How many times can someone walk away and come back before returning is no longer an option?
So I’ve been gone for just over a month. I didn’t intentionally mean to do so, honestly. At first, it was a a brief break after Spooptober. I figured a few days to plan out some sort of Thanksgiving based articles to celebrate what I am thankful for in gaming/life.
Then I got distracted by… well honestly I don’t fucking remember anymore. Things blurred together, life, work, Red Dead Redemption 2, and many, many other issues. Hell, I can’t remember most of the shit that happened throughout my month away. I’ve been lost in such a weird haze lately that any issues seem to blend into one another. This entry isn’t just about me going on at length about my shit, I have some things I haven’t really talked to anyone about and it seems rather poor to talk about everything here. However, I figure I ought to talk about what I plan on doing in the current month and possibly in the months to come.
First off, I am really sorry for the lack of content. I am sure that some people have been a bit curious as to why I have been away. I will probably talk about everything in due time, but for now I hope you can all hold onto a simple apology and shit ton of me being vague and edgy.
12 Days of Christmas
Most people know the classic song counting down the days leading up to Christmas, partridge in a pear tree and all that jazz. The other night I came up with an idea, it’s more of a Photoshop image a day but I also thought I might as well craft an odd narrative for what the image means or why I did what I did. This idea doesn’t seem too original, but I do think I could have fun with it. This December, I am going to put myself to the test by showing how I can manipulate imagery from the multiverse.
My 12 Days of Christmas will be Claus’ Of the Multiverse. For 12 days, I will peer into the vast depths of the multiverse and bring everyone 12 different Holly Jolly mother fuckers leading up till Christmas. It is something that seems a bit challenging as well as very interesting. Now I am not restricting myself to Gaming subjects or worlds, though I sure as hell will utilize some of the more unique ones that I’ve wanted to see the big guy in. I will start dropping these images on December 13, though I plan on starting the edits a bit earlier so that way I don’t end up behind schedule on the busier days.
I’m actually excited about this idea, I plan on studying a few Photoshop techniques I haven’t used yet in order to experiment and see how I can pull it all together. I hope the end result can make up for my absence.
Future Efforts
Right now, things are iffy at best when it comes to content past December. I really have nothing planned. I haven’t been able to have a full blown plan as far as the future. Like I alluded to before, I have some issues needing to be worked out, and eventually I would like to get a team or group of some kind together to help keep things on track. Getting content, pitching ideas, and so on and so forth. I have a hard time keeping shit together while working 6 days a week and trying to write/edit at the same time. Sure the airport is laptop friendly, but sometimes lugging it through security just isn’t super enjoyable. I still have a few kinks to work out but eventually I hope, for God’s sake I hope, I will have it down to a science.
For now, just gear up for the the coming winter photoshop fun, and a few articles strung in between. Right now, I am going to go spend the last few minutes before I get sleep with either some RDR2 or just veggin.
Many people only get one chance at an introduction.
Coming into a job, a new school, or in life in general, we have to start a conversation that begins with, “Hi, I’m (insert generic name here)”. I typically just start it by being a bit standoffish before being both crazy and serious all at one instance. But today, I get a bit of a second chance to introduce myself to the world.
Getting the chance to introduce myself once again gives me the chance to let everyone know just what I am about or rather what I’ve been and what I would like to be. So without any further exposition, here we go.
Before I press on, though, I wanted to say I was given this chance for reintroduction by my friends over at Phoenix Overdrive Nation (PON for short). They offered me the chance to act as their writer on things like thought pieces and maybe news and reviews in the future. From Time To Time, if not from now on, my posts will be under the PON banner, I will represent a portion of them, so my cussing might deminish and I might find myself a bit more freeform/relaxed. Many Thanks to the crew over there for the opportunity, and if you already don’t know their information (facebook etc) I’ll leave links at the bottom).
Hello… Again
My name is Justin, I’ve also been called a handful of other names, like Jay, Shaggy, Torch, Shinigami711, ProdigiousJ, and as of recently Reedicus Rex. Granted, saying all those names in a greeting to anyone in person, I’d get more laughs or cocked eyebrows than I might get to those reading it. I get funny enough looks now at work by going along with an inside joke that my name is “Just Steve”, so I can imagine how hard it is to swallow all the other names.
I’ve been playing games since I was about 5 years old, the first consoles I remember having were a Sega Genesis, NES, and the original Gameboy which was followed not long after the SNES. My fondest memories with my sister (which unfortunately were limited as is) were playing Sonic Adventure 2, getting to the water level, which the drowning sound both haunts my nightmares and serves as a good alarm sound to get me up. We took turns but I can’t remember if we ever got past it, yet it was a great bonding moment for what would have become one of the only memories we made together. Divorce separated us at an early age, where I ended up living with my Dad and her with my mother.
On my Dad’s side of the family, money seemed to be used as a substitute for love, so I was constantly getting all the games and consoles I wanted for birthdays and Christmases. Most my time was spent with either a controller or mouse in hand, pushing my through level after level, getting engrossed in fantastic stories and characters, while quietly avoiding my life as much as I could. I was alone 80% of the time. My grandparents acted more like parents, may they rest in peace, and my dad always worked. My mom would be left out of the picture until I turned 18. The only thing that shaped my mind for the world I faced where video game characters like Jak and Daxter, Solid Snake, and good ol’ Mario “Jumpman” Mario.
While it sounds horribly sad, being led to video games as a means to escape my lonely life, it honestly was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. Video games helped me make many of the friends who I know today, it also helped me construct a very deep and enriching moral compass, in more ways than I would have if they honestly they hadn’t been there.
Would I say my life was imperfect? Fuck yeah I would, but perfect doesn’t exist. My life created this sailor mouthed, game playing, blog writing, best damn pun man on the planet person who is writing this at this very moment. I can’t have asked for more.
My humor gets labeled as Dad Jokes, but my pun game is strong, and it can be safe to say many a video game session created. The joysticks to my soul with every single pun I can come up with, hell, the other night I started thinking up a pun only show talking about how something deeply impacted me. The entire run of the show… puns only. And it sounded so damn good that I kind of want it to be a thing.
Video games have opened my eyes to the world of wonder, the keen interest to examine the world for every single detail came from playing games like Uncharted, looking for treasures. Games like Final Fantasy taught me that patience and hard work can help you take on any challenge you may face because all the hours of grinding it took to get me comfortable moving on in early levels.
I have always wanted to bring people together under the banner of video games and the joy it inspires. Many years I wanted to be a video game designer, which was put down by someone in my family (really fucked up my mindset for a while…) but I always wrote about video games, reviews, previews, news, I’ve been doing that since I was in high school. I would print out and pass copies to all my friends and anyone else who would have wanted to read what I wrote. I also wanted to open a video game shop, but as the years went on, I realized that the market for a fully functioning store with everything for everyone, would fall apart quickly. Gamestop cornered the market and has managed to make it stick, so my idea for that still sits on the back burner.
But one thing I got from all the paths I’ve taken with video games is a slogan, I wished I could work in somehow. It is simple, it is easy to remember, but it’s meaning is powerful.
“Connecting Gamers, One Console At A Time”
Maybe there is still hope I can get that reworked for these blogs and maybe with Phoenix Overdrive, I might be able to achieve the goal.
-Reedicus Rex
Thanks again to Phoenix Overdrive for welcoming me aboard as a writer. I have known these guys for quite a while but finally I get to work with some very dedicated folks. Look ahead for more posts under their name.
It has been one hell of a time finding any spare moment to sit down and write without feeling like crud, or being half asleep, or hell being in the right mindset to write. Dealing with kids, new job schedule, now as of this past week I’m also getting super sick. It’s all been kicking my ass in about 5 different directions.
Recently I started a new job and the good game fortune I was experiencing from my birthday has kinda peaked till probably well after Christmas, so I’m basically in a lull for new games. It would just happen to be right around the time when one of the most highly anticipated games for the Nintendo Switch dropped. You all know what I’m talking about, and if you don’t you really need to come up from that Underground Level and smell the Piranha Plants.
That’s right, Super Mario Odyssey dropped and everyone has been hitting my Twitter and YouTube feed’s like they were trying to sell drugs to an addict. Hell it, it’s working because I’m jonsin for the day I can afford a Switch and SMO (and a few other games but why get greedy?)
As I sit here and watch as others show off the costumes, brag about 100% of the coins, talking about when they will be dropping reviews, I sit here and feel a bit out of the loop. I get to live vicariously through everyone who plays it, and it feels just like watching other people play a game in front of you, yet in slow motion. Basically infuriating because you see how to get what they need to do, but you can’t grab the controller and try yourself. Just imagine trying to show your younger sibling to play an Uncharted game, and noticing every time they don’t explore for the treasure. UGH!
Writing this gives me a sense of closure and feels nice to have something or someone to talk to about just how crappy it feels watching all the other “kids” get name brand shoes while I’m stuck with Nikdidas that your mom got from your neighbor.
Sure I’m playing Destiny 2 at the moment, but I’ve burned out of new things to do. I can go back and catch up on my backlog, but I feel I limit myself on reviewing older titles because everyone seems to have already played them, or at least formed an opinion. Why would they want to hear mine on something a year or more older?
That’s thinking I should probably get away from, but can’t seem to stop myself when I get to this point so for now, I’ll sit here and watch from afar your awesome discoveries in Super Mario Odyssey, heck if I see something that can be shopped into a good meme that no one else has already come up with, I’ll share it on Twitter or something.
But just remember, if you see someone on the outside of your window, it might be me watching you play. At least give me a 10 to 15 second head start before calling the cops, I just want to see some new Mario folks.
-ProdigiousJ
PS.
I know it’s a bit shorter this week, but like I said, I’ve been so out of it I can’t come up with good topics to really hunker down and write about. Maybe pitch me some suggestions over on my twitter @ReedicusRex and let me know what you might want me to look into, or maybe even tell me that older reviews aren’t as bad as I seem to think they are.
For now, take care, game well, and always Rise Above. (Phoenix Overdrive has taught me well)
PPS
Also, I’m currently raising money, and trying to see if I have the chance to stream on game day this year for Extra Life. Life might get in the way but I still want to try to help out the kids who are in need of medical treatment and the hospitals/hospital staff that help them every single day. Just follow the link to my Extra Life Page and learn more and maybe help out some kids who deserve a 1Up on life.
Every Year Serves As A Long (Somtimes Painful) Learning Moment
Lately, life has pretty much been piling one thing atop me after another and yet I persist. Though this is the reason I haven’t been able to keep a structured posting schedule or done anything besides personal posts. I know you’re all probably tired of the personal talks but hey, it’s the only thing I can invest time in while I wait for 90% of these issues to pass, which hopefully will be done with by the time September rolls around
REGARDLESS! This past weekend was my birthday, I leveled up to level 28 and gained a bunch of irritating perks upon reaching it. Mostly +2 in headaches and +4 in crap decision revisiting.
As a kid, I can’t remember may of the birthdays till after 10 years old or so, but they were simple birthdays, I guess. I kinda grew tired of the concept over the years, then as I reached high school I realized birthdays were kinda all smoke and mirrors. The amount of friends who attended, the amount of gifts, and the truly sad part is you see just how many people actually give notice that it even is your birthday. You were fooled as a kid or at least since you were younger, things seemed different, possibly more pleasant than they seem as an adult.
So it’s safe to assume that I grow rather jaded over birthdays every year I manage to pull my body and sanity to the next level. However, the past few years have made me realize that I’m becoming more insightful or at least that borderline that. This year I start on my inevitable downhill slide to a midlife crisis at 30, but it also made me realize that I have to finally start bucklin down to aim towards a more structured future. Sure I should have been working on that from a long while ago, but I’m a slow learner and a bit stubborn.
I’ve also realized I’ve become more harden towards most people, stupid mostly, but I’m still willing to offer good advice then tell people to screw off when they admit they wont take my advice. In a sense, I feel like I’m becoming more like my Papa, who passed away earlier this year. He was quiet, worked hard, said what he thought, but was kind in his own way. I feel like maybe, in someway, with each level that passes, I become closure to someone I admired and respect when I was growing up.
Regardless, I’ve never truly noticed the growth I’ve gone through on each birthday. It should have been an obvious thing but just like with New Years Day, you reflect just a little too late on what’s important and what’s happening around you. But as I grow older, I feel like I’m nearing a spot I want to be in. In a career, in my hobbies, and in general, my life might just be nearing a place of comfort. Maybe I can finally stop looking to the past and look towards the future instead.
Like I said at the beginning I have a whole HELL of a lot going on right now, a bunch of issues that will hopefully be resolved by September. So for now a bunch of personal posts might litter this blog until I can finally sit down and do official research on actual subjects. When that times does come, you are more than welcome to comment suggestions on future articles or maybe for one concentrated article for the next few weeks so I can pump on out instead of a few minor posts, just let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
Though as of late, it hasn’t been as consistent for me. I’ve grown to resemble more of a closed book than an open door, keeping people from understanding my contents, my truths, while giving out only enough information to keep people just close enough. I’ve become more of a silent man who walks in the background, a NPC that nobody really needed to notice but got along just as well as he could.
But something hit me the other day, the day of someones birthday, the birthday of a man who I’ve never met before. A Youtuber who I’ve come to admire and respect, who usually has some uplifting message every few months, hell maybe once a week.
Markiplier was not someone I followed back when he started, but rather someone I came across a few years back. Throughout the vast library of videos he has, many of them have helped me get through a hard time, and many who have inspired me to do great things.
Unfortunately, I have never fully acted on that inspiration, never working, living, or playing as hard as I can to become the best I can. Doing what I can to make the world a better place in the best ways I can. I always feel a pang of sadness when I realize I have yet to reach that exciting moment when I fulfill that promise of bettering myself.
But back to the day in question, Markiplier was going on about his birthday and watching older videos of his and reacting to them. He then began to reminisce about how small his channel was at one point, how his life was totally different in the beginning. He talked about how he felt guilty for asking people to share and like his work, and even more so when he had his channel banned and had to re-upload all his videos. There was a moment where he reflected on the instance he almost gave up, almost never went on to restart his channel, and could have decided his limited run as a Youtuber was over.
The World Can Always Change
However, he went through with uploading them all, individually on his “mom’s old internet” he said after his friends convinced him to keep going. He then had to ask his followers to go and individually like, share, etc, his old videos to get the Youtube algorythm to register him better, or however that system actually works.
The basic point of it all was that he changed his life by actually going forward and putting forth the effort to entertain and achieve all that he sought to do. Be better, do better, make the world better. I could be blending that reaction video and his keeping promises video but the message was the same and all too inspiring.
So I decided that day I was going to make a change. Given the situation I am, I have to work harder to get by, I have to schedule better to get to work in all the things I want to do and be. All that I have strived to be since I was a kid, I have to actually work harder than I have to reach it.
This blog, for those few of you who read it, is something I hope makes a better life for someone else out there as well as for myself and my joy of writing and video games. As is a podcast I’ve started to try to host on with a few work buddies. These are the things that I’ve always wanted to do to entertain, to inform, to reflect and these are now things I need to work on to better reach the success I want.
What I Plan On Doing
I want to work on a new writing schedule for this blog, write when I come home, and instead of posting it at 2 in the morning, post it the next morning after proofreading it and making sure it doesn’t sound groggy and half assed. I also will be trying to schedule some more recording time for the podcast, and after today’s first recording that looks to be an uphill battle. However, I want to keep going and learn from the experience. I want to grow, I want to help and entertain people, maybe brighten a day just like Markiplier does on a daily basis. I don’t seek to be him, but I seek to emulate his enthusiasm to change the world for the better.
My new writing schedule will be Wednesday and Saturday. Sometimes I may include a Friday post as well if something comes up I want to write about. I will keep myself accountable so I will be successful in what I do and how I attempt to help the world around me. I also will happily welcome readers and friends hold me accountable, at least a simple reminder, just to keep me honest. So from now on, expect posts on the most inane, the most beautiful, and the most hilarious (to me anyway) subjects every Wednesday and Saturday.
To close, I’d like to say what Markiplier might try to say at the end of one his inspirational speeches. Guys, for those few who do read, just try to be the good you want to see in the world. Make someone smile, tell a friend a crappy joke when they are feeling down, but do it all with a smile and never give up thinking you can’t change yourself or the world around you. Be strong and always aim to be better every day because if you don’t try to better yourself then you can never grow and you can never learn.
I have always wanted to try my hand at Dungeons and Dragons, but as a kid, I was embarrassed what people would think of me. People’s opinions always ruled what I shared with in public, or reached out to others to learn, so I decided asking about learning what was considered “nerdy” was something to keep off my to do list. Little did I know that being nerdy or geeky was awesome and to be celebrated.
Years would pass, and as most people know the habits and insecurities get so embedded in your mind that you can’t truly shake the notion of mockery or scorn by people who you know wouldn’t judge you anyway. It’s safe to say I’ve put off many, many things that culture once didn’t accept that seemed to be especially interesting and just today I started down the probably long path of checking off one of my goals. I started my journey on a D&D campaign.
The Rise of Reedicus Feedicus
Now part of the name is wasn’t exactly my choice, but it was either that or Moun Ton Doo, and besides the lung busting laughter that ensued, I preferred Reedicus Feedicus. Before my best friend and I started working on my stats and background, I pulled up an old video made from character models from the game Summoner acting out a skit written by Rick and Morty’s Dan Harmon. I’ve known about it for years and I’m sure so many other people know it, I just couldn’t help having “I wanna cast magic missile” playing in the background.
Finding out that the father of all rpgs was far different than what I’m used to playing threw me off a bit, I was expecting to play only by the set amount of points to each character and that I would gain more as I leveled up. When told that I was stuck with the amount I have and that I could roll for the stats I would have forever, only skills adding up as you level. So much I knew about tabletop games.
I waited about 15 years to learn about this game, and what certain video game franchises that toted D&D mechanics had taught me differently than what the game appeared to be. Not that I’m saying I was led astray, but that I what I was expecting and what I got were marginally different things. Taking the time to learn these new old rules takes a toll on someone who apparently knows absolutely nothing about rpgs, even if the differences weren’t all that major, but it does put things into question for me.
Was basic point allotment apart of the game before or was it added in later on in favor for those who didn’t like the “fuckin’ deal with what you roll” mentality? Or did video game and future table top games just adapt because those who were ok with it were tired of hearing those who weren’t complain? I can’t say for certain, though I’m sure the more I research, I’ll find out eventually but for now I’m taking things one dice roll at a time.
Tiefling Rouges Have More Fun
I always struggle in games when it lets me choose classes. I feel this urge building up deep inside of me that screams at me. Sometimes a wild cry of “I would love to shoot a motherfucker from a long ways away”, while another screams “Hell, let me charm my way through life while stealing people’s priceless objects.” So many voices cry out to be heard, to be given a chance to live outside the bounds of our laws, and sometimes our morals. I just love the rush of all the possibilities of games like that but I know, in the end, I can’t choose them all. So I whittle down the most interesting of the characters and what skills I would rather utilize, if I could do so myself.
Not always an easy task, but I end up being a Rouge about 90% of the time, as long as I have sleight of hand, a high charisma stat so I can charm the pants off people or talk myself out of any situation, and the use of a bow is always a must. I’ll take the shadowy path anytime, but I have some standards. Either being Chaotic Good or Neutral keeps me in line with my own moral compass to some regard, I mean Reedicus still steals and usually lies to NPCs but he isn’t cold hearted.
This go round, I decided on Tiefling, for those who don’t know, it’s basically a devil. In my case, after rolling for height and weight, I’m 5’4″ and weigh 125, so not all that intimidating looking. Heck, we even found a profile image for it as if Reedicus drew it. The DM in training, the aforementioned friend, and I spent the next 15 minutes or more just working out simple stats, me asking questions because I had no idea what I was doing or what some of the more unfamiliar aspects of character development were. In the end, I liked how things turned out, even the dice rolls were in my favor for the stats.
One of my favorite race abilities just so happened to make my character act like a total dick if he wanted to. Making sounds come from pinpoint locations, making my voice booming, making unlocked doors and windows fly open or close at a whim, and even flickering candles. I could just be a total ass while staying in the shadows if I wanted to! As well as one of the, I can’t remember the actual word, but I’ll call it a skill, was to be proficient in an horned instrument just so I could use the horn and the booming voice all in one go if I wanted to. Yeah, I will have fun with this when an actual campaign goes down.
The Mock Battle To End All Mock Battles
To end the day, once Reedicus was brought to life, he wanted to run a mock battle between me, 5 NPC characters in which he created before I arrived, including a Warforged golem named Sir Kills Alot, and 7 goblins. Within the course of 20 minutes, I think I lost track of time between all the laughing and commenting on all the events transpiring within the cave. The battle was simple, but as my first run at it started with me moving the dwarf bard into the line of fire as a meat-shield, and even this didn’t end with him being downed till the last moves of the match ending with him and Goblin #1 impaled on each others swords, the bard trying to shout insults to damage him to no avail.
In other words, the battle was a huge success, only having two of my characters downed and having learned some awesome things about each character class that I never thought was possible. I mean insults damaging people? I never knew bards could be so interesting. I’d never be one, but now I have a newfound respect for the song singers, not that it means I wont make them meat-shields in the future, just that I wont take them for granted if I go against them.
All in all, this experience was great, I can’t believe I waited so long to even try to learn the game. Out of fear of being judge or even the fear of not being as knowledgeable about tabletop games as other people and being judged for it, I stopped myself from enjoying something like this that could breed such humor and imagination. It’s weird discovering things so late in life, because it makes me sound like a child but I’ll live with sounding like a child if I get to enjoy this game as much as I did today.
So I guess a lesson for anyone reading this is, don’t let fear stop you from doing something that could be exciting, or just something you are interested in, just do it! You can’t just hold off on what could be a great experience, doing that just leaves you with “what ifs” while everyone else is off having an awesome time doing what you’re afraid to. Keeping an open mind and not letting the stress bother you enough to halt fun, you live a life half lived.
A lesson I learned a little late in life apparently.
Have you ever wished you could take back something embarrassing you’ve said?
I’m sure many of us have made this wish on nights where our insomnia reigns supreme while the horrible conversations run on repeat. I have these moments continually in life, my anxiety is always preventing me from sleeping without first entertaining thoughts of all the mildly (majorly) embarrassing things I’ve done in life. In an attempt to rationalize things, I try to create scenarios where I would say something cooler or at least smoother.
Inner me is cooler by all means, but real life Jay doesn’t meet the standards of cool I’ve set. I was thinking about this earlier today, as I was working at the airport where I deal with customers on a daily basis and my comments always get jumbled or I get caught of guard by people’s questions I don’t expect. Then a question came to mind as I sat down on break; What if I had a dialogue tree? Would my conversations with people become stress free? In the end, I would have to say it would make life more interesting, that’s for sure.
Imagine a customer comes up and they decide they want to be rude and interrupt you every time you open your mouth. What if you were given three choices on how to respond, the standard dialogue tree affair with Good, Neutral, Or Bad, and could see them in front of you before you spoke. The amount of time you could wait to respond comes included in this package, so you could weigh each choice with a decent amount of time and come to terms with the consequences. You decide you’ve had about enough of rude customers today so you pop off a comment from the Bad column and start by interrupting them and tell them off in the most fantastic way. You have a moment in the sun, sure you may regret the decision later, but you sounded as cool as you sound in your head. Finally.
Of course reality isn’t always as great as you imagine in your mind, but one can dream. Implementing video game mechanics into real life would make things a little more enjoyable and possibly improve your social life. Or destroy it, if it were me.
I know my thoughts may come off childish, but I’m sure I can’t be the only one who thinks things like this, so I would like to hear what video game mechanics you would implement in the real world?
Would you use dialogue trees, or would you rather introduce open combat against horrid customers? Well if you are the latter, you should look into an up and coming Indie game known as I Hate My Job by Devious Gamers. They are running a fund raising campaign to get marketing funds in the US. They have already had a soft launch in India and it looked promising. So if you want to take a look into the company or feel interested in backing such a project, I’ll post links below.
I Hate My Job IndieGoGo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-devious-gamers-launch-i-hate-my-job-game-mobile#/
P.S.
I want to note that I will eventually start doing video game reviews and news when I get into a regular routine. So those of you who start to follow me, I will be including these in my future writings. It also depends on my financial situation but I digress and say hopefully in the near future that can begin.
Video Games always come with an instruction manual.
Whether it be like it was when I was a kid and with each game came a thick, stapled pamphlet that held everything including a back story and some hints, or the current digital ones we receive when we download the whole of the game. People can choose to peruse these books for control schemes, settings, or additional info on items or characters in game. Most players might not wish to do so, but to some, these are a reliable sources of knowledge during confusing moments.
Life, however, has never come with instructions, which I’m sure many of us have screamed to the heavens for. Just look at this blog, I’m almost certain I don’t have it looking amazing or professional in any regard, that being because I have limited to no skills in customizing blogs/websites. Writing, sure I’ve been doing that for years, that’s my shtick hence why I started this blog. Now, I could easily look up instructions on how to effectively change my site’s look, but many sites seem to just blast the same info over and over again, giving very little context on how to do implement said information.
Where instruction manuals simplified things to basic levels, online guides have a tendency to vary on the usefulness. Throwing technical jargon around like it’s common place makes it harder for someone like me to learn subjects I know nothing about. I could only assume there is some simplified guides out there but they either cost money I don’t have or I have to wade through thousands of pages of rubbish to find.
Moments like this discourage me from trying to adapt to the changing times. Things I want to do, like photo/video editing, this blog site editing, etc. These all seem rather off putting to try given the information is handed to you as if you have done these things before hand. It’s reminiscent of how some companies want to hire someone with experience but it’s impossible for workers to have experience if no one hires.
I just wish somewhere, the true instruction manual for life exists for someone such as myself. A man can dream I suppose.
How many of you feel this way? Has anyone found a way around this lack of simplified learning tools? Let me hear your thoughts.
Those infamous words every parent known to man has spoken to a whiny child, which only gives them a tiny glimpse of just how unfair the world really is. Sure it starts with Mom or Dad not letting you see that R Rated movie or not buying you the latest phone to keep up with Jessica who always has the best, but it soon turns into so much more. Responsibilities of one kind or another occur, whether it be paying rent, having to get a job to pay said rent, or having to deal with car payments, which require you to work even more to keep up with. You say “I’ll go to college, get a degree and just have a great job to do all this, no need to complicate things.”, to which I merely say student loans. More work looms ahead of you there as well. Then there are those, like myself, who have these issues as well as kids.
These responsibilities keep us grounded in reality, even if this reality just doesn’t seem fair and makes us want to be lost in fantasy worlds.
I grew up playing video game, most free moments I had a controller in my hand. Home from school? Video Games. 3 Day Weekend? Video Games? The music I listen to while I write these? You guessed it, Video Games. It was almost impossible to pull the controller from my grip. Those days ended right around the end of High School, when my father let the harsh reality of life smack me in the face. I needed to go out, get a job and start paying rent in his home or in my own. I know other kids my age had already had jobs in high school, but I was allowed to focus on my studies before being thrown to the wolves at 18.
From that moment on, getting to play any sort of game has been a luxury. Finding time between relationships, work, and now family is a daunting task, leaving me with either getting up in the wee hours of the morning before work to play, or staying up passed a reasonable time to sleep once I get off of work. It’s a very tricky balance, but isn’t entirely hard to find.
Growing up, my only saving grace in difficult family situations, broken homes, and silent upbringing, was video games. I decided a long time ago that there was no way I’d leave gaming out of my life, since it was the cornerstone of my upbringing. It shaped me, gave me joy, brought me friends, and even helped discover I had the talent to write. I refused to let games fade into the background.
So What Was My Solution?
Well, it’s not foolproof, nothing truly is, since if money isn’t available buying new games isn’t simple. However, with a decent back log of older games, free game releases from PS Plus, and the occasional rental (yes those still exist) I find the means to play. Time is an issue, or at least it would be if I didn’t have an understanding with my wife that I do occasionally need to relax with video games, or we find time to play together. One day, I’ll even play with my kids, at the moment it’s not so easy to coordinate that, but it is in the works. Working around the work schedule, family time, and friends is a pain but it’s manageable. The ways sound simple, and I’m sure many people have already figured out these “secrets”, but I’m writing this just to say it’s possible. Life can suck, it can be downright cruel, but it isn’t impossible to do what you love, you just might lose a little sleep sometimes.
Have any particular ways you find to Adult and play video games? :Let me know and maybe throw in some tips for, ya know, a friend.
-Jay
Image Credit goes to Will Ferrell and wewantinsanity.com
Reedicus Rex's Respwn Point 