The Current Day
Readers, for the time being I am somebody’s personal chef, driver, assistant, and medical aid. I don’t mind at all, but I have had to make more adjustments than expected to accommodate this.
One of those adjustments was finding something to do when I am waiting around. Of course I love to read, but it’s very environment-dependent. For example, I am not the sort of person who can read in a waiting room. I’ll just read the same lines over and over again, never taking it in. For whatever reason, I need to be alone, and I need to be in control of the other noise in the area.
Audiobooks aren’t an option right now, either, cause I need to listen.
That leaves me with my phone. I don’t love going on my phone for long periods of time. I can only send my friends so many memes. I can only scroll for so long before I can feel the brain rot.
So, I did what any logical person would do. I got myself a Nintendo Switch (the Zelda version cause it’s pretty).
One of my best friends has been telling me for over a year that I should get one, that I would have fun, and I always said I didn’t have the time. Like, I’d rather be doing something constructive. But now I find myself with a lot of time that I simply can’t spend the way I’d prefer.
The Problem
Now, I must confess. I have a bit of a stick up my ass about video games. I do, generally, think they can be a time sucking waste of waking hours that contribute to normalizing violence and misogyny. I resent all the stories and real-life experiences I’ve heard/had of men evading all their responsibilities to play games.
I’d rather explore in real life. I’d rather practice real life skills, and further my actual abilities. (I did recently learn how much Twitch streamers make for playing games so maybe I need to reevaluate my stance on practical skills because damn.)
But I realized that I spend many evenings playing some little simulation game on my laptop, to wind down while I listen to a book, so… perhaps I was being a little bit of a hypocrite. They can’t all be bad.
“Everything in moderation, including moderation” as Oscar Wilde says.
Plus, my parents told me how they used to play Super Mario and the Legend of Zelda together, pre-me, and I think that’s cute.
The Review
So far, Reader, I have downloaded Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hogwarts Legacy. The aforementioned friend wants me to get Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (Zelda games), but I feel like I’ll stick with these two for a little bit to get familiar with the controls.
Animal Crossing is very cute. I like that it syncs with real life timing; slow living in a video game. I’m currently waiting for the museum to be built, and hoarding a bunch of bugs in my house in the meantime. Easily a 10/10.
The Harry Potter game, on the other hand… I learned that I am not very good at fighting. I had it on normal mode, and I couldn’t even make it past the prologue.
Yes, you read that right. Not even the game. Just the prologue. If the camera somehow auto focused on the targets, I think I would be fine, but my dyslexia brain cannot begin to grasp moving the controls to look around and cast spells at the same time. I couldn’t see anything and kept dying. I was so over it, until I saw that there is a “story” mode to the game. I switched over, and now everything is great. You can’t die. 10/10.
The way I look at it is, I’ve had enough cortisol-inducing moments in my day-to-day life, I don’t need more of that in a game. I want to relax, not feel the pressure.
The Backstory
I haven’t played video games since… Let’s see… I remember playing the PS2 with a friend’s little brother; Crash Bandicoot, mostly. Then I had a friend who had a DS and we played Nintendogs, and that Pokemon game where you could go mining, and Zelda. Then I remember playing my friend’s older brother’s Guitar Hero, and then Mario Kart and Just Dance when the Wii came out.
Oh, and LONG before that: Barbie Pet Rescue, Barbie Princess Bride, and some construction game with Cat machinery.
Wow, Reader, I miss those Barbie games. Those were great. A creator I enjoy talks about playing low-stakes mystery games and that sounds like my vibe, too.
Anyway, it’s been awhile.
To Conclude
I’m still not a fan of violence, but I’m coming around to these low-key games. The Harry Potter one is a bit more like an interactive book or movie, which is very cool. Animal Crossing is a great way to pass the time. I suspect I will succumb to the Zelda games in due time, and possibly some Lego or Mario ones.
This wasn’t on my 2024 Bingo Card, Reader, but then, nothing in my life has ever gone to plan.
Till the next.
p.s.
I did start painting every day last week, but it had an unexpected effect. I had considered the room I painted in to be a temporary location, so I hadn’t put much effort into organization and set up. Daily practice made me realize how annoying it was to hunt through all my supplies every time I wanted to make art, which was keeping me from making art.
So, a couple days ago, I took everything out of the room, rearranged all the furniture, deep cleaned, and now I’m putting it back.
In the process, I realized just how many books I own. For a while, I was thinking that I would own every single book I read.
I read a lot of books, Reader, and that was not a practical plan.
Seeing them all laid out like that made me realize how few of them I actually care about. I also had a ton of books (classics, mostly) that I thought I should own or should read. Frankly, I don’t care. I won’t do it. I never do anything just because I “should” so I’m not sure why I thought I would start with boring books.
The long and short of it is, my studio looks like a tornado swept through it, so painting is temporarily on hold while I continue sorting and organizing. But! I consider this all progress! I didn’t realize how much my environment was holding me back until I actively tried to use it.
And the books I don’t want are going to a good cause. I’m donating them to my local library for their fundraising book sale.