Just working. All of my family is quite a ways away from me so I’ll get a nice paycheck out of the deal. Thankfully I work from home and have a job where unless something explodes I can screw off all day, so I got to call my family and play video games all day.

I think part of it is that for a westerner to confront the fact that overpopulation isn’t an inherent issue, we have abundant resources to handle a huge population, then they’re forced to confront that it’s an issue of resource allocation. And when that happens westerners are programmed to start screaming about commies the same way that they imagine dirty peasants used to scream about witches. So for the last god knows how many years anytime western media has a narrative that needs to confront the issue of resource allocation they skirt the problem by saying there are too many people and that’s the real issue. That and the implied racism of saying the problem is overpopulation is killing two birds with one stone, so it’s a narrative that stuck around in western media and became a convenient misdirection.

Somehow it’s still not the scummiest thing that PayPal does. Close though.

Depends on the game and how familiar I am with its mechanics. When I start a new game I have to feel it out first before I can autopilot while listening to something.

I can mindlessly level characters in WoW Classic (my favorite thing to do, the endgame can be fun but us usually really toxic) because I’ve played WoW off and on for 20 years so I don’t have to give it much thought. Honestly can’t do it without a podcast or audiobook anymore. Also Elden Ring, I “clear the map” of all the smaller dungeons while listening to stuff, but like WoW I love starting fresh characters with a new build and honestly doing it without listening to something is boring.

I also like ARPGs like Diablo 3. Diablo 4 Is more miss than hit these days, but can be fun. Path of Exile never really grabbed me, but I’ll probably give PoE2 a shot soonish. A recent one if found is Wayfinder. Is a wonderful little action RPG that I’ve really enjoyed playing recently. It started development as a live service title but because of some nonsense they retooled it and released it as a fully offline action RPG with tons of collectibles and up to three player coop.

I also like 4x games once I get used to the mechanics. Stuff like Civilization, Age of Wonders, Stellaris, Endless Space & Endless Legend. Usually I’m just doing runs to get specific achievements or try out a silly build idea. I pause whatever I’m listening to sometimes if things get tense and need some micromanagement.

I play Warframe too sometimes, but that’s a bit more dependent on what I’m doing in game. It’s really the only looter shooter that’s ever stuck with me so there aren’t really any other games similar to it I play. Most others are unforgiving but Warframe you can make really tanky builds so if you space out listening to something for a minute it’s not the end of the world.

That all being said I’m lucky, I have a bullshit job where I can play games a lot during the workday so I play a ton of stuff while listening to podcasts and audiobooks.