Monday Gaming Diary: Nothing New to Report

Dear Diary,

This is most likely the most boring entry I’ll ever have because I haven’t done anything different or new since my last entry. I’m still playing both Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Skyrim nearly every day, and I don’t have anything to say about either except for “same shit, different day.”

In many ways, it sounds like both games are incredibly boring. I will say this–they aren’t games anyone could really find enjoyable watching. I remember watching friends playing Final Fantasy VIII in college, and wow were they ever playing it badly. In this particular instance, our friend was fighting a dragon boss (I’ve never played the game, so I’m sorry I’m not familiar with what was going on) and I watched him pull the same few attacks over and over. For starters, watching the summoning of Shiva is only entertaining the first two times. I was pretty damn thrilled when she was killed so I wouldn’t have to watch that 30+ second animation a 50th time. Unfortunately, that was a terrible event for this particular player, as he was suddenly cut down to performing pretty much one task each turn: bringing teammates back to life. Literally this is what I watched for longer than I care to admit:

• Dragon flutters wings.
• One party member dies, one is barely hanging on.
• One heals one member, and the other brings the dead back to life.
• Rinse, repeat.

Then I guess the dragon just got as bored as we all were, because he finally breathed fire on everyone, which summoned the “Game Over” screen and sweet relief for everyone in the living room. FINALLY we could leave for the fricking bar.

That’s exactly what I imagine watching either Skyrim or ACNL would be like; everyone begging for the sweet release of death so we can go to the bar (or in the case of ACNL, begging for you to run out of boring things to do).

As such, it’s hard for me to fully explain why I like them so much. Even with other turn-based games that could be extremely boring to watch, such as Lost Odyssey, I can think of several positives that people would enjoy watching. For either of these, not so much, and that’s because I feel like I do more running around and wandering than anything else.

It’s especially baffling when you take into consideration that I’m a huge story gamer. So far, the story in Skyrim has not impressed me that much (if that continues, I think I’ll get bored before too long) and there is no real story in ACNL. Yet, ACNL taps into what kept me going with both Tiny Tower and Pocket Planes for so long.

So yeah, if you ask me what I like about either, I won’t have an answer. And still, I turn them on every day, even though I have a considerable Stack of Shame, so they must be doing something for me. Just don’t ask me what that is.