New Video! Balatro and the Killing of Time (ad-free!)

Hey everyone!

Just letting you know that the new video is now available! Decided last minute to keep it Patreon exclusive for now, might put it out to the public at some point if I'm feeling brave, haha.

This one concerns the poker-roguelike and bonafide indie smash hit Balatro—a game my friends and I... hell, everyone has poured countless hours into. Surely with that level of commitment, I must think it's fantastic, right? Surely it's a game of the year contender? Well, honestly... I think I enjoy Balatro. By the time I'd finished making this video I really wasn't so sure. Balatro isn't as much fun or meaningful as much as it is compulsive. It is designed to kill time, and the recent talk from the developer about just how much time has been killed across its player base—multiple millennia at this point, and I'm not even exaggerating there—it got me thinking about that notion of killing time, and whether or not I'm OK with a game filling that purpose so explicitly.

So yeah, like I say, I'm going against the grain of endless praise for Balatro (although as I say in the video I'm not the first to bring up its compulsive qualities—Harry from Video Games are Bad made a great video here), and it ends up being as much about my own sense of mindfulness while playing games so I might hold off on putting it on the channel until I feel more comfortable with the YouTube masses potentially descending upon it. Part of why I enjoy the Patreon exclusive aspect of this stuff is that I feel like even if you guys ultimately disagree with my views on a game, you're far more likely to see where I'm coming from, or at least look at it more charitably than the YouTube comment section.

(as a reminder, you can view a playlist of all the Patreon exclusive videos here—*please not share the link!*)

But yeah, this was an idea for a piece I've had for a while now (that more or less spawned from "do I actually enjoy this game I've sunk so much time into," haha), and I decided to just make it happen as a break from the larger projects I've been working on. It was nice to do something short and sweet like this (perhaps appropriate given the subject matter), especially when the other projects are looking to keep me pretty busy into next month.

I was trying to get the Mad Max video done finally, to coincide with Furiosa's release, but it's taking a bit more time than expected. I think I'm going to be happy with the video when it's done—I love talking about games as they relate to film and Mad Max is a series I hold a great deal of fondness for—but I'm fully in that mindset right now where it's hard to look at the bigger picture of it right now. I'm excited for you to see it though, I think you'll be into it even if you don't know much about the game/films.

That said, the fact I can just be working on this one massive project and then switch out to something more light and manageable is a flexibility I'm afforded solely because of your continued, unbelievably generous support. As I mention in the video, I'm very aware of the time you're giving me when you watch my videos and the same goes for the financial support as well. I do not take it for granted, and it really means a lot. Thank you all so much.

Next month is looking to be a pretty busy one even outside of the Mad Max project. There's stuff I can't talk about yet but I'm very, very eager to. You'll be seeing that stuff sooner rather than later. I can't wait and I hope you're similarly excited. You are all the best.

Thanks again,

Hamish

Writing on Games