DISCLAIMER: User is not a gamer.

In truth, we've played very few games in our fragile life, and fewer still that we've enjoyed. We've developed a bit of a reputation amongst our friends for "hating gameplay"—a sort of tongue-in-cheek expression of the fact that we have a low tolerance for skill-based games, and little interest in strategy-based ones.

Certainly, there are reasons this aversion is present. Being on the autism spectrum, we struggle somewhat with finer motor skills and have a low tolerance for the frustration of repetitive failure that results from that. Moreover, as an adult with a full-time job, it's easy to feel like dedicating focus to a game and making little progress is a waste of time.

Recently, though, we've been re-examining this relationship with video games. This is a result of a few experiences, but most significantly, we played Hollow Knight for the first time. It's an excellent game. It is also, despite having deceptively simple movement and controls, notoriously challenging. So how had we, an equally notorious hater of games, come to adore it so much? It defies reason, doesn't it? Is it an exception to the rule?

Or maybe we're wrong?

Thus is the basis for this project: 100 games (give or take, accounting for duplicates), ostensibly ranked as "the best" by review aggregator Metacritic. Call it the ultimate video game sampler, if you like, a gamer gauntlet. Do any of us believe it to be an infallible list? Certainly not; we're well aware of the many criticisms surrounding how Metacritic calculates aggregated scores. And considering the top 100 features only a single indie title (hello, Hades II) and no game from before 1998 (we'll make up for this dearth later, I promise), it's hard to believe anyone would call such a thing objective. As for what is present on the list, though, it's a collection of (mostly) reasonable choices with popularity and history behind them. It is, we think, as good a place to start as any.

We'll spend time with each one, earnestly attempting to play them to completion, and providing thoughts and opinions on our progress along the way. Will we arrive on the other side a true gamer? Or will we return to our game-hating ways? Well, my darlings, don't touch that dial.

We're aware that this project will take well over a year, and likely multiple. In the interest of minimizing the stress involved, deadlines will not be imposed.