Hey up! Decided to make a post on another prompt to keep the old hands active. Don’t worry, my novel’s coming along nicely, though I am getting a bit tired of writing it today. Sometimes, a little variety can help.
This prompt is about the news. And my life. To be frank, I am not someone who actively checks the news, because it’s full of admittedly extremely relevant but upsetting incidents. As always, the global ice caps are being shooed off the face of the earth, the war in ukraine is not getting better, some idiot has blown a ridiculous amount of money on something selfish/pointless and people are always getting into car accidents or petty violence. The only news I do glean is usually from someone else’s account, in easy manageable portions usually devoid of all the disheartening details. I get it – global civilisation is probably going to exhaust itself within a century or so, but I don’t want to spend all day thinking about it! This probably makes me quite a narrow minded person – I hope I’m better than that.
Anyway, uninteresting news – if you want to see large quantities of it, go on any pop culture media site; especially gaming sites. I am, regrettably, into video games. Not really for escapism, but more for exercising my mind and motor control. I tried to beat level 5-1 of a certain serbian platformer yesterday without getting hit once, for an example. I have also waited four years for Hollow Knight Silksong, but respect the creator’s dedication to their passion project. I do not have a playstation. In short, I do not make a big song and dance about gaming updates.
However, other gamers do. That is why stuff like Kotaku and Gamerant exist, to rave inecessantly about games. Their reports are often poinltess – “Baldur 3’s voice actor says that his job was to make sex sounds” is a recent post. How very fascinating – totally worth five minutes of my time. “Nintendo is absolutely killing it right now” – you said that last week and the week before: Nintendo is a big company, so is bound to make lots every week. “You’ve never heard of this life changing horror game” – because getting a few shocks from an obscure, spooky game is going to increase you income by 50%, help you exalt every living moment and cure constipation. Actually, that very last detail might work.
You get the picture. I’m not even ranting about any “””politics””” here like other stroppy stimulation addicts; I’m just pointing out that this information is not worth millions of quid revenue. It’s repetitive, it’s hysterical and it’s not really that fun to read. Just play games instead of reading game news.
Anyway, what do you think about kotaku or gamerant? Should they stop ripping off redditors by reporting on their low effort posts? Yes. Yes they should. Is this worth discussing? Probably not.
Either way, have a nice day! Do something productive.
(P.s. It’s dawned upon me that my posts probably aren’t anymore substantial that Kotaku’s stodge. Does that make me a hypocrite as well as narrow minded? Probably.)
Ben Easton - The Novel Hovel 
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