Please waste your time responsibly.
As you get older, you start thinking more about time; it’s a commodity that depletes with age. You wake up. You go to work. You come home. You feel tired. You go to bed. You wake up. You guessed it, work time again, baby!
The long evenings and free weekends from years past are way, way behind you. Instead, it’s a platter of chores that you didn’t have time to tackle in the week. For some of us there's a side helping of kid-wrangling (the ultimate time sink). And then, out of nowhere, you’re blindsided by a tragic life event that drives home how precious and finite time is. Fucking hell, Kieran. Keep it light.
If you’re someone who plays videogames, I’ll damn near bet my left bollock that someone has once told you to “Stop wasting your time playing videogames”. It’s a common thing that people who don’t play games say to let you know that they disapprove of you playing them.
Of course, what they really mean by this is that you’re wasting your time not learning more or doing things to earn money or increase your chances of getting a higher-paid job. We’re conditioned to believe that everything we do must be to whet the appetite of the ever-greedy machine, but I digress.
But what is it to actually waste time? Is going to the gym a waste of time? Is sitting and binge-watching the latest ‘bad man done a murder' series on Netflix a waste of time? If we’re enjoying it, surely not. Well... sit down. It’s getting dark again.
We’re born, we live for an indeterminate amount of time, and then we hit the dirt. It’s the inevitability of life. I’ve had cars in the past that are on their last...wheels, and I consider it a waste of time to keep repairing them. If we apply that logic to us, it’s a waste of time doing anything, because, much like my old Vauxhall Corsa, we’re on a constant march towards a meeting with ol’ Grimmy Reaps. Therefore, playing video games is a waste of time, because everything is.
However, by the grace of The Incredibles…
“Everyone's special, Dash.”
“Which is another way of saying no one is.”
If everything is a waste of time, then nothing is! What a twist.
Ultimately, our time is ours, and it’s up to us how we spend it.
The older I get, the more I respect my time, especially when it comes to playing games. I now shy away from the 100-hour+ games that I used to enjoy. While I know I’m getting bang for my buck with those, I also know they’re going to take me literally months to complete; months I could spend playing a large number of games rather than just one. I’m now a big champion of shorter games. Those that hit that 7-10 hour sweet spot. They’re games that I can easily play around my life, and games that I have a better chance of finishing. But after recently playing a couple of games, my championing of shorter games has been questioned.
Over the last few months, I’ve played through both Avowed and South of Midnight. These two cover the gamut of gaming runtimes. I sunk 50 hours into Avowed and 10 hours into South of Midnight. Both are thoroughly enjoyable, and by my decree, South of Midnight should be my most recommended game out of the two, but it's not, it’s Avowed.
That isn't to throw shade on South of Midnight. It’s far from a bad game. It’s just that I found a substantial part of it to be, frankly, a waste of time. What shines in South of Midnight is its story and characters, the latter of which are portrayed in a stunning art style. I loved the story that South of Midnight wanted to tell. I'd even say it's one of the standout stories of this year, but it's stitched together by platforming and combat that felt antithetically dull. So much so that they both felt like an afterthought or, if I were more cynical, a way to pad out the game’s length. Compare that with Avowed, and it’s a different story.
Avowed is a condensed RPG set in a series of large-scale levels. It’s not open-world, but it has the vibe of one. Where Avowed shines is that there’s no downtime. The main quest lines and complementary side quests are a lot of fun and never outstay their welcome. But even when you’re exploring the map, either at your leisure or during walks between these quests, there’s always something to see. If it’s not soaking in the stunning world, it’s discovering a mine or finding a hidden chest. There’s stuff everywhere that constantly keeps your interest piqued. And it’s none of the usual open-world affair either. You don't have to collect 100 hidden flags for Jimmy Kneecaps, nor do you have to find every species of flower for Fanny Gambit. Everything you do is worthwhile, and, more importantly, fun. Avowed is very much the espresso of RPGs, a comparatively short game (for the genre) that packs strong flavour.
Playing these two games made me realise it’s not that I’ve been championing the length of video games, but more so how they respect my time. There’s a better chance that a game with a shorter completion time won't take the piss with it, whereas larger games often do just that. What a revelation! Putting this groundbreaking discovery into practice is a tricky task, especially with my newfound stance of giving games a better chance before dismissing them. But it all boils down to how I, nay, you, deem your time to be "well-spent".
To take an adage from Big Gambling (bear with me) - When the fun stops, stop. Please waste your time responsibly.
