Soulfulness in Gaming

One of the problems with having access to everything is that we stare at our phones for far too long. My screen time per day was down last week, to a measly 6 hours (add some minutes on top). It’s a long time to be looking at your phone, even if it is part of my job in some ways.

So this weekend was a lovely interlude from that neck breaking exercise. Seeing some live music and enjoying the lesser-spotted sun here in London, as I tended the garden. Something that was long overdue but ended up creating more jobs than I was solving. If only there was an an AI robot called Jim that would do my chores whilst I enjoyed an ice cold beverage. “Jim, once you’ve finished mowing the lawn, grab the shears and trim that tree, there’s a good lad,” I’d say.

Alas.

The problem with robots, not Jim specifically, (he’s a good lad) but the idea of them in general, is that they leave us with nothing else to do except mark their homework. Sure, you can very quickly generate an article, an image, a whole data set comprised of billions of information points, but making sure that everything’s in order is also required, and possibly the most boring job of them all! So what do we want our tech to do for us, and what jobs do we want to do for ourselves?

It’s about finding the blend. The right balance of spices and herbs to make sure our dish is neither too manually intensive nor tech focused. If the tools are there to help us then we must make the most of them but an over-reliance will lead us into far darker territories. I think we’re all agreed we spend too long on our phones and it’s taking a toll on our mental health, but we don’t talk about the physical side enough.

“Sit up straight!” I have to tell myself, otherwise I slowly curl into what feels like an armadillo shape by the evening. It must look so weird, almost medieval, except for the bright blue screen that I’m squinting at through tired eyes. I’m told that I’m not alone in feeling like this. So what is there to be done?

Well, you won’t be surprised to hear me espousing the use of games to help! This will be a running theme so if you don’t like it, I’d get off the train now. (No no wait, come back!)

Roblox has become what people thought the metaverse would be. This is the semi-blank canvas digital universe where new worlds are birthed into existence by games devs big and small every day. 15,000 per day. This is not just about finding an infinite amount of ways to run and jump in a game. It’s about finding ways to give people the human experiences their mind, body and soul need.?

For instance, I started doing yoga a few years ago to help with the bad back that I’d developed. We can blame the years of sitting down, or we can blame the fact that I never did any regular exercise and preferred to continue sitting down either at home or in the pub etc. A little from Column A, a little from Column B. But I stopped after a while and that was that. Until I downloaded Roblox to play a game that was being talked about a lot, developed for Alo Yoga.?

I couldn’t quite understand it to begin with. There was no real goal to the game, a few items to collect but that was about it. But then I stopped and actually did some of the breathing exercises. It’s a bit mad to think about. I was on my phone, but I was also meditating. I was using the tool to enable a deeply positive spiritual, mental and physical moment.?

This is where we can learn lessons and ask ourselves some serious questions.

How do we want to spend our time? Can our phones be more than a gateway to other people’s lives? What balance are we striking between living in the real world and spending time in a digital one? Is there a utopia where we finally develop a hard-and-fast method to blend the digital tools with real life to improve our mind, body and soul?

I hope so. And if we’re going to find it, then it will be in the digital spaces that appeal to our soulfulness.

I'll leave it there for now. Until next time, have a lovely and soulful rest of your week. See you next Monday :)