Sometimes your favorite thing needs to not be your most-focused-on thing. (Background noise is fixed in the audio copy of the podcast on podcast networks)
Welcome back to the Dual Comm Party Chat. In this episode, BBKDRAGOON & EposVox discuss gaming during life’s tough times, gaming while traveling, and prioritizing yourself.
I’ve been thinking about the whole problem of getting too caught up in seeking out the best version of a game, and the solution that has been working for me has been to pick a main platform where I play the majority of titles.
For me personally that has been the Switch 2. It works for me because it offers decent power when docked, but also offers a really nice handheld experience. And being as thin as it is I can easily chuck it into the bag I always carry with me when out of the house.
I now don’t need to fuss over in depth comparisons, I just do enough research for that particular game to make sure the Switch 2 (or Switch 1) port is of acceptable quality and that is enough. Once I get stuck into a game I don’t really tend to notice that it isn’t 4K, the textures aren’t the sharpest and the lighting isn’t realistic.
And to expand on this, when having multiple systems I think it is useful to have clear purposes for each one. My PS4 Pro is for games that didn’t come to Switch/Switch 2 or are busted on the latter. And my PC and Retroid Pocket 4 Pro are for older titles and indies that I can’t play on the other 2 systems, with games split across the both depending on if I think they are more suited to handheld play or not.
A lot of this has actually been informed by hearing BBK talk about the idea of being on just one platform earlier this year. The idea appealed to me, but just one platform felt too limiting for my eclectic tastes.
Another great episode, I will say this about the closing subject with having so much clutter of Items and does it really matter if you have Insert Blank Item, example Blu Rays or a 3DS.
In the end, no it doesn’t matter. You don’t need all this junk cluttering up your home You only need the essentials to live and a way to burn off some steam with a hobby of your choosing. May that be reading books, playing games, or riding a bike. But no you don’t need that 3DS you have a Switch to play your games try and resist the FOMO to the best of your abilities. But also I’d say it’s alright to have that HUGE collection/items as long as you deem the things in that collection worth holding onto FOR YOURSELF. Not because the internet told you that you need to have it. You do have to curate your collection, that’s what makes it YOUR collection after all.
Like right now I love collecting Blu rays/DVD”s/CD’s of media that truly resonates with me in some way. But I have also bought shows that I haven’t watched yet because I wanna check them out and I don’t wanna pay for a subscription for it. If I end up not liking it, well time to go to the local 2nd hand store to sell it to them and hopefully someone gets a good deal for it. But that is the beauty of physical media/anything physical. Don’t like it sell it or give it away.
As my Mom always tells me life is moderation to much of one thing will sour it. So don’t go all in on the latest trends just because everyone (aka just youtube) is telling you to do it. You do that, you will live on an endless cycle of your next hyperfixtation for that week.
I think that’s a great approach to narrow down the choice so you deal with less analysis paralysis and I think your view on having a single purpose for a system is very good as well. This approach also leans in to the point @SethMan53 made here about decluttering. When you only have one platform, the need to buy another platform or a game for another platform becomes way smaller since you’ve narrowed it down a lot more. Also, selling or giving stuff away is a great way to declutter as well. It’s hard in the short run, but feels good in the long run.
I’ve noticed this myself with playing only 3DS and PC. I use my PC for more immersive story games, and sometimes a little session game, and my 3DS for session games. I do think that a 3DS makes this a bit easier as well, since the games on this system are really specific for the system (thanks to the dual screens mainly, but also touch controls).
Being on social media and the modern internet a lot less also made me resist FOMO and impulsive buying a lot more as well. I now always ask myself “Do I really need this?“. If I have some doubt, I wait like a month or so. When I’m then still thinking about it or I still want it then, I reconsider buying it, but 9 times out of 10 the thoughts of the impulse buy are already gone. I do have to admit that I always have a weak spot for Steam sales, since there are always deal too good to be true, but actually true.
Uuuuugh I almost fell into the impulse buying while literally telling someone else not to. Seeing discussions on Bluesky about the DSi XL/LL being the “best” way to play DS games got me researching.
I have 3-4 3DSes, 2 DSes and a DSi for my kid. I don’t need more.
Also went down the rabbit hole of the newer DSpico flash cart and almost ordered
Even though I have multiple R4 cards I don’t use.
It’s so hard.
Aa we all know, these algormically driven platforms are tuned to push the most gripping stuff at us. And an opinion like “I like the DSi XL because I prefer the bigger screens and hand feels over higher pixel density” isn’t going to grab as much people as “The DSi XL is the best deal in gaming”.
Yeah ironically learning about it having the better screen and better scaling than the 3DS - something I just never really knew until recently - makes it more compelling.
But like, I still have my original phat DS AND a newer refurbished one with a capture card installed. So like… the better screen on the DSi XL would be neat, but is it worth spending another $90, having yet another handheld to keep up with and keep charged and then juggle swapping my games between it and the capture unit? Unlikely.
If I want a bigger viewport, I can just play from the capture preview at a PC lol
That’s what always gets me though, and how I end up with so many redundant consoles. Donating so many soon.
Another great way to resist fomo and impulsive buying is to have a project car aka a money pit, there will be no money for your other hobbies if you got that lol.
In all seriousness though, what has helped me in the past and what I need to do again is have cash on hand. Leave some in the bank so that no fees occur or if needed in a emergency, but take out the money that’s my play money for that paycheck. Then if I make a digital purchase I put it on my credit card and I then have to drive to the bank ATM to deposit it back into my account and pay the bill. The friction of having to do that and see my PHYSICAL Cash be spent helps me fight the impulse buying online where I tend to spend a lot on Anime blu rays and manga.
Yeah it is indeed pretty hard sometimes, especially with, as you mentioned in this Party Chat, with modern YT and stuff being like “The DS changed my life“ or “You NEED a DS now“. These are honestly the best sales pitches that got me a few times as well if I’m being honest lol.
Asking yourself “Do I need this?“ is one thing that helps for me, but I also often ask myself “When will I have time for this?“. Sometimes I want to buy something and I decide not to since I’ve figured I won’t have the time for it anyways between all my other hobbies and I would feel pretty guilty buying something and not using it. But as you mentioned as well, not impulse buying is pretty hard from time to time.
That’s a real good strategy. Your boundary gets a lot bigger since like you said you have to go to the ATM and all that hassle. On the other hand, for me personally, I tend to spend cash a lot easier since you can’t easily track those expenses. So the online aspect is removed, but spending cash in the physical space is easier to me than paying stuff by card.
I haven’t kept up recently, but Jayz2Cents used to have a method regarding PC upgrades: What do you want the computer to do? Does it do well enough? There is no point eating up the cost now for some future-proofing that may not matter.
“I want to play Counter-Strike” is a different goal than “I want the BESTest gaming PC”. The Counter-striking might be more improved by better internet than a better GPU anyway. (of course, this was before the current state of things where future laptops will release on 4GB of Ram, but still… I am very much a sucker for the potential of what the gear/supplies-could-do over me-having-any-idea what to do with it in the first place).
RE: What’s next after Phone BAD 3DS GOOD, my gut reply is the PatientGamers philosophy, but truth be told if people wanted to go down that path of games standing on their own and only on what’s in the box, they would have done it by now.
Looking at the people that only play new releases, what do they see? What discussions/influencers releasing guides and builds and hype events? What infrastructure is there to serve what they need?
OldSchool Runescape didn’t get popular until they started releasing fixes and new content, old players already played it all https://youtu.be/mrJ7OPHiAPw?&t=675 (Zulrah and Grand Exchange seem to be the big ones)
personally I am so tired of updates, roadmaps and “don’t overdeliver” content strategies. (Infamous GDC Bungie talk https://youtu.be/ZLbvMWEAoyY&t=2891 ) Warframe alone realized that they also need to fix the new-player experience, not just expansions at the end that most people won’t reach.
So, as I got older, I saw the change from video sites hosting their own video files to CDN servers, universities with their own email servers moving to centralised solutions;
Gaming specifically moved from room-LAN ReVolt at the computer class, to the town’s handful of internet cafe’s SwingSet CounterStrike community to national Metin2Ro hyper-localised MMORPG to…
the current state of things where one single trading server in Ireland is supposed to support Lost Ark servers from Norway to Iran, with the same economy and ban list and events and translations and…
Currently in the EU there’s some hubbub about small businesses having to eat compliance and shipping costs to serve all the EU by law, even though they don’t receive orders from the entire continent, only a few local orders.
The internet cafe’s could exchange ban lists, the clerks could learn the regular customers, someone banned could just go somewhere else. Metin2 had full translation in romanian, custom events and local Game admins that kept an eye on the state of economy and balance (I think, I haven’t played it lol).
The modern global identity and anticheat solutions are scary and invasive, the publishers are not willing to give up the smallest bit of control to let local infrastructure host, we got to the point of having anti-tamper in single player games, it’s crazy, if you get banned on your real life ID there isn’t another globe for you to move to.
So I guess the power of friendship, as much as I don’t like dealing with people, I super-don’t-like dealing with stonewalling corpos on the other side of the world. Internet cafe’s, or hobby cafe’s in general like in Asia. Smaller scale Online RPGs, projects started by ex private server operators, things like V Rising. Maybe I’m just falling for my instagram algo showing me russian internet cafes with CRT monitors.
(Zulrah and Grand Exchange seem to be the big ones)