What to write ...

Nooo !

Not writing about games again today. At least not directly. I have just dragged myself out of a session with the Planetbase Pixel People though. Sticky Wicket Base is steadily growing and I think I'll be able to keep going with it until it reaches the max.

Wait - I said I wasn't going to talk about games. I thought I would tap out a few words though about the words that appear here. How do I choose them ? It's pretty random isn't it ?

One of the way my brain works is that someone will ask me a question and I'll have a quick answer fast but the whole answer takes a little thinking about. Or I'll have something in my mind that's been eaten away at my sanity and the fix is to sort out those thoughts and write a few of them here. I might be reacting to something I've seen, like the Prince and Golden Oldie singers post.

I like it when I have an onrunning theme to talk about, like the Photo Challenge posts, the A to Z music posts and the Alphabet of the Human Heart posts. Memes too. You could call that easy content but that can belittle the amount of thought and self that can go into those posts. Especially the memes and the Alphabet posts. I'll miss the Alphabet posts when I've gotten to Z.

But that question thing is a big trigger. I do like to put stuff here that I think people will want to read and part of that challenge is picking out subjects that other people are interested in and that I can produce a good post around.

And then there's the keeping it positive angle. There are lots of things that annoy me in this world. It would be better without a lot of the people who are in it but I'm not going to be the one who chooses who shouldn't be here. Cyclists shouldn't ride on the pavements (especially when there is a cycle path provided for them). Why is discrimination still a thing ? And why are some people just genuine arseholes.

I've been following the debate around Warcraft's so called private servers. I'm not going to give an opinion on that. Ok, I think they're silly people. I do have nostalgia for when I first played Warcraft but nostalgia is something that should just remain as a fond memory. Things improve over time.

The mention of Warcraft actually brings me back to a trigger for this post ...

A lovely lady asked me the question "What games do you enjoy most ?" And I didn't have a ready answer. Of the games I've most recently played :

Astronest - iOS empire building game. I've given this one up because it was just clicking and seeing numbers change. No skill outside of pay to win.
Elite Dangerous - I enjoy the nomadic life in this game. I haven't been enjoying the rank progression grind. Not long left in that and then I can go back to wandering, trading, exploring, maybe a little combat too. But I would call it more cathartic than enjoyment.
Planetbase - oh yes. I have been happily losing myself in this one and am up to 22 hours played already. I suspect I will play this one until I have all of the achievements. That will take a while.
Deus Ex Human Revolution - lots of enjoyment in this one. It isn't as flexible as some games but what it does, it does extremely well. It has an interesting storyline and some comedy easter eggs thrown in too.
Mass Effect series - these were amazing, combining excellent gameplay with a compelling storyline. Somehow, after playing the first two games to death, I haven't replayed number 3 yet. It is a very fitting and very dark conclusion to the trilogy. And those feels in there ...

I put a lot of time into Settlers IV and Defense Grid. That's mostly putting my hyperactive mind into a set routine to keep it busy though, perhaps aiming for a high score. Not so much the enjoyment factor.

And then there are the older ones like :
Master Of Orion 2 - Another catharsis game. It keeps my brain busy. I need that sense, otherwise fidgeting will take over.
XWing and Tie Fighter - I loved these 20 years ago but now ? They are very dated and the gameplay mechanics and mission set up is ... painful.
X Beyond the Frontier - this was a spiritual successor to the original Elite games but somehow it just wasn't satisfying. There was far more in it compared to modern Elite but it was somehow missing a soul. Or was it the certain knowledge that there was tonnes of grinding to do in order to set up a trading and manufacturing empire to build the end game items that were otherwise unavailable.

It's back to that Enjoyment thing.

We should do what we enjoy. It's awesome when you find a job that lets you combine enjoyment with getting things done. I have to admit, I'm missing the enjoyment where I am at the moment. The people are good but what I work on isn't technical enough to keep me interested. Most of the time at least. I've been reading a document today that will shape the future of one of the projects I'm involved with.

Oh and it satisfies my engineering solutioneering geekery too. There is a task (which I can't go into here) which has a number of ways in which it can be done and the challenge is to find the best way to do it. And there are multiple ideas for how it can be done.

I like figuring out how to do stuff. I'll either figure it out on my own, or I'll adapt what I see from other people. With this writing, the style is mostly my own but it borrows a little from every person I've spoken to or every bit of writing I've read.

Well. Apart from tabloids perhaps.

I'm rambling now - better leg it !

If there's a subject you would like me to cover, or a meme you find interesting, questions you would like answering (see below), let me know.

There is a line though - I do like to keep things positive. It's things like praising the lovely Chrissa streamer person, or Enter Elysium for his videos (see right hand side for links) but not saying anything at all about the people who I have stopped watching because their content is just plain bad now. While I'll be hooked on the Chrissa/EE streams, I've turned off other ones quickly because I find them annoying.

Who are the annoying ones ? I'm not putting that here. It's a negative thought and there is far too much toxic aggressive negativity on the internet already. There are also those who tune into something and try and change it. If they were interested, why are they wanting to change it ? (Star Wars fanbois take note)

Encourage the creativity, praise the good, walk away from the bad.

PS Forgot a game ! Rebel Galaxy had a good start for me. I was enjoying it and then hit a breakpoint where you go from the starter system into the next and the difficulty ramps up. I should really go back in and investigate the story more. Tomorrow. Maybe !