How to Adjust Your Assumptions

Recently, there seemed to be some curiosity about my gaming habits amongst some patrons, so here’s my deal, as far as games are concerned:

I like turn-based strategy games, similar to Advance Wars on the Gameboy Advance (Warbits in IOS and Android is quite good), or the Mario + Rabbids games on the Switch for a more modern take. They’re easy to pick up and put down, play in short bursts, and get on with my day. I’m a better slow thinker than I am a fast thinker, and they give me time to plot and scheme. I’ve tried X-Com and some of the more complex variants, but as I said in the comics, I feel like I end up spending as much or more time doing human resources, tracking my soldiers’ personal development plans, as I spend blowing things up real good, which is the part I enjoy.

I also really like a good stealth game. The gold standard for me is the Hitman games, which I may have picked up just for the vicarious thrill of watching a bald man triumph. Again, the genre often allows time for slow thinking. You watch your quarry, learn their habits, then execute a careful plan to defeat them, which appeals to me.

For action games, Missy and I both greatly enjoy the Borderlands games, and are looking forward to Borderlands 4, which will be coming out later this year. We play cooperatively, and our play pattern involves her reviving me many times over the course of an evening, not because she enjoys playing the healer (she does not) but because, again, the genre calls for fast thinking, and well, you know.

I am very lucky that I am married to a woman who considers playing Borderlands games to be “together time.”

So, those are the games Missy and I play. Or they were, before the cursed scourge of Balatro addiction fell upon our home. If you enjoy not being utterly addicted to a mobile game, if you like playing games that aren’t Balatro, if you treasure having conversations with your spouse that don’t involve discussing Jokers, tarot cards, or “Mult,” then I suggest you avoid Balatro at all costs.

ON AN UNRELATED NOTE: There will be no new comic next week, for a variety of uninteresting reasons. Sorry for the gap. I plan to be back in a week.