There exists a mysterious object, an artifact so ancient; even Oakbeard doesn’t remember when it was created.
This artifact is a Corporate Express – Spiral Refill A4 Notebook .

In this ancient tome, Oakbeard recorded every game he’s finished without using cheat codes.
There is a page for each year.
Judging by the first entry “???? – 2010”: this notebook has been created in the year 2010, and there is a list of all games Oak finished as a kid.

• Call of Duty 1 – Always on Veteran, I remembered where each soldier spawned; my favourite was roleplaying a soviet soldier at Stalingrad, scary, yet personal and emotional
• Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) – Nathaniel Hawk, such a badass; used the smallest ship to get behind enemy ships, board them, backed into a corner and slowly 1v1 the entire enemy crew to capture and scuttle their ship
• Empire Earth – This is my “Age of Empires”; I hear the sounds just by thinking about it, superb voice-acting, great idea of progressing through technological ages
• Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers – holy shit, this game slapped when I was 9; this was my gym, I’ve been soo soaked in sweat playing this, jumping and dodging as the mighty Donald Duck himself
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – hands down the best coop action (Gimli was slow af, always died when running from the Cave of the Forgotten); the only game I played on a gamepad cuz friendship with my bro (he had the keyboard)
• Gothic 1 – best RPG, this is my “Morrowind”; I love the living world, NPCs do their routines, day and night cycle, the charming concept of the Barrier, just awesome to get lost in, the protagonist is funny and you can see it was created with love and attention to detail
• Gothic 2 – another dose of the best RPG; an improvement on the first installment, Nameless Hero is cool, cocky, but really helpful to everybody he meets that isn’t a complete asshole
• GTA: San Andreas – classic, my dad 100% the game multiple times, yes I have the coolest dad (I always wondered what’s that long purple melee weapon he had in the inventory when playing…)
• Neighbours from Hell – I channeled my prank-energy through this game, so I didn’t need to create problems at home
• Castle Strike – am not even sure how I finished this; this was my Warcraft 3; I looked at the scenery mostly and the story was interesting
• Mafia 1 – Czech classic, we use jokes from this game at work all the time; Tommy Angelo is my spirit animal
• Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood – ah yes, the first stealth isometric game, first squad-based game; I did roleplay at each map trying to find the coolest base or home for the characters
• Stronghold Crusader – many hours were spent building a kingdom and then painting lions all over it while a lone archer saved the kingdom, one arrow at a time; since this game, I appreciate each NPC and peasant alike; every citizen is useful just like in real life
• Tribes Vengeance – extremely action-packed shooter, you are skiing, flying, and shooting at high velocity, oh yes and the characters were very believable
• The Witcher 1 – the Czech dubbing was the top, so many quotes; I love Geralt and I love what he taught me: how to choose the lesser evil or about the wisdom of the sefirot
• Worms: Total Mayhem – ah, the time-traveling rag-tag group of cowboy worms; also a great coop at LAN parties

There were many others I remember. But I only counted the games I finished.
The games above were important for Kidbeard; they each hold a special place in my heart. I’ve learned a lot about operating a computer, about morals, history, friendship, perseverance, patience, honor, humor and the value of human life.
I’ve honed my hand-to-eye coordination, reflexes, typing skills, information gathering and planning.

Since 2011 (next time on Oakbeard’s Annals), I’ve started to treat playing video-games as a spiritual practice. Games were important to me (as my younger self realized by starting this gaming journal, which I treat as sacred).
We will go through memory lane, casting light on what each game has taught me.

It will be an adorable journey; I hope you will venture with me.

Peace ☮