Easter Blog ~ Project Update + Video Game Essay

Hey, y'all. Just wanted to give a slight update on things.

Firstly, I've made little to no actual progress on any projects (pending and current) over the past month due to increased workload caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I work in a supermarket and as you might expect business is kinda booming. It's not all bad though, I'm getting so much extra money from bonuses, extra hours, and a raise. There are many people out there that have lost their jobs or are unable to cope with the economic crisis and my heart goes out to them. I consider myself very fortunate to not only still have a job but having a job where I'm thriving. I could be doing better, granted, but it could be MUCH worse. However as a result of this, I haven't had much time or energy to write or draw. I have brainstormed plenty though, so I have new ammunition. I was originally shooting for mid to late April to upload the first chapters of my new projects, but since I've gotten next to no work done, that's gonna probably be pushed back to May or June. As for ESZ, I would expect nothing substantial yet as I still have yet to catch up Lance on the story, thus nothing has even really been done yet. It's not a huge priority anyway, so you should know me by now.

I'm hoping things will kind of level out and return to a semi-normal state by the end of April or May, though I won't hold my breath. I just want to say to everyone: hang in there and keep moving forward, wash your hands frequently, and maintain social distances as needed, and things are going to be okay. We might have to spend a long time recovering from the fallout, but we will recover, I can promise you that. To fellow Americans who have received or will received extra money through work or stimulus, I would highly recommend you put that money into a robust emergency fund, such as a high-yield savings account (1.50% at least) before you do anything like invest or pay off any debts. Assuming you already have the necessities covered or course, obviously if you have food or rent or anything vital, take care of that first. And as always, form a budget and stick to it. Just take care of yourself and your family, we are all in this together.

Now then, with all that out of the way, I wanna talk about video games.

Firstly, I got Megaman Zero/ZX Collection for my Switch. I have always been a big Megaman fan, I have every mainline game in some for with the exception of the Star Force games which I have yet to even play. This is the first time the stellar ZX games have been rerelased since the good old DS era and they really are some fantastic games. The Zero saga though is probably my favorite of the entire franchise, it's just so good and the story is amazing and the gameplay is fun and the characters are memorable, I can go on and on as to why these games are fking fantastic. Really, I could. I also got Luigi's Mansion 3 which I've yet to start yet but have always wanted to try. And then Persona 5 Royal which I was waiting for so that I could experience what everyone was praising so much about P5. We'll just have to see when I start it.

But with that said and done, video games are a very important part of my life. They are a fun way to kill time of course, but you can gain so much from them (within reason of course). I commented on a post about games recently and my answer originally was just a simple comment about depending on how invested I was into a game and it ended up with me spending a straight hour writing what is practically an essay about the industry and experience as a whole. I felt it was too good not to share, so here it is.

The following is a comment I wrote on a poll found here with the subject "Do you take games seriously, aka. Get angry when you lose?".

Depends on the type of game and the amount of investment I have into it.

Single player games are the ones I tend to gravitate towards most, not because I don't like the online multiplayer environments, but because as an adult with my work and personal life, I just don't have the time nor the willingness to put a lot of time in games as I used to, not for lack of trying. A game by definition should be fun regardless of what you're doing. I don't care if you are doing it as a hobby or as a profession, at the end of the day if you just trying to get it over with and rushing through everything, you probably aren't having fun with it. And that can be due to a variety of reasons, some directly correlating with the game and others having to do with your living state. A game can be good but you can't enjoy it because you are in a less than ideal situation (say, you have debts or education looming over your head, maybe you have a family to look after, or maybe you are sick with the Coronavirus and just prefer to get some rest like you know that you should), and a bad game can be a lot of fun because of how hilariously poorly designed it is (perhaps it's got a lot of entertaining glitches, or weird or bad voice acting that makes it entertaining, or perhaps you just enjoy an average or mediocre game for personal reasons; I personally enjoy Megaman X7, Resident Evil 5, and Shadow the Hedgehog, don't judge me). Time commitment is also a big factor of this, especially with JRPGs. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game I absolutely adore and whole heartedly recommend to anyone remotely interested. But I also understand that +107 hours of gameplay isn't everyone's cup of tea, I personally don't like replaying really long games unless there is a self-imposed challenge or I'm showing the game off to someone. As an adult, I find that I like a lot of games that I can complete in an evening like Luigi's Mansion 1, Kirby, and any mainline Megaman game (as opposed to the Battle Network games or perhaps Legends, as much as I adore those games they take awhile to playthrough due to the aforementioned RPG reason). Even just a few matches of Overwatch is usually enough to satisfy me.

This is why I don't like it when people put down others for playing "easy" or "short" games. There is this preconceived notion that easy = bad, and that ball-busting difficulty = amazing by default. Sure, if a game is built around the idea, than a challenging game (Dark Souls esque or many NES retro games) might be fun if you are in the mood. But if you just want a quiet relaxing evening, maybe you wanna unwind from the stress of working in a retail store during a global pandemic that is causing so many supply shortages, economic stress, inconvenience because SO MANY OF THE STORES AND RESTAURANTS YOU LIKE TO FREQUENT ARE CLOSE UNTIL FUTHER NOTI- my point is you might not always be in the mood for something that will push you further into the pit of rage or exhaustion.

Online games (which I don't play much of nowadays other than Overwatch) by design follow different rules than single player games because of the community dynamic, thus there are expectations that need to be met: code of conduct, well designed mechanics and environments, etc. Some of these things need to be in place for the player to have fun and enjoy it, but also provide the necessary elements to instill the same spirit of competition that, say, a game of basketball would have. While some games can reasonably bend those rules if counterbalanced in some way, a lot of thought and energy needs to go into it from both sides, the players and the developers.

On the developers side, there is the need to balance profit with passion. Some might disagree with me, but Art in all forms have always been a business since its inception, regardless of the medium. There is a creative side but there is also the capitalist side, and I do think it's important to be invested in both sides in order to stay committed. That said, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. Example: I am not entirely opposed to the idea of the dreaded "Microtransations" and "DLC" if it's not invasive or poorly designed, however when it is - and sadly from what I hear, it's becoming more common - at best it can create an imbalance in the dynamics (making certain maps, characters, or weapons available only to those willing to spend the money, while others who are unable or unwilling to are either left out of the experience or put at a disadvantage), and at worst it can damage consumer confidence in the product and the studio/developer/publisher as a whole (I only have to point towards EA, Activision, and Konami for this and you'll understand).

That said, if you ignore the monetary aspect of the industry and your project, you might find that you'll suffer more than you might expect. There is so much that goes into a game: coding/programming, artwork, 3D modeling and rigging, acting, writing, sound work, visual effects, and even just properly organizing all of this while on a budget or timeframe, while also maybe dealing with pressure from your benefactors make the industry quite a nightmare from behind the scenes (Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame talked about the horrible experiences he and his team had to put up with when he/they still worked with Konami). Being an Indie developer might help, but you still have to cobble together a budget on projects that have more than one, or even a couple people working on it; you are performing a service when you are doing any of the jobs listed above, I firmly believe you should be adequately compensated for your time and skill and should not fall for the whole "passion project" or "exposure" shtick anyone tries to preach to you. Time you are investing for someone is time not spent earning a living elsewhere. "Cheap art isn't good and good art isn't cheap."

On the community side, while it depends on the game, just about everyone I know would want to be treated well, or at least fairly. If you are not having a good time, you tend to take it out on others, especially if you are in an elevated position, be it level, skill, etc. Of course, I like to believe the vast majority of a community are well behaved, likable folks who just want to play fair and have a good time, making friends and maybe sharing experiences outside the game too. But this all depends on two things: the quality of the game, and the quality of the experience.

Let's say you just bought a car and you go out driving it. Maybe you got it new or perhaps you waited awhile and decided to get it used. Perhaps you paid extra for some interesting additions, I don't know what your life is like. But regardless of how you obtained it, you are driving it and you are able to interact with the world. Let's say, for the sake of example, you paid good money for an expensive but well built car (idk, let's say Tesla) and you want to show it off and it ends up becoming a conversation starter. Perhaps you meet a new friend over this car and you talk about it, the company that made it, maybe you two share the experiences you've had with this car and how you've met. Perhaps you even met the person you ended up dating or even marrying? But then one day, maybe you're sideswiped by someone in a beater who intentionally damaged your baby, or maybe someone keyed it when you were away or slashed your tires? What if you find out your favorite beauty has a previously unknown defect or issue with it that makes it either less fun or outright dangerous? If your warranty or insurance covers it, cool. You shouldn't have had to deal with this bs, but at least it had no lasting repercussions. But what if it doesn't and you have to pay for the costs out of pocket or perhaps you even have to get a new car if the damage is severe enough? If you're lucky, you can move on with your newly made friends and this will never happen again, especially if the manufacture wises up and owns up to their mistake, either fixing the defect they caused or releases a newer better model. But perhaps you notice nothing improves. Maybe the manufacture or insurance, or whatever is too head up their ass or so indifferent that it seems they just don't care about you, the customer. Or maybe you notice you live in a town filled with reckless drivers who might be a danger to your vehicle, jealous people who might try to tear you down or make your accomplishment seem meaningless, or outright criminals trying to take it from you.

If you are able to, you are probably either gonna distance yourself from all of this, if not outright move elsewhere.

I trailed off from that analogy a bit, but you get the idea. Online gaming is like driving a care: if your ride is well designed and everyone is courteous and follows the rules, it can be a nice experience, but when you have a ride that's falling apart or the people involved are either indifferent or malicious, you probably don't look forward to doing it.

And then aside from all this, there are those people that don't see the appeal in video games who try to judge you for your interests and hobbies: those people who think video games are a waste of time (which is funny considering those same people often then sit down for hours watching a TV show or movie, not that I'm judging anyone at all for doing that since I do it too, just with Youtube), or worse: demonize gaming for being violent, satanic, or whatever. There are many, many studies out there that show that gaming not only has a positive effect on your brain and life, but have actually saved lives, from the overt (like the article saying a kid saved his dad's life when the latter had a stroke by being able to drive the car, all because of GTA), to the subtle (like helping Alzheimer's patients). Furthermore, to those saying gaming is a danger or useless to our youth and making them violent: many studies have shown that video gaming can A) provide a healthy outlet for people's aggression, B) actually teach you many things (history, philosophy, reflexes, and a study showing that 30 minutes of Super Mario 64 a day might actually increase a child's brain capacity by as much as 10%), C) does not produce violent offenders and those who do develop almost always have a pre-existing dysfunction, and D) be an excellent bonding experience for you and your family. Of course just like with everything, moderation is key. Gaming can be a fun and healthy way to pass the time with some benefits. OVER indulging to an extent is not, and can lead to health problems (physical and mental), and left unchecked, Gaming Addition can destroy you and your life (this is true for ANY addition). A person is more than capable of binging a game for hours and still be a healthy productive member of society. But please, take care of yourself. A hobby should be fun, not dangerous. Gaming is actually stressful, even if you are having a good time, so please get up and walk around, even if it's just for a few minutes across the room, every hour or so. Give yourself a rest.

tl;dr I might take the game seriously and have fun when the game and the community around it are having fun, but when the community is toxic, the developer is too greedy or too indifferent, or if the game is just plain bad, I don't usually bother; if everyone else doesn't give a shit, why should I. And when it's good, it's good, it's to be shared.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to read this and acknowledge my existence. Take care of yourself in these trying times, be strong but be smart. You are one of a kind, and just like the Messiah himself, we can rise again.

Happy Easter everyone.

Edit: fixed some spelling, didn't bother to originally spellcheck the original comment.