I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

[Apelsin]

http://achillingfeeling.com/

 

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy remake/sequel?

[Bjorn]

Ever feel like you just totally need to take a step back from gaming for awhile, like it's become too much of your default activity?

[Deadpan]

Ever feel like you just totally need to take a step back from gaming for awhile, like it's become too much of your default activity?

 

I'm never entirely sure if my involvement with games (writing about them in particular) isn't just some sort of big insecurity thing, like I'm trying to be the big fish in a small pond by focusing on a medium that's a) often not as sophisticated as others and so new that it should be easier to say clever things about it (because not everything has already been said).

[Apelsin]

Ever feel like you just totally need to take a step back from gaming for awhile, like it's become too much of your default activity?

 

Thinking about stepping back from gaming is pretty much my default activity

[SuperBiasedMan]

If you replace gaming with Spelunky, then yes.

[Bjorn]

Thinking about stepping back from gaming is pretty much my default activity

If you replace gaming with Spelunky, then yes.

 

Ha! (to both of those)

I just feel like I get out of equilibrium about once a year, where gaming is the default thing I do, subsuming the time I normally give to other hobbies (reading, building shit, working out). Usually it starts with one particularly obsessive game (like a Spelunky, BoI or Dark Souls), and then some bad habits set in and I get stuck in a rut. I just have to make a clean break and not play anything for awhile to get that equilibrium back.

[Valorian Endymion]

I make a effort to balance things, I mean do other stuff too - drawing, study, going to events, ect... Also I never play for every long times in the same session, doing some breaks between (and changing games). The only side effect is that I often don´t finish game quickly, but I really don´t mind that at all, even if most the games I like are really long. The few times I tried to play in a straightfoward way or rushing to finish it or even for longer times, that didn´t work very well.

[Apelsin]

I don't even play that many games anymore, but as I work in the games industry, listen to game podcasts, read game news and so on and on it is still the largest... context I take part in.

I've started trying to break out of it slightly, shifting over to more varied types of podcasts to listen to on the way to work etc, but there's still some expectation to work on your skills and to keep up with the industry so it's going slowly.

[Griddlelol]

I hate that I only listen to gaming podcasts. I just like them because I don't need to listen. If I tune out while talking to someone or concentrating on something it means nothing to me that I missed a small section.

Whereas if I'm listening to science or history, if I tune out, I need to go back or I won't understand what they're talking about. I'd like to find a way around that, but it's pretty difficult. It also doesn't help that I tend to have a backlog of podcasts to listen to. 

[SecretAsianMan]

I also only listen to gaming podcasts, but then again I only listen to podcasts while in the car, usually on the way to/from work.  In general I'll get through about two a week which these days is Idle Thumbs and the GiantBombcast.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I regularly cull podcasts when I start to lose the fun of them so all I listen to now are the Thumbs and Justice Points as my main source of actually talking about games.

[Sno]

I got to a point where i realized a lot of the gaming podcasts i listened to were more or less reiterating the exact same things as eachother, and they were all always things i had already read about.

I ended up culling a lot of the podcasts that didn't bring any unique voice to anything and sort of ended up with the gaming podcasts i had initially started out with, more or less.

Then i started seeking out podcasts concerning other subjects to fill out the gaps in my listening schedule and was much happier for it.

[dartmonkey]

I often find my leisure time soaked up with stuff to do with games rather than games themselves. I'll be perusing the web over breakfast, one thing leads to another and I realise I've spent 90 minutes noodling on amiibo availability info or scrolling through the eBay ending soonest list or reading reviews of games I've just completed to compare my thoughts. I enjoy it but it does eat in to other pursuits. I've got a half dozen unread books sitting on the bedside table, an unfinished painting that's sat there for 2 years. It takes great effort to break away and I'm always surprised how much I enjoy reading when I manage it. But Tetris and Threes are also pretty great!

[Griddlelol]

I now only listen to Thumbs and The Bombcast simply because they're so polar in terms of content. That however fills more than a week's worth of time. 

[Merus]

I think the only gaming podcast I actually listen to are the Thumbs. I've never found a gaming podcast that covered gaming news that I actually liked - I considered picking up Isometric but the discussion over how bad the GOTY episodes were warded me off some.

[Bjorn]

I had basically given up on gaming podcasts until the rebirth of Idle Thumbs.  Though recently I have added Justice Points in as a second gaming 'cast.  But most of my job isn't terribly mentally taxing, so listening to in-depth stuff on politics, history, economics, etc., isn't a distraction. 

 

Sometimes I think I get more enjoyment from the overall games community and culture than I do actually playing games. 

[Berzee]

Today I received this message in my electronic mailbox.

 

 

And now this week ebay told me that Nintendo Power Glove is trending. I'm not sure what I did to deserve this excellent trend of trend notifications. The only thing related that I can think of is that I searched for a Dreamcast + Shenmue one time...and I sold some Halo decorations that a Gamestop employee gave me as I walked past their store in the mall because they wanted to get rid of them. But it's still a pretty far leap from there to Battletoads and the Power Glove.

[tegan]

Last night I came up with the absolute most perfect possible name for a followup to Kindness Coins, but Arden's tumblr askbox just 404's so I can't send it to her. It's killing me.

 

Kindness Coins: Token of Affection

[supasheep]

A belatedly reported thought:

 

Last summer, I was on holiday in the Canadian Rockies. One of the things that is really interesting to me as a Brit about the place was how recent the (Western) history of the area is - only 150 years ago it was almost completely untouched and undeveloped land. In many ways it still is like that, at least compared to a lot of places I've usually been to in Western Europe. But I couldn't help reflecting on what it would be like to explore a natural place like that, where there could be something completely knew.

 

And my main reaction was "well, it'd probably be a lot like Minecraft."

[miffy495]

A belatedly reported thought:

 

Last summer, I was on holiday in the Canadian Rockies. One of the things that is really interesting to me as a Brit about the place was how recent the (Western) history of the area is - only 150 years ago it was almost completely untouched and undeveloped land. In many ways it still is like that, at least compared to a lot of places I've usually been to in Western Europe. But I couldn't help reflecting on what it would be like to explore a natural place like that, where there could be something completely knew.

 

And my main reaction was "well, it'd probably be a lot like Minecraft."

 

As someone who lives there, the game that's most reminded me of "home" was actually Red Dead Redemption. I spent summers as a teen on my uncle's farm helping train the horses, and riding up into the Rockies at the start of Act 3 of that game wasn't just coming home for Marsten, it was also this huge rush of "holy shit I made it home" for me. If you're going for the atmosphere/feeling of exploring that place more than a Minecraft-esque ACTUALLY exploring and developing a place, that's what I'd nominate. Also, before moving to Alberta I lived in the Great Lakes region of Southern Ontario, so running around the woods in ACIII was also very much like that for me. Neither of those games are about that feeling, but both did an excellent job of capturing it.

[tegan]

If you get a Game Over in the original Super Mario Bros, you can press A+Start on the title screen to start from where you died.

 

This is blowing my mind.

[Twig]

Saw that the other day.

 

When I was a kid I saw someone do this once, but they refused to tell me how they did it, and I could never figure it out on my own. I eventually forgot about it. Now I know how but I wouldn't even need it today! D:

[N1njaSquirrel]

Holy shit, Microsoft's new advertising campaign is the worst thing they've done in a long time. Just what the fuck is this? http://xboxsicknote.com/

 

The worst. 

[tegan]

I once had to come to work during a blizzard on my birthday because some asshole coworker called in "sick" to play Gears of War 2. Don't encourage that shit, Microsoft.

[SecretAsianMan]

I've never taken off of work with the express intention of playing video games.  I have skipped class though.