Op-Ed

Balance is Tricky – Weekly Gaming Checkin for 10/28/19

Balance is an Excellent Thing to Strive For. :)

Weekly Gaming Thoughts

Hello my friends, and happy Monday. What’s going on in your gaming world of late? For me, it’s been striving for balance. Last week I got some new SEO work coming in, which is great, but I’ve not really yet had to find a balance between the SEO work, streaming, and actually having time for myself. When I first began this endeavor, I was of a mindset that if I wasn’t working on SOMETHING, be it this or the SEO side-hustle, I was failing. Thankfully the wife helped me get over that quickly.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I made a pretty big shift. When I was working full-time, I did all my recording on the weekends, which meant I needed to set aside a multi-hour block of time to make sure I recorded all the videos I needed for the week, which was sometimes easier said than done. Lately, however, at my wife’s suggestion, I tried to actually record videos on the day of, usually in the morning, and actually have a weekend to myself.

This has been tougher than I anticipated, because it involves switching my mindset and expectations around entirely. Yesterday, for example, I did a tiny amount of SEO work but made sure I spent the majority of my time playing games for myself — playing games to relax and playing games for this thing are wildly different — because I know if I don’t, I’ll burn out. Now, this morning, likely in about an hour after I write this, I’ll record the first AI-War 2 video of the week.

It’s been a weird change, and I’m still getting used to it, but if I’m gonna get into this for the long haul, I have to make sure I’m running a marathon and not a sprint. I also have to allow myself to realize some things that used to work might not work anymore, and that I might need to scrap some ideas for some new ones. It’s been a great ride these past couple of months, and I’m really glad you’re all here taking it with me.

What I’ve Been Playing

Destiny 2 – Finished the Red War campaign, now on the Osiris campaign, and having a great time. Also fell into a random event on Mars yesterday and just played that for a while. I’m not sure why I’m enjoying this game, but I am, immensely.
Star Trek Online – A wave of enthusiasm over this one has taken over our Discord, so I’ve also dived back into the game, starting a new character and getting the hang of things. I’m enjoying the space stuff a lot.
Strike Fighters 2 – Started a new campaign as an Israeli P-51 pilot, got shot down in the second mission. Started another campaign as a Tornado pilot in the massive Desert Storm mod, got shot down in the second mission. I don’t even mind really. I love that the game is fun and easy to jump into but also can kick my ass if I don’t pay attention. It only means I need to play more. ;)