I’ve been staring at this screenshot from the original Everquest for what feels like hours. The graphics are dated, of course, since the game has been out for a decade, but that’s not what has me so transfixed. This screenshot is like looking through a wormhole into my past and seeing a younger, less hairy me slumped in his dingy computer chair and trying to retrieve his corpse before sunup.

It was a time when I was still single and jobless. Aside from phoning it in on some computer classes, I didn’t have a whole lot going on in my life. I was 18 years old, living in the big city in a house full of crazy people, and my only real concerns were leveling-up my Wizard and whether I was going to eat Subway or McDonald's for lunch. It was an existence devoid of any lasting meaning or direction.

It sucked, but it was awesome.

2009 was not a good year for me. Not only did I predict that Duke Nukem Forever would be released; I did so without any loop holes or qualifications. My proclamation just lays there like a dead pigeon pulled out of a magician’s hat. I even said Alan Wake would finally be released before the year was out. I think someone was messing with the prediction hat.

Don’t let that sway you because my 2010 predictions are like solid gold. You could bet your house on them! What’s that? Don’t believe me?

- This year will mark the beginning of the end for Rockstar’s pre-eminence in the gaming industry.

We have lots of predictions from the GWJ staff for 2010 after the jump. Be sure to add your own in the comments and check out the 2009 thread to see how amazing/horrible your predictions were.

As I look at my Steam games list following their annual holiday sale I can't help but feel more than a little embarrassed by how many titles I bought because they were "deals" instead of games I'll ever put any real time into. Like a pot head who just stumbled into a supermarket, everything just looked so good with that $4.99 price tag on it. We’ll get to my list in a minute, but I’ll spoil the surprise and tell you that I’ll play half of them for about 30 minutes and never, ever touch them again.

These deals and insane publisher game packs have turned selective game buyers into sudden onset collectors. It’s not enough for Deus Ex to be snug in a jewel case and shoved into a basement closet somewhere; it needs to be on THE LIST. The ‘My Games’ tab on Steam isn’t just a launch pad for your game library -- it’s a gaping maw, a whisper in your head that there’s comfort to be found in THE LIST. The bigger THE LIST, the happier you’ll be. What if there’s a Star Wars Jedi Knight II emergency? Take comfort, it’s right there, ready for launch. But you’ll never click on it, will you? There’s always something new to play, but THE LIST doesn’t care. Its appetite is insatiable. Let’s have a look at what I’ve recent shoveled into the digital maw to keep it sated and see what Valve is really selling.

Two samurai stand ready for their duel on a long, dusty road. In a flash, they unsheathe their swords and rush to meet their destiny. The sharp staccato of steel on steel fills the air as their blades meet. When one misses a step, the other moves in with a life-ending thrust. But wait, what’s this? The stricken samurai raises his weapon and strikes back, scoring a deadly gash of his own. The opponents match each other blow for blow, swinging until their limbs are heavy and tired, until they are covered in blood. Finally, one nicks the other on the pinky, causing him to clutch his chest and fall to the ground. Now he is truly dead.

The remaining samurai stands and shifts his weary gaze to the horizon, waiting for his body to mend so that he can continue his journey. When did killing become such a boorish affair?

Stuff. Acquisition of things, and skills, is the driving force behind many games. Whether the Pavlovian chime of gold dropping to the ground or the triumphant music as Link holds aloft his new shield, so may games reinforce the desirability of fighting for awesome new stuff and abilities. We rely on the familiar play of wanting and getting to drive us through some games as surely as we sometimes find ourselves living life from one big purchase to the next.

What happens when the levels and the stuff are still in a game, but I'm forced to sweep my avatar away like a Mandala sand painting every time I fail? I’ve been discovering this as I make my first real plunge into the world of Roguelikes with Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer.

As writers in the game industry, we spend most of our time looking at what has already happened and taking to it with hammer and tongs. But once a year on Gamers With Jobs, we like to put on our funny hats and predict what will happen in the upcoming year in gaming -- putting our reputations on the line and potentially angering publishers in the process. How did we do in 2008? See for yourself. Read on for our Bold Predictions and feel free to add your own!

What's that? You want a taste of my predictive genius? Brace yourself!

- Alan Wake? Yes. Finally.

Bam!

One of my fundamental issues with modern game design is this niggling sense that the games I play are trying to pull my strings rather than the other way around. It’s like I’m performing for the guy who coded the encounters rather than having spontaneous, self-actualized fun. Every year the line between good games and great ones becomes more distinct, because while some companies are getting better at giving me what I need to have a good time, others are regressing into tropes best left to old arcade games like Time Traveler and Dragon’s Lair.

If you think I’m about to launch into a tirade against quick time events, you’d be wrong. Those awful little sequences are just a symptom of a much larger philosophical problem that’s taking hold of the industry.

I’m tired. My employees are all either sick or away on vacation, leaving me with no alternative but to uproot myself from a comfortable Friday night at home in favor of staring at a monitor bank at the office until 6AM. After the initial rush of activity and tracking, work starts to slow down. I have four hours to kill, a DS, a PSP, an iPod Touch with a few games on it, the first translated Witcher novel and a laptop with Baldur’s Gate installed.

I ignore all of it in favor of the blinking indicator on my instant messaging client. It’s just Rob making fun of me for having to work all night – what a pal. Here I am, chatting about nothing and refreshing my Twitter when I could be gaming. I’ve become Scooby Doo, living for the tightly bound text versions of Scooby Snacks delivered by friends and strangers alike. My new pastime is definitely massively multiplayer. But the role I'm playing is just me, and there's not a game to be found.

He hath set water and fire before thee: stretch forth thy hand to which thou wilt. Before man is life and death, good and evil, that which he shall choose shall be given him.- Sirach Chapter 15

There is nothing so damning to the human spirit as free will. No murder so heinous as one with forethought, planning and cold execution. When choice is consciously made, the most petty of actions become greater than the sum of their results. We raise our glass to men defending their homes from invaders. We would damn them without their justifications, their lack of choice because they were just protecting their families. In games we rely on the ends justifying means that would make the cruelest of dictators cringe.

This being the day Grand Theft Auto IV slips into gaming consoles all over the world, we’re going to be faced with questions of morality again. Not just from the media or concerned parents, but more importantly - ourselves.

It’s getting awful lonely out here. With the demise of Games For Windows magazine and the uncertain question of how their editorial voice will hold a beachhead against the churning swells of click counters and ad mongers, there aren’t many safe harbors left for our freelancers. As Gamers With Jobs plugs along, Julian Murdoch and Lara Crigger have both seen the passing of three magazines that featured a lot of their best work. Great articles - the kind of writing that didn’t join the water striders skimming across the surface, but dove deep and wrestled giant squids.

Over and over, industry publishers are passing along the same message. Your time has come, the sea levels are rising and your little island has little left to offer passing ships. We hear Cat Fancy is hiring.