Where There’s a Whip

Combating the drudgery – the constant battle of … well pretty much everyone. We have varying degrees of drudge, and varying options by which we can go about defeating it. Whether it’s a slow day at work, a long, hot summer day, too hot to move, or a much needed study break, diversion, something to break monotony, is key.

But what happens when that which is supposed to break boredom becomes boring itself? What do we do when the activities we used to enjoy become yawn-inducing? And why does it always seem to happen?

We all have our favorite movies or books or TV shows. And each one of these, I’ll bet money, has a scene or a chapter that you just “gloss over” when you re-read or re-watch it now. You know that scene where they have this long, drawn-out discussion that just should have been edited out, but the editor probably got sleepy and “glossed over” it, too. Hey, it happens.

Is it any surprise then, that games would also have these particular sections of slowness? Of course not. That is why we have endless cheats, walk-throughs, mods, house rules and other such gamer-created accoutrement to the gameplay experience.

And so we’re discussing this phenomenon of drudgery in games and the on-going battle against it this week in “Where There’s a Whip.” Peter Robinett discusses the psychology behind boredom and puts it in the context of games. Russ Pitts talks about his own experience with variants of one of the most popular console games, Halo 2. Allen Varney discusses another player-created mode of freshening up an old favorite, speedrunning games. Find these articles and more in this week’s issue of The Escapist.

Cheers,

-Julianne Greer