This Place Deserved More from Me - Welcome to 2026!

I keep finding myself back here, writing some version of the same post - not because I enjoy it, but because it’s usually the moment I finally stop, look around, and admit that I’ve drifted again.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote about how I’d let the year run away from me. And honestly? I write a post like this more often than I’d like. Sometimes life just gets in the way. Running this site has always been a purely voluntary thing - something I do because I genuinely enjoy collecting, and experiencing the games and movies that find their way into the collection.

But I’ve always wanted to make something more of this place. That’s been the intention from the start. The long-term goal. The dream. Whatever you want to call it.

For a long time, though, it’s felt like an impossible task. I let myself get pulled away far too easily; sometimes out of necessity, but often through laziness, procrastination, and that lingering little voice in my head telling me that it’s all pointless and that nobody wants to read my stuff.

For 2026, I want to try harder.

I want to bring Collecting Asylum back to its roots - back to the original idea of focusing more on physical media and the collecting side of things. After all, that’s where the name comes from.

The reviews aren’t going anywhere. If anything, I’ve got a backlog sitting there, almost ready to go, that never saw the light of day simply because I never quite got round to that final pass - often just formatting tweaks, nothing major. I spent time trying to make my reviews more impactful, more interesting to read, only to let doubt creep in and leave them tucked away, unpublished.

That needs to change.

You can’t improve if you never put things out there, and if I don’t post, I never really know whether people enjoy what I write or not. It’s a bit of a vicious circle - and one I’m ready to get out of.

So for 2026, it’s time to live a little. To loosen my grip on self-doubt and throw myself properly into what I’m doing here. I’ll get the reviews back on track, but I also want to get back to posting more about editions - the physical releases, the packaging, all the little details that made me fall in love with collecting in the first place.

This place doesn’t need to be perfect to matter. It just needs to be alive. If I want Collecting Asylum to grow, I have to give it the chance to - and that starts with me actually making an effort.

Most importantly, I’m excited again. About writing. About collecting. About sharing it all, instead of quietly letting this place fade into the sidelines.

And I’d love to hear from you, too. Are there releases you’d like to see unboxings of? Specific titles you want reviewed? If there’s something you want to see more of here, let me know. As much as I’ve got my own plans and ideas, I’d really appreciate knowing what people want to read about, too!

Here’s to a fresh start - and to actually enjoying the process this time.

– V x