Friday 29 October 2021

Distraction

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I'm writing this as I watch the final hour of the Into the Odd Remastered Kickstarter tick down, so forgive me if I'm slightly distracted.

The truth is that I've spent most of this campaign distracted by other things. Nothing like the requirement to focus on one project to get your brain sparking to life on ever other project you have on your back burner. 

So what's been distracting me during this time?

Buying more old game books. Not a new distraction for me, but this time I'm focusing in on wargame rules. Not the big glossy type, but strange little print on demand books that read like they were written by one person in their attic, or notebooks dug up from a 70s time capsule. I'm not sure how useful any of these will be to my work, but there's something that draws me in. 

I've been tinkering with Matrix Games some more, too, picking up a book of Modern Crisis Scenarios. As you might guess, they're often a bit verbose for my tastes, so perhaps I'll take on the challenge of converting the complex flashpoint of the South China Sea into three-bullet briefings for each of the main players. More likely I'll adapt the real world scenarios into something fictional so that I don't cause a geopolitical incident with my gross oversimplification.

And a fucking free auto-battler game that I should never have downloaded refuse to link to. It's hijacked my brain and you needn't suffer the same fate. There's powerful psychology at work with this game, and perhaps I'll write about it properly when I'm less under dominated by its dark coercions.

Now maybe one quick game on my lunch break. 

5 comments:

  1. Look, fact of the matter is, there's something about certain games that just slots *exactly* in line with your dopamine centre. If there's a bunch of free games, you can try them all out, and you'll find the one that lines up perfectly with the inside of yer noggin.

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  2. C'mon now, Chris. Tell us the name of the free auto-battler game...

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    1. It was Super Auto Pets, but I've mostly shaken the addiction now!

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  3. I can't explain how funny it was to read your last paragraph, gradually realizing that you were talking about Super Auto Pets. It hijacked my brain too. Dangerous stuff.

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