I couldn’t even make it through the first month of 2017 before dropping the ball. Yeah, I missed posting an article last week. Life happened and some things just had to be missed. I’d tell ya not to grow up because adulting sucks, but you can’t stop the march of time.

I find I’m already getting busy. Lots of plans are now being put into motion for my photography business. This means a lot of time going to meetings, web work, planning, more meetings, making copious amounts of coffee, more meetings, and even more coffee. Self-employment might be a dream for some, but damn is it a lot of work. How Keri can do this while juggling family responsibilities…mad props to her.

With life becoming a sequence of task lists, gaming has taken a big hit. At one time, I could throw a day away by gaming it all away without much care other than some project on the house wasn’t getting done. Now, I can’t really blow a day off as it will mean a setback in this or that part of the business. This does suck, but I’ve also found a great way to deal with the guilt that I carry when it comes to new games. I spend my time in free-to-play games.

I know. F2P games?!?! WTF? Are you drunk? No. I am not drunk, even though I really want to be right now. This change started happening when my wife lost her job. I really wanted to play World of Warcraft at that time as the new expansion was so fresh and new. Sadly, money wasn’t there to do that. Thus, I jumped back into Guild Wars 2 because I already owned it. Sure, it’s not that free-to-play as you have to buy the game. However, it doesn’t carry the monthly fee like WoW does. You know, I am still playing GW2 and enjoying it.

Next came Warframe. I’ve always been curious about this game. The Steam reviews would have you believe that the grind was just too much. Unless I was going to devote my life to the game, I’d have to invest money into buying this or that to make the game fun. I said screw the reviews and downloaded the game anyway. You know what? In my limited amount of gaming time, I find I am loving Warframe. Sure, I’m not the most badass player there is. Yet, I’ve invested no money into it. I know I’m stuck with some pleb shit. That is okay. When I sit down to game, this is fun and takes my mind off life for a bit, and that is just fine with me.

Most recently, some friends have started playing Trove on PS4. I was pretty reluctant to look into yet another game. However, combine Minecraft with some adventuring, add in some MMO flavors, and mix it all together with a lovely visual palette and I’ll bite. Trove is a decent distraction. The grind here is a bit more evident and in your face, but as with Warframe I have yet to drop money on it. I just take my basic bitch toon out and grind out various dungeons in hopes better gear drops. The RNG struggle is real!

I know free-to-play games have a massively bad reputation for being terrible money grabs. I knew that both Warframe and Trove would be a lot easier if I would just drop a few dollars into them. Yet, I don’t feel the need to do that yet. The amount of time I get to spend gaming now is limited, and these games have provided a good amount of entertainment, yet they haven’t costed me a dime yet. At this point, that is a good thing. Sometimes, a free distraction from the stresses of life are all you really need to get from one meeting to the next.