I don’t really have much to say here, especially since Chris “Campster” Franklin said most of it in his latest video over at Errant Signal. I’ll link that video down below. Suffice it to say that shit’s finally taking a toll on me and after letting the throttle go a little bit back in November I just really haven’t rediscovered the energy to write.
When we say “x is finally taking its toll on me,” what isn’t being acknowledged is that x, whatever x is, was taking its toll on us from the very beginning. The anxieties and traumas induced by the events of the past year started fucking us all up as soon as they began. Some folks are still in total isolation, whether self-imposed or state-mandated, and people are still dying from the pandemic.
The radical energy that came off the (inter)national Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020 hasn’t been fully siphoned off by electoralism and legislative politics, but it also doesn’t really have anywhere to go. Conservatives and far-right shitheads are in an “organizing frenzy” – by which I mean throwing up a huge fuckin panic over every little thing while accusing “the Left” of being cancel-happy wokescolds.
Shit is happening all the time, everywhere, and too much. It is too much to ask someone to keep their hackles raised for a fucking year, even though arguably this is the exact right time we need to raise your hackles. I digress.
So I’ll be honest, the very last thing I have wanted to do – after work, as I’m dealing with personal shit, as everything in the world happens and keeps happening – is play a video game, much less think about one. And if that describes you too, it’s okay.
This shit’s supposed to be a hobby. It wasn’t meant to replace the totality of your life or mine, and this is true even if you work in the industry. Despite the name of my site (which I am now always existentially regretting) I don’t think it’s actually good that video games are basically inescapable for us now. If your hobby doesn’t bring you joy, what do you do?
Get a different hobby. Do something else until the joy comes back.
*No this doesn’t mean this website is going away, I just renewed the domain lol. I’ll post when the mood hits me is all. Thanks for understanding.