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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Over 5 years after its initial purchase during the Steam Summer Sale, a copy of unremarkable indie game Dragon Adventure: Quest for the Crown sitting in gamer Tessa Levinson’s Steam library has finally made peace with the fact that it’s never actually going to be played.

“What can I say? There were a lot of good deals that summer, so I didn’t worry too much when Tessa started out our time together playing other games,” Dragon Adventure said with a wistful smile, remembering the feeling of butterflies when Levinson first clicked ‘purchase’ in the Steam browser all those years ago. “I figured eventually she’d find her way back to me one day. I mean, I know I’m not really gonna compete with Grand Theft Auto V or the Dragon Age collection, who am I kidding? I just always thought that phase would pass. Now I guess it’s not just a phase after all.”

“It’s not like I’m not in good company with all of these other misfit games lying around in this Steam library. We’ve been through a lot together, like in 2018 when Tessa was getting all those AAA games and working late hours. Some games really started to lose it thinking they’d never get played, especially Battle of Barbarians — poor BoB. My heart broke when his multiplayer servers shut down, that was tough for sure. But I won Best New RPG from GamerBeat’s end-of-year awards, so I wasn’t sweating it. RPGs age like wine, you know.”

The unfortunate reality began to creep in as time continued to pass, however, and Dragon Adventure slid farther down Levinson’s backlog. 

“Around 2019, she’d still scroll down past me sometimes, check out my store page, look at my preview videos. A couple times she even checked out my install size, and that would keep my spirits up for a while. But then one day I heard she was playing Final Fantasy XIV, and that’s when it really sunk in that it just wasn’t going to happen.”

Despite these setbacks, Dragon Adventure wanted to assure everyone that it’s staying strong and keeping things in perspective.

“It’s fine, you know, really. My graphics are aging pretty gracefully for a game my age, and I still get some quality-of-life patches for the latest hardware every now and then. So who knows, maybe she’ll pass me down to her kids someday. I could even get a remaster if I’m lucky! So it’s alright, really… I’m gonna be fine. You hear that, Tessa? I’m fine!”

At press time, Dragon Adventure had reportedly rebounded with one of Levinson’s friends in an effort to make her jealous by showing up in Steam’s friend activity panel.