It’s that time of year again my loyal Riders, it’s: That Arbitrary Date That Happens to Correspond with the Numbers in My Gamer Handle, better known around these parts as FourTen Day! That means I’ve been bringing you the most cogent video gaming culture column for an unofficial three years!

…Three years, that’s a long time; it’s the entire lifespan of the Culebra Island Giant Anole (which I’m told is some kind of nearly extinct Puerto Rican lizard), the amount of time it takes to make a disappointing Star Wars prequel and the definition of the word triennial. But in the world of technology, three years is less like a lifetime, and more like an epoch. For example, let’s take a look at what just three years can do for a video game system, and what it does for a gaming culture columnist.

In the lifespan of the now venerable PlayStation 2, three years is the difference between The Bouncer and Deus Ex, and between Deus Ex and God of War. On the SNES, it was the difference between Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball and Donkey Kong Country, and between Donkey Kong Country and Bass Masters Classic Pro Edition (ok, bad example).

For a gaming culture columnist, three years is the difference between the writing about childhood game buying experiences with my Grandmother (true! But you won’t find it here, it was lost when the old site folded) and a wickedly sarcastic dressing down of forces that would do my hobby ill. Between blasé recommendations of whatever game I’m playing at the moment (like pimping God of War (I’m still waiting for my check, Jaffe!)) and reaching through the screen with my words and smacking some sense into gamers who waste their time and money to simulate driving! Driving! I mean come on, why would you want to simulate an activity that you can do in reality with ease! I was a SURGEON this weekend with my Wii, I’m not a surgeon in reality. In fact, the only thing I have in common with a surgeon (other then being cool in a crisis) is that we both DRIVE to work.

Sorry about that, this is not supposed to be about driving games. It’s about driving home the fact that the passage of time sharpens both the electronic and biological brain, and how this honed tool can strike at the soul of the imagination of both the gamer and the reader. The games get better, the gamers get better. I’ll see you back here next time and next year.

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Back of the Bus is © 2007 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.