Offline Mode

So with the onslaught of new responsibilities that have come with having a kid in school, I find my gaming time has become even more limited than before.  I know.  This has been a constant complaint for me, and I imagine it will be until, well, until the day I die.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.  And to top that off, I have four people in my house who are active on a single TV screen, housing all three of our main systems. Sure I have my PC and my 3DS, but I find that sometimes I just have to unplug from all the of it.

Ironically, then I turn to my Kindle.  I clearly can't escape the screen.  But you know what - I love it.

Lately I have been reading dystopian lit, focusing on the idea that virtual worlds or games have taken over because they are so much better than the real life people have.  I've read a few Neil Stephenson books, and then I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  Dude.  Go read this book, right now.

Don't mind me, just plugged in.

We live in an increasingly connected world.  I mean, I think the Xbox One's Kinect is pretty much going to try to live inside of us.  The current Kinect is creepy enough.  The One can see your heartbeat.  And your soul, or so I'm speculating.  In these books, the characters are escaping their crappy real world lives for a glamorous second life, completely online.  The wear visors or goggles so they can completely immerse visually, and in some they even have full body suits so they can feel and interact with their virtual world.  They live there, work there, fall in love there... It's crazy, but it definitely seems like that's where we're headed tech-wise.

And it is fun to speculate on.

And don't tell me you don't like to read.  I hate to break it to you, but you're reading right now.  Your cell phone?  Constantly reading texts, Twitter, Facebook...  And all those games.  You're reading the screen, reading the story line, directing your character's speech.  You read all the time.  So just read a book. It's fun, I promise.