Mandaris

I was recently listening to episode 49 of the Hemispheric Views podcast and they had a brief segment on the gaming and I responded in the discord associated with the podcast, but wanted to add it to the blog for perpetuity.

Well… in a short defense of Apple Arcade, it has helped me with a small game addiction that I was having with a game called Empires and Puzzles. Empires and Puzzles is one of those free to play games with tons of little things that would make things soooo much better… but you have to pay for it.

I had started because of a recommendation from a friend (like most additions) and was paying a little here and there.

I’d try to break it by playing something else and a lot of other games (on the phone) have the same problem. The games that are good and you pay up front for can be expensive and it’s not a guarantee that you’ll like it after purchasing it. I did luck out with picking up games like Dead Cells and Hole Down.

Luckily, I never turned in to a whale¹, but I found myself paying something like $10 a month sometimes. Which honestly isn’t a lot but there is a difference between intentionally setting out to spend the money and feeling that you need to in order to help you meet your goals or in some cases enhance the experience of the guild/group of people you were playing with.

When I got Apple Arcade, I was able to find similar games to what I was playing or even better switch to different types when I’m bored. That feeling of newness cuts the rush of whatever loot box drive I might get with other games. Since the game is paid for by my subscription, I don’t get pestered by the latest offer or made up event. Some games, still have the mechanizations of having multiple kinds of in game money that you would need to make progress.

True, you might not get the AAA titles, but in a world with a lot of people on the phones, this is good. Apple have also added a lot of older games that they are re-releasing with the “+” so that I can continue playing those as well.

It really enhances the Apple One service for me and I don’t picture that I’ll be unsubscribing.

This was originally two messages that I put in discord, but I thought I’d put it on my blog for others to see.

I’ve been using the app “Due” to help me track things like medications for me and my dog as well as a wind down for work. The issue is that I’ve got 7 reminders for the day. Is there a way to sort these into folders? Should I put the effort into that because as I type it, it feels a little petty and sort of like pushing food around on a plate.

I haven’t really had the problem of tons of alerts when I open the application that some people are having. I think this is in part because the things that Due is reminding me of are usually pretty small and when I’m not doing it, the reminders (every 15 minutes) help. I also have them spaced out. For example, I have one for the dog at 6:00 and me at 6:15. Sometimes I’ll go into the app before hand to mark things off before they are due

Thanks to everyone who listened in. I’m still putting things together and I’m looking forward to the next episode.

The first step is always the hardest. I thought I would start with something small and see where it goes. I’m hoping to make at least 20 of these before the end of the year.