#oneaday Day 70: Attention Deficit Gaming

There’s a guy (I assume it’s a guy) in a Discord I’m in who is the most attention-deficit gamer I think I’ve ever seen, and I cannot imagine living life like he does. His entire contribution to the Discord in question is announcing what he has bought from a digital storefront today (and he buys a lot seemingly every week) and what he is reinstalling for presumably not the first time.

I get actual anxiety if I have more than one or two games on the go at once. I start feeling like I “should” finish one of the things I’m playing before I start something else. This is an entirely self-inflicted scenario that has come about at least in part from the habits I picked up while working in games journalism and running my own website, but I’m not particularly mad about it; the way I feel about things means that I’m much more likely to play things through to completion and get what I believe to be a full appreciation of them.

If there’s one thing that doing my “Cover Game” thing on MoeGamer for several years taught me, it’s that a significant proportion of games out there have considerable hidden depths that only truly reveal themselves to analysis when you’ve spent a protracted amount of time with the game. I like being able to talk about things in that much depth — even if, as I’ve bemoaned frequently over the last few years, it’s fucking impossible to get anyone to give a shit these days — and thus I don’t have any particular desire to change.

Being in those habits, though, just makes me confused as to what this person is getting out of their gaming time. By jumping back and forth between big games like Fate/stay night, Utawarerumono and numerous others, he’s surely dooming himself to never making any substantial progress in any of them. And when you’re talking story-centric games or visual novels like that, that seems like a… sub-optimal means of enjoying them.

Perhaps I’m the weird one. I know plenty of people who flit from Game Pass game to Game Pass game and think nothing of it. I just think it’s a bit sad that the norm these days seems to be to get a surface-level look at something and then move on to the next new shiny thing. One could say that some games could stand to be a bit shorter — and that’s certainly true — but that doesn’t mean the long ones have no value or aren’t worth sticking with over the long term. It just seems less and less likely that people will actually stick with those longer titles.

I hope that doesn’t mean that we end up with a gaming sector that eschews long-form experiences altogether. I don’t think that will happen — not least because the triple-A studios seem obsessed with “player retention” over the long term, even in single-player titles — but I would say, if you recognise yourself in what I’m describing here: take the time to focus on and complete one game. You might just be surprised what a rewarding experience it is.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

2381: Awareness is Half the Battle

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Remember a few days ago I wrote about my own particular take on “creative block”?

Turns out the simple act of explicitly acknowledging the fact I’m aware of this issue with my own attention span has helped me to do something about it.

In the times when I’ve been working on my RPG Maker MV project, I’ve been considerably more productive than I have been in the past, with far less staring into space and far more in the way of map-making. The current map count for the project now stands at 72, which means I’m well over halfway to assembling the first of the five “worlds” in the game, which is also likely to be the most complex and largest, and so a good idea to get out of the way first. (I know I’m well over halfway because I’ve mapped out what I want the final overall map to look like on paper, and numbered each of the individual “rooms”.)

I’ve also found this awareness to be very helpful when doing actual work rather than just pissing around with RPG Maker. I’ve finally had some freelance work start flowing in again, and I’ve been managing to sit down and concentrate on it enough to get it done efficiently and in plenty of time to submit for the deadline without having to do a last-minute rush on everything. (Even when I did a last-minute rush, I always got stuff in on time, mind you; it was just rather more stressful than it really needed to be.)

Whether this new way of thinking will stick around — and, for that matter, if it’s anything to do with the new anti-anxiety drugs I’m on, which have just about stopped making me feel perpetually stoned now, thankfully — remains to be seen, but I’m going to take full advantage of it while it’s here, and maybe even get a creative project or two actually finished. That’d be something, eh?

Incidentally, I’m not quite ready to reveal the full extent of my RPG Maker MV project as yet, since its very nature is something I’d like to keep as a bit of a surprise for some of my friends. Over the coming weeks as things start to come together, though, you can expect a few teasers of what I’ve been up to. I will, however, say up front that I’ve mostly been using RPG Maker MV’s stock art resources with it (albeit with some lovely lighting effects courtesy of a wonderful plugin), because that always seems to be something that people whinge about with RPG Maker projects, even those just done for “fun” like this one. I am hoping, however, that the story, the writing, the characters and the humour in it will more than make up for my own lack of artistic talent and consequent reliance on provided art resources.

There’s also going to be some great music in it; some of it stock RPG Maker tracks (RPG Maker MV’s provided music is seriously way too good not to include at least some of it!) and some provided by members of the RPG Maker community. If I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I might even compose some of my own work for it, but let’s take things one step at a time, shall we…?

#oneaday Day 955: Ten Signs You’ve Been Working From Home for Too Long

I’ve been working from home ever since I decided that teaching was Not The Career For Me, and I like it a lot. I never really enjoyed the office environment of “traditional” jobs, and in the time-sensitive environment of a school you never have a moment to sit back and relax or, as is more commonly needed, sit with your head in your hands crying profusely. Freelancing affords one the luxury of flexibility at the expense of security, though I’ve been pretty lucky in my last couple of gigs to find myself with stable, predictable income each month. Okay, I had almost a year where I was pulling in a couple of hundred dollars a month and sometimes nothing at all. But things are, touch wood, now Going Well.

Working from home comes with its own pitfalls, however. Naturally, I haven’t fallen prey to any of what I am about to describe; this post simply serves as a warning to those of you made of less stern stuff than I am.

Without further messing around, then, let’s jump right into ten things that might make you feel like getting a “real” job might not be such a terrible idea after all.

You stop dressing for success. Or indeed at all.

If you can work in your pants, there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever to get dressed in order to do your work, right? Well, no, unless you’re participating in some sort of webcam conference, and even then you only really need to be “all business” up top.

Still, specifically getting dressed — even if it’s only throwing on a stinky t-shirt — helps get you in the mindset that Now Is Work Time. You can always take your trousers off again later.

Having a poo with the door open becomes default behaviour.

You might think that settling down for a long dump while leaving the door open so you can still hear your music/see the TV is a great idea if there’s no-one in the house. And indeed it is one of life’s great pleasures to do so.

But when this becomes default behaviour — when you start leaving the door open even for music you don’t really like or for, say X-Factor on TV, then you may have a problem.

To rid yourself of this issue, reach an agreement with your partner/housemate/parents (delete as applicable) that at least once per week, they will come home at an unexpected time. You’ll soon learn to be ashamed of your body and the things it does again.

Every time you see the postman, he apologises for waking you.

Related to the first point above, if you answer the door to the postman in a dressing gown, he will probably assume he has woken you, even if it’s lunchtime. Avoid this misunderstanding by putting some clothes on before answering the door.

If you are worried that you won’t be able to dress yourself before he puts one of those “sorry we missed you” cards through the door, keep a cache of “emergency clothes” handy near the door that are easy to put on — tracksuit bottoms and some sort of zip-up jacket or shirt are a good idea. They don’t have to match.

Your masturbation-to-work ratio gets rather lop-sided.

If you’re spending more time wanking than doing something useful, you aren’t working hard enough. Very simple.

Coffee consumption goes through the roof.

If you’re getting through a packet/tin/jar of coffee in less than a week, you’re probably drinking too much. I know you need to stay on top of your game and churn out those 15,000 words you promised by yesterday, but man, seriously. Imbibing so much caffeine that you can feel your heart going “OH MY GOD STOP STOP NOW” is not the way forward.

You start exhibiting behaviours typically reserved for the clinically insane.

Are you walking around your house mumbling obscenities over and over again because they “sound funny”? Are you dancing naked to the theme tune of your favourite TV show? Do you spend hours staring at a wall in the hope it will do something interesting? You need to get a proper job before the wall does start doing something interesting and you start having conversations with yourself.

You start experimenting with cheese on toast.

Cheese on toast is a simple and effective meal. The moment you start fucking around with it, though, you’re on a downward spiral. As soon as you start carefully layering various luncheon meats beneath the cheese, then seasoning with cajun spice mix and drawing aesthetically-pleasing patterns in tomato ketchup on top, it’s time to go and work somewhere with a proper canteen.

Actually, scratch that one. Deluxe cheese on toast is awesome.

You get really good at Countdown.

If you have reached a stage where you’re really good at both the letters and the numbers rounds of Countdown, you really need to get out and get a job. Possibly in Accounts. Or the Conundrum Department.

Your attention span diminishes.

You start some sort of creative project such as a list of ten signs you’ve been working from home for too long and then lo