Monday, July 20, 2020

Writing About Not Being Able To Write (July 2020 Edition)

Things are strange. Not just the fact that I'm typing this on my phone while standing in the kitchen cooking dinner, that's just first world problems level of strange. But I mean that we are 131 days into a global pandemic with no coherent plan of action from our federal government.  Then, in the city we live in, there have been 5o nights of protests against violence caused and exasperated by not just local police, but by police departments all over the United States, and for about a week now, undeclared and unidentified federal enforcement (as in they have not publicly declared which government organization they are affiliated with, or have any way of identifying them on their uniform, even by their last name) have been using tear gas and low impact munitions (I forgot the specific term) on people gathering peacefully as well as kidnapping people for undisclosed offenses.

On the gaming side of things, I have been finding it difficult to write articles over the last couple of weeks. It's not that I don't have games or content to write about, I think it's just the motivation is lacking. Last month I finished The Sinking City after playing about 75 hours and I have a two-part article half-written. I was also in the process of writing an article for Wolfenstein: The New Order when I ended up finishing Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (both on PC) and so I decided to combine the two into one article and then that article stalled as well; but I feel that I need to write that article before I start in on Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus , and Wolfenstein: Youngblood (both on the Switch) otherwise I may never write/finish/publish those/that article(s).  In the last couple of weeks, I also finished Old Man's Journey, The Office Quest, and played through the first game in the Apocalipsis: Deadwood Edition for #DiscoverIndies. I have also been replaying through The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series, The Complete First Season, and recently started Golf Story.  

{At this point I continued writing from my work computer while on break(s)}

Sometimes my process usually includes uploading pictures I have taken to folders on my computer, looking through them while creating a rough outline of things I want to cover.  Other times I will just start writing about the game, whatever comes to mind first, then I will write in blocks and rearrange the paragraphs as a greater theme or narrative develops.  Maybe it is because the last three games I have played were all point-and-click, or at least variations on that genre that makes it difficult to write about.  "I then went to this room where the puzzle was particularly difficult, and I did have to resort to using a guide to help me through, but otherwise it was a decently created puzzle, even if a little obscure."  I could probably put this one sentence into every other article I have for point-and-click adventure games, and maybe that is the problem?

I also think that sometimes I end up too deep in my own head and have grand ideas for articles that end up being too big in scale to properly execute.  Take Apocalipsis: Deadwood Edition for instance.  The game pulls heavily from the art of woodcuts, specifically 15th-century woodcuts, focusing heavily on Albrecht Dürer, as well as the Danse Macabre woodcut by Micheal Wolgemut.  It also uses a lot of occult themes and imagery from that same period.  I want to cover all of this information and do the game justice because it really was a fun game that was not too difficult as far as puzzles go, and I loved the visual aesthetic.

What I am now thinking that I might do is do a light-writing article and just share some of the screenshots that I feel cover what I loved about the imagery in the game.  And not just for Apocalipsis: Wormwood Edition, but for the other point-and-click games I have/want/need to write about.  Maybe there does not need to be an in-depth analysis of every game, even the ones that I have loved playing, just the ones that I feel I have the time to invest in writing.

I think that is where some of this comes from, the time commitment to play games and share that experience.  I do try to share some of that on my Twitter account although I would rather not have that become my primary source of sharing/reviewing games. However, it does afford a lot less time; but with the character limit still stuck at 140 for Twitter posts from the Switch, that makes writing more difficult.

We will see.  I think I just needed something to write about, so writing about not being able to write about something seemed like the obvious choice.  See y'all on Wednesday.



~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
I Stumble Through The Rugged Door

P.S.
Black Lives Matter

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