Video games are just work
One of the saving graces of the first Covid lockdown was a small personal Discord server I started to enable a group of my friends who lived across the eastern Australian states to connect and play games while stuck in their houses. Initially we used it for Tabletop Simulator, but over time we shifted to other games; we rediscovered our love of Overwatch, got caught up in the Phasmophobia hype, and then, like five million other gamers, succumbed to the siren’s call of Valheim. We rented a small server, built longhouses, went on sailing expeditions, and hunted mythical beasts.
After a long play session, I was regaling my housemate with the saga of my silver mining exploits. I’d found a vein on the side of the mountain, on an island not too far from our main base. I thought, I’ll sail to the shore nearby, drag the cart up the hill, fill it, drag it back down to the longboat, transfer the silver, and sail home with the loot. Easy!
The problems started on the trip up. The cart kept getting damaged because I was running it over rocks at too high a speed. No problem, I thought, I’ll just build a repair bench. So off I went to chop some trees. One I got back to the cart, it had been destroyed by wolves, and they now set upon me. So I killed them and skinned them, and went to cut more wood for a proper little hut, since you can’t build a new cart unless the repair bench has a roof.
