Investment

According to the in-game count, I’ve been playing Horizon Zero Dawn for 71 hours. That’s seventy-one hours. That’s 4,260 minutes or so. That’s just shy of three straight days. Granted various portions of that time have included consulting the in-game map for various things, as well as erroneously leaving the game open during breaks where I put food and/or drink in one end or expel it from the other.

It also doesn’t mean I’ve sat there for three days, constantly awake and stewing in my own natural juices. I’ve done the responsible thing of maintaining a job and the human thing of sleeping in between sporadic sessions. But still, 71 hours? When presented to you like that, it feels as though a lot of that time could be put to better use.

But then I end up thinking: “what better use?” What else would I be doing with my time? What other multimedia creation would I end up consuming? Because it’s fairly unlikely I’d be doing something that’s actually productive, or involves going anywhere in the real world.

A lot of things in the real world cost money. And I’m trying to save money for future endeavours, like attempting to single-handedly make a push for owning property amidst the backdrop of an obscenely-escalating housing market. The way I see it, the more I stay in, the less I spend on frivolous nonsense.

And I could watch things or read things or listen to things for entertainment, but when one game – for the one-time sum of £30 several months ago – has managed to satiate me for this long (and still seemingly have quite a way to go yet), what reason do I have for feeling bad about it? Consider it an investment. You know, like a house is supposed to be.

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Lots of wub-wub squelchy noises in here, straddling the border between listenable and moderately aggravating. I haven’t quite reached the latter yet. It’s possible that with excessive listens, I’ll get there, but to be honest, I’ve heard it often enough for it to soak into my sponge-brain without causing too much trouble.

Echoes of Finding Nemo in this as well. Whatever you do, try not to picture any animated seagulls during any mention of the word “mind”. That is, of course, unless you want to be afflicted by a weird mental image that won’t go away.

Superorganism – Something For Your M.I.N.D.