But there is value in reflecting on the good times and the neutral times, too. The trick is figuring out how to get my brain to want to journal and reflect outside of the context of using it to keep myself from spiraling.
The answer, for me, is blogging. It is the pill in the applesauce, a tool that appeals to my achievement-oriented, highly performative personality while also being a useful method of getting me to stop and think. I discover things in writing that I otherwise don't have the mental bandwidth or focus to think through. When I sit down to write an article, I come out the other side having a better understanding of the ideas that were half-formed in my head before I started. Journaling feels like homework, a chore to be done only when I really need it. But blogging is fun, and I do genuinely miss the routine of working on posts and having them go out into the world, and the external validation of having people read and enjoy them.
"Hey buddy, won't sharing your most personal and intimate thoughts for external validation just reinforce your tendency to use praise and achievement as a substitute for genuine self-regard?" What are you, my therapist?
In all seriousness, I'm excited to jump back into the world of blogging. It is the form of writing I have enjoyed the most in my life, and while I definitely needed some time away, I think I'm ready to start again from a clean slate and to engage with this hobby in a way that feels better-suited to my current context. I hope you'll come along for the journey!
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