Keeping things above the waist, of course:

I like video games. Shocking I’m sure. My favorite games typically fall into two categories. Cartoony-style action games, like EDF, the Dynasty Warriors series, and Portal Knights. And then just really by-the-numbers rpg/strategy rpgs where half the battle took place before the fight ever even started. That’s games like SMT: Nocturne, Final Fantasy Tactics, the Front Mission series. And yes, to a lesser extent Pokemon. But really more on the Etrian Odyssey side of things. Like, if Etrian Odyssey 3 didn’t pad its game so terribly with mandatory grinding, that would have been one of my favorite games (and, I mean, the grinding didn’t even make sense it was already a really long game). Pokemon’s largest issue with me is the one-on-one combat. Like, if the series focused on doubles matches I’d own all of them.

Then on very rare occasions you have your customized, environmental puzzle-via-navigation games (which is, like, a sub-genre I just made up). This is where your Deus Ex and Shadowrun series fall- and what makes them so great. Your skillset creates the path forward and not only is there no right answer, you can double back and take a different path too.

Music, of course. I can just jam out and, you know, even if recording it would prove that it sounds awful, I can fill in the gaps in my head and it’ll sound good to me at the time at least. And I might not like practicing a song over and over again. But if I get it done and people like it, then it feels worth it. And I get that’s kinda shallow, you should be doing it for yourself, but isn’t other people liking it the whole point?

Same thing with writing in a more professional format. I don’t like sitting there and checking the first word of each sentence and making sure I’m using varying sentence lengths. But if I post it and people like it then it feels worth it. And then I can go back and reread sections or relisten to sections and go “Yeah! You know what? I did do a good job! I’m proud of that work!“ Instead of wondering, “Was it just posted at a bad time? Did I offend someone? Does it really sound that bad?“

So, as shallow as that might be, I guess that’s my favorite thing. To be appreciated for my work. For the time I spent on something to result in a feeling of accomplishment. And that’s probably why I play video games. To get that feeling when I can’t get it anywhere else, even if it’s just from a group of pixels saying “You Won“ or watching a meter go up.

I like spending time with my family.