{"id":263,"date":"2016-07-14T01:19:29","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T01:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morsepower.net\/wp\/?p=263"},"modified":"2016-07-14T01:19:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T01:19:29","slug":"hows-keith-playing-june-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/?p=263","title":{"rendered":"How’s Keith Playing? June 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I started what was supposed to be a series<\/a> detailing the various electronic and cardboard games that I had been playing in a given month. \u00c2\u00a0Then life exploded<\/a> and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow up on it. \u00c2\u00a0I started trying to write the next iteration, and found it would be extraordinarily short. \u00c2\u00a0Not because I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been playing anything over the past three months. \u00c2\u00a0But because the way I game now has fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n

I realized that the shift was dramatic enough to be worthy of inspection. \u00c2\u00a0How has parenthood changed the way I game?<\/p>\n

One Game at a Time<\/b><\/h3>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found myself getting singularly focused more than usual. \u00c2\u00a0For two straight months, all I did was play Dark Souls 3. \u00c2\u00a0I beat it twice around, and started on a third run before switching back to Elite: Dangerous a week ago. \u00c2\u00a0Correlation doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imply causation, so I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell if this is related to the adoption, or if I just really like this game that much. \u00c2\u00a0Would I have zeroed in on it regardless of life events? \u00c2\u00a0Hard to say. \u00c2\u00a0But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happened.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a wide catalogue of games I own but haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t played (this is all your fault, Humble Bundle). \u00c2\u00a0But context switching between them seems to be too much work. \u00c2\u00a0Instead I just plop down in front of my game de jour <\/i>without any thought. \u00c2\u00a0Even if that game winds up being very cognitively tasking. \u00c2\u00a0That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to make sense.<\/p>\n

No Restrictions on Quitting<\/b><\/h3>\n

I want to know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m able to jump off of the seat and leave whenever I want. \u00c2\u00a0Not just in case of emergencies, but for simple things. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153can you get my a glass of water\u00e2\u20ac\u009d simple. \u00c2\u00a0So, many games are complicated. \u00c2\u00a0Dark Souls 3 actually actively penalizes you for ungracefully quitting, but I can work with that. \u00c2\u00a0But games with save points would be a non-started.<\/p>\n

I think this roadblock is mostly a product of paranoia. \u00c2\u00a0I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had any situation arise in three months of parenthood that would have required me to jump up at full attention right now<\/b>, after the girls are in bed. \u00c2\u00a0But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen tomorrow. \u00c2\u00a0And so I still refuse to risk it.<\/p>\n

No Multiplayer<\/b><\/h3>\n

This seems extreme but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find a way around it. \u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually a by-product of the previous restriction: most multiplayer games are hard to leave arbitrarily. \u00c2\u00a0For example, quit Rust at the wrong time and your player character just falls asleep in an exposed position. \u00c2\u00a0Habitually leaving matches of DotA gets one relegated to the low-priority queue (and for good reason, it fundamentally breaks the game for 9 other people). \u00c2\u00a0Any game with a fixed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153session\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is problematic this way. \u00c2\u00a0All real-time strategy games will be unavailable unless, I think. \u00c2\u00a0Elite:Dangerous works only because I one can play in an semi-offline state.<\/p>\n

Part of this problem might be the games that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve chosen. \u00c2\u00a0If I played CS:GO or Overwatch I could just drop out any time without a problem.<\/p>\n

\nNo Board Games<\/b><\/h3>\n

I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t played a board game since we got the girls. \u00c2\u00a0Not a single one. \u00c2\u00a0I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out why this is. \u00c2\u00a0It might be because so many board games just aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very fun with only two players, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not playing with other people any more. \u00c2\u00a0Board games are inherently social, so a loss of socialization means a loss of the hobby. \u00c2\u00a0That hurts. \u00c2\u00a0This is a restriction that video games never had, which might by why I initially found it hard to get into board games in the first place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All in all, it’s been a big shift.\u00c2\u00a0 This is entirely expected, but still interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 Are there any parents reading this that are also gamers? \u00c2\u00a0Do you have similar self-imposed restrictions?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d love to hear how our experiences compare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I started what was supposed to be a series detailing the various electronic and cardboard games that I had been playing in a given month. \u00c2\u00a0Then life exploded and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t follow up on it. \u00c2\u00a0I started trying to write the next iteration, and found it would be extraordinarily short. \u00c2\u00a0Not because I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}