[Introducing our newest contributor, Dr. Boa. A videogame industry veteran who's spent years working his knuckles to the bone to bring you some of the games you love, Dr. Boa hopes to bring his own perspective to the masses, and maybe pick up some chicks along the way ... or some pretty dudes. He ain't picky.]

I figure 'tis the season for holiday cheer, and quite frankly there's quite a lot to be thankful for these days as a gamer.

Sometimes, we get so caught up in the latest Internet rumor mongering that it's hard not to become a jaded cynic. From the latest game reviews being "pwned" by advertisers, or how some nutty lawyer is trying to take down Take 2, it's so easy to lose sight of all the good things about gaming.

So here I am, acting as the de facto Merry Bringer with my "+5 Mace of Holiday Cheer." (Yes, it is epic gear.) Enjoy my "top five things I'm thankful for in gaming, and perhaps you'll start to see that twinkle of wonderment that you have deep down inside your little black heart! 

1. I'm thankful that games today don't have flicker or slowdown.
You younger kids today probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but this was the bane of my gaming existence back in the 8-bit and 16-bit days. When CPU power just couldn't keep up with the graphics on screen, you'd see all sorts of space-time continuum tears in on screen reality that make even Captain Picard crap a brick.

It was so bad in the 8-bit days, that anytime you had more than just three to four enemies on screen, all of the characters would flash like they were disappearing. Today, you've got games like Assassin's Creed which simulates a whole freakin' city with people moving about. I use to dream about times like this when I was a yun won.

2. I'm thankful for XBLA.
Or in more general terms, digital distribution of games. It's opened up a whole new way for me to play games. To sample games for just $10 is something I never thought I'd enjoy so much.

Now I say XBLA, though I also am pretty enamored with the Wii Virtual Console, and all of these classic games. In the end though, you've gotta give Microsoft some credit for spearheading the XBLA, and paving the way for everything to come. To think that I use to have to pay $50 bucks for these games, and today, I get to play them all for just two cups of Starbucks coffee (or a 1 hour massage in Thailand, if you know what I mean).

3. I'm thankful for online multiplayer.
I waited so loooong for this to finally take off. TEN FREAKIN YEARS! I was one of the first people to own Xband? Remember that? Depending on which camp you are in, you either thought it was revolutionary, or a clunky POS gaming device that let you play online on the SNES and Genesis. Oh how I wanted to take others down in Mortal Kombat to truly prove my might. All I got was a lot of glitchy, laggy, warping characters jumping around screen.

It's almost amazing how seamless online gaming is today. Even more impressive is how so many games make online gaming so robust, it's like buying two games in one. Now I almost never play through a game more than once anymore (it's hush hush, but I like having a life), but I did just that with Crackdown -- once by myself, and again with a friend. And it was like a whole new experience. Playing with others completely changes the dynamic.

4. I'm thankful that games today let you AUTOSAVE!
It used to drive me bonkers that I had to write down a password every time I wanted to save a game. Some games required passwords that were as long as whole passages from the bible! Add my own shortcoming on top of that (no, not my explosive Hulk anger, but rather my crappy handwriting), and it became such a chore to play big games. What does that say about my handwriting, if EVEN I can't read it?

5. And finally, I'm glad that gaming systems simply WORK.
I can't even begin to tell you how many times I nearly passed out from blowing so hard into my NES just to get it to work. The combination of lack of oxygen and the rising anger would probably have killed me if I was bloated as I am today, thanks to Mickey D fries. What I don't get is how the Japanese NES worked like a charm.

Now granted, I'm sure Xbox 360 owners who experience the "red ring of death" probably think this problem still exists today, but at least Microsoft is fixing the problem. Back then, the only choice was to either buy a new NES, or to blow your system like a $20 hooker in the back seat of a chevy.

So I'm going to cheat a little bit here, and I'm sure Santa won't mind. Because I do have one more thing I'm thankful for. And that is: I'm thankful for being a gamer in 2007. Because this year has blown my simple mind with the number of AAA games that are out there. Never in history have we seen so many games score above a 90% average. I'm counting 14 so far, from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Crysis, Rock Band to Super Mario Galaxy, which is pretty close to overthrowing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as the best game of all time.

Seriously. Just take a moment of silence by hitting that pause button, and bask in gaming glory. If you got something to be thankful for, share with your fellow gamer. Then you can go back to your regularly scheduled internet rants.
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Dr. Boa may sound like someone who starred in a porn with Dirk Diggler, but his true passion is interactive entertainment. He's notched +15 years in the gaming industry from QA to launching several big hits, so he's got a healthy perspective on what goes on from the flipside. It's amazing he's not a jaded cynic yet. He's finally glad to see more drug filled parties with playboy bunnies and B level celebs like all other entertainment fields. Yes, gaming has finally made it.