I’m a few years behind, but I picked up Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag on Nintendo Switch to play over the holiday break. And of course, I’m loving it. Except for all the stupid “simulation” stuff involving having to walk around in the Abstergo offices… those parts drive me insane. Just let me blow up ships please…

The point I want to make though, in brief, is a simple one. After years spent on social media, and having had to work on it professionally, I’ve decided that I think playing games is way way healthier than “playing” social media. Not all games are created equal, of course, but by and large, games are professionally designed. They go through team review, iterations, and have many contributors. They have budgets. They’re intended to be fun and make money.

Versus social media which is like, any yahoo with a keyboard who may be drunk or high or have a mental illness, or have caught some kind of extreme form of radicalization… all of that wrapped up inside of venture-capital backed echo chambers where anger & being shitty out loud is incentivized. Don’t get wrong, some good comes of social media – I guess. But I’m not sure it is that which was promised us in the ads. I’m not sure it’s “togetherness” and “communication” so much as it is things that are occasionally funny or cute pictures of puppies and stuff. The rest I could kind of take or leave. Just let me get back on my pirate ship please, or let me sneak up behind someone out of the bushes and knock them out and loot them. I’ll take games over social media any day. I used to shit on games, but there’s so much more there than we give them credit for.

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