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| A photo of me, screaming into the void of the pandemic. (Assassin's Creed: Valhalla) |
As summer now winds to a close, and I adjust to this new normal of pandemic life, I'm slowly returning to regular gaming and very slowly recovering my motivation to blog about it. In truth, the story ending of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth put me in such an abysmal mood that I very nearly lost all interest in gaming at all. It was one of the most disappointing story endings I have ever had the misfortune of wasting my time on, and it soured me toward the whole industry for a while (excepting Nintendo, who can do no wrong in my mind). I even quit Hearthstone because of how mad I was at Blizzard for that ending.
I was able to play Animal Crossing for a while when it came out, but while Animal Crossing is an enjoyable, relaxing game to play, it is not the most exciting thing to blog about. "Hi readers, I picked another fifty pieces of fruit today, dug up some fossils, and got stung by a wasp again" is not the hot gaming take anyone is asking for. And even Animal Crossing has lost its shine as the pandemic has wore on. I can only shake so many trees and collect so many shells each day before I start questioning my sanity.
After rage-quitting WoW, I turned to Elder Scrolls Online to sate my MMORPG fix, but even that started to feel stale after so many days of doing crafting dailies and running the same dungeons over and over again, but I haven't been motivated enough to start questing in a new zone or level up new characters.
I can probably contribute the lack of joy to pandemic depression, a very special blend of anxiety, fear, parenting overload, lack of variety, and being isolated from friends and family for longer than is probably healthy. Even I, Captain Antisocial Introvert who is perfectly happy not seeing people for long stretches of time, apparently still need time with friends on occasion to stay sane. Who knew?
Most of that isn't changing any time soon, but my crushing boredom is starting to win over my lack of motivation to play games.
I picked up Pokemon Sword last night, for the first time since I last blogged about it in... March, and spent a few hours leveling up my team of Eeveelutions by running around the Wild Area and getting my butt whupped by super strong Dynamax Pokemon before finally continuing on with the main quest to thwart Shielbert and Swordward (or however you spell their absurd names).
I'll probably keep playing Pokemon until I beat it... again...? And then maybe amuse myself with the expansion pass, if I don't have anything else to play by then.
I have my eye on Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, which is due out in November, and the new Pokemon Snap in December (fingers crossed), and I still haven't played Ori and the Will of the Wisps, so I have some things to look forward to, despite quitting WoW and Hearthstone, and getting bored of ESO. I have been so incredibly out of the loop when it comes to game releases, so there may be other things that I can pick up over the next few months that I haven't heard of yet.
I would like to get back into streaming as well, but I either need to start playing more PC games, or I need to figure out a good capture card situation for my TV setup.
Anyway, there's an update on what I've been up to, and what I hope to be up to soon!
What have you been playing recently? If you have any gaming recommendations, let me know!
Happy gaming :)
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