Content warning: taking about the pandemic and lockdown in the context of one of my obsessions: gaming.
We're approaching the one year anniversary of when COVID-19 made being social a liability in the United States of America. We've been fortunate that both JoDee and I like each other and like to spend time with each other (I've often said that I get to hang out with my best friend every day, which still rings true today). We've hit some routines with our work schedules, and made the best of not going places like grocery shopping, restaurants, game stores, and the like. We both tend to be introverts so staying home has been pretty good overall. Sure, we'd love to return to our previous routines, but overall I have no complaints.
Over the past year I've been decluttering a lot. Having a lot of time that we're not heading somewhere or doing something makes tackling the decluttering pile more appealing. Over the years I've picked up a lot of games (board games, RPG games, etc.). Part of this was the desire to look at various systems and see how they work. Unfortunately I realized that a lot of these games really didn't interest me. Many of them stayed locked in their shrinkwrap where they did the least amount of good for anyone. And so they sat there as useless cardboard bricks in a large gaming wall. I managed to trade many of these out for other games. That provided some new things to play with.
Unfortunately it's also rekindled one of my other latent tendencies of finding new games and wanting to pick up the totality of that game. Many things go out of print (the life of a game can be pretty short, especially if it's self-published) so getting it while it's Kickstarting or during its initial run can be key.
This unfortunately makes for a rather expensive hobby. Sure, it's not a lot of money to start but it quickly adds up.
I've been doing a mental inventory of the games that I have and realized that many of them have stopped being games and are just reference material. Some of them might actually get played and some of them might get synthesized into other works that I'm designing, but for a few of them they'll never see the play that they so desperately deserve.
It's this novelty though that keeps me wanting to pick up the new things, especially when folks create new and interesting things.
I've been working to disconnect myself from needing this novelty of mechanics and material, but it's a challenge. With the pandemic in full swing it's also adding to that need for novel experiences.
Perhaps just being with this discomfort and recognizing it is enough. Perhaps I need something a little more drastic. All I know is I have the itch that I had when I was at my absolute worst for picking up games and I remember the results. Perhaps noticing it is enough.