A Kid Again--Terraria

Hello There!

I really love Terraria; I've "played through the game" twice now, both with softcore and mediumcore characters--and that's not counting my other random characters/worlds I've started on a whim--and recently I started a hardcore character play through with my cousin. Due to some quite repetitive aspects of the game, I get quite a bit of thinking time in. Over the years I've developed a habit of, at no specific point while playing any game, asking myself why I like this game I'm currently playing and why I'm putting time into it.

For Terraria, the answer came when I was following my year-old nephew around at a family event as he scampered about a little park. I decided to put all my other thoughts aside and watch to see what he was interested in. It was refreshing to see him closely inspect the cracks where the grass and dirt ended and became cemented walkway, to see him pick at the grass with an eager-to-discover look in his face. Such Unimportant Things to me were in actuality Important Things for him. I thought how he probably is only 1% completed with life, and how everything is so new and interesting to him at this stage. Then I realized that's exactly why I love Terraria so much--it makes me feel like a kid again, in a good way.

I audibly squealed with joy when this happened and immediately set up a good screenshot.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Terraria starts thus: you appear on the new world that you created, whatever size you did, with naught but a mostly worthless short sword, a pick, and an axe. Then, the rest is up to you. Cut, dig, build, defend, explore, loot, attack . . . there's no overarching story so you just do whatever is most interesting to you. I definitely was interested in all of the things at the beginning, just as my nephew is with real life.

You do get a guide--he's like your parent! Except, you have to provide housing for him instead, ha.

As I continued, I started avoiding picking up certain things that I wouldn't use or that just weren't important for my Terraria-life goals. Like my nephew and sidewalk cracks with dirt and grass and bugs, those things were cool and interesting at one point, but when I began to look at things in a more utilitarian way, I lost interest. Again, the same thing we do in real life as we learn more about the world. I liked (still do) cool rocks, but as of right now I don't have the space to keep them anywhere reasonable, so I don't pick them up for keeps if I come across them. It's not super deep to be honest, but it was a solid connection/analogy between my favorite hobby and real life. These are the moments that make gaming enjoyable for me.

Final Fantasy and Progress

In my recent efforts to have the complete anthology marked off as played, I have been working on Final Fantasy II. Story wise, I don't have many remarks, as it's pretty classic as far as FF (Final Fantasy) games go. Evil ruler threatens the world because he/she will destroy/rule the whole of it, and you and your unexpected band of heroes show up to save the day to prevent utter destruction/tyranny. Don't get me wrong, there are many profound things in FF story lines that I have learned throughout the years as I've played through the five or six that I have--for example, FF Tactics is by far the best video game story I've ever experienced. Period. Maybe I'll write about that later, but not now--my focus here is on the progress that happens in these games, not the nature of their stories. Leveling up in Final Fantasy games (and many/most other RPGs) is akin to real life.