Guys, I know this isn’t the recipe you were looking for. The holidays definitely got the better of me both physically and emotionally. And while a recipe is coming (I just have to write the post) in the meantime I wanted to share a link to an incredible in-depth look at gaming costs vs playtime vs enjoyment. This post is found on Complicate the Narrative, a blog dedicated to analyzing gaming and applying literary theory to it.
You can find the post here
It’s a long article, but guys, it’s totally worth reading.
I highly recommend chatting with the author in their comments about their experience but if you want to chat here I’ll direct him to it.
My favorite excerpt and my take-away message is this:
After forcing myself to look this closely at the time and money I spend on games, I’ve decided that in the end, the best games do only 2 things: entertain and inspire. The second a game is not doing at least one of those two things, stop. Seriously, just stop. Examine why you aren’t entertained or inspired, then watch out for those patterns in other games, and don’t play those games. Don’t buy them, don’t start them, don’t give them any more attention than they deserve.
This year I’ve really questioned gaming and whether I should, as some put it, grow out of it. I’m planning a pretty long post about overcoming my fear in regards to those sentiments soon, but this conclusion by Paul is the conclusion I’ve made. Gaming brings you joy and can inspire and teach. Find the games that make you feel that and then it’s never a waste of time!
Sheikah Plate 
Thanks for the share – very interesting article!
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Amen to that. Entertain and inspire…. I like that. It reminds me of a presentation I gave about (nerd incoming) the artistic merits of the musical If/Then, which has gotten mixed reviews and actually closed on Broadway maybe a year after it opened. I posed that any art media needs to do at least one of two things: it either needs to make you think something, or make you feel something. It’s so funny to see that come up here, now.
…I guess that mean video games are art, then?? haha And thanks for sharing the post. I’m going to go check it out!
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Thanks for sharing this. It’s so well written and will definitely help me in my decisions about gaming.
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Right?! It’s such a clever project but I’m glad I didn’t have to do it to get the take-away message. Glad Paul did that for us!
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Thanks for the shout-out, Teri! It’s so great to see this crazy thing I did actually having an impact.
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It’s an awesome project and deserves a huge round of applause! It’s made an impact on me, for sure, and hopefully anyone else lucky enough to find it!
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