The Art of having "Fun"

The latest Prince of Persia game (The Lost Crown) started off with a bang and had me hooked pretty good for quite a few hours after I initially started the game for the first time. For those of you that haven’t played it, it’s simply a “Metroid-vania” type game with hack and slash gameplay and some ranged combat. (It’s a 2D game with lots of back tracking, exploring old/new areas and finding different pathways after unlocking new abilities as the story progresses. If you still don’t understand, just google it or something) The game did a decent enough job explaining the mechanics and giving a basic kidnapping story to invoke the stakes of what my overall objective was. I cut down some basic enemies, got the hang of blocking/dodging and conquered a few bosses in no time at all. However, I noticed things started changing as the hours moved along and the game grew larger and larger in scope. I began unlocking maps that showcased the true size of different regions and instead of feeling excitement that I had more to explore, I felt more so that I really didn’t want to backtrack all that way just to visit one side room that possibly had a collectable I really didn’t give a crap about. On top of the overwhelming map size problem, enemies had a major difficulty spike at one point and Sargon (the character you play as) was the one getting mowed down over and over again in front of my eyes. What was my solution to this aggravation that seemingly plagued me? I stopped playing the game. I turned off the console, put the controller down and decided to watch a movie or read a book. (Such a crazy concept these days)

Now you might be asking yourself, “What does your little Prince of Persia story have to do with the title of this blog, Prowler?” and to that I say, “Um, fair point.” (Seriously?) Obviously, I’m only kidding inner monologue. The point is that I’ve finally reached that stage in my life where I recognize when things stop adding value for me and either remove myself or whatever isn’t “fun” from the equation. In this case, it happened to be the latest Prince of Persia game. Which for those of you that are super curious about the ending of that little saga, I returned to the game a few days later, got my booty kicked again and subsequently ended the game and promptly deleted it from my PS5 forever. (I downloaded it for “free” thanks to my PlayStation plus subscription so no need to fret about wasted dollars or anything) I’m not a total psycho though. I at least googled the ending of the game to see how everything works out for our hero and blah blah blah. (Enough Prince of Persia talk! Let’s get back to the point about having fun) Agreed.

I will absolutely admit that one of the biggest flaws about myself that took a very long time to rectify was the fact that I was as stubborn as a mule when it came time to give up on something. I was one of those people that was going to get my money’s worth out of whatever experience or movie or game or whatever I found myself trenched in. No matter how miserable I was or how unenjoyable the situation had become. One particular example comes to mind with the movie The Prisoner that my dad and I rented when I was younger. On the cover was none other than one of my favorite martial artists: Jackie Chan and of course I was under the impression that he was the big action hero like all the other movies I had seen with him in it. Spoiler alert! Jackie’s character is not the main character and even gets killed off like halfway through the movie. Understandably, young Prowler was a tad ticked off but because I was young and dumb, I sat through the rest of the movie and hated every remaining second of it. (“Was” dumb? Boom. Self burn) When the credits finally started to roll, I turned to my dad full of rage and demanded to know why we wasted our time watching such an awful movie. I’ll never forget his response: “Why did you keep watching it then?” I obviously had a very dumb struck look on my face because he continued after the question: “You clearly went into this movie with the expectation that Jackie was playing a similar role to something like his rush hour movies. You decided the minute he was killed off in this movie that you would hate the rest of it, no matter the overall conclusion. So why did you keep watching it?” I didn’t have an answer for him then and to be honest with you, I don’t really have an answer now. Like I said before, I was young, dumb and stubborn as hell. This same mindset constantly ravaged me throughout my gaming career as well.

Especially as I got older and began working full time and could afford to really purchase my own games or consoles, I found myself buying up anything and everything that even peaked the slightest interest in me. Gaming slowly started to transition from a really fun hobby to something that resembled a chore. Oh, a new game is coming out? I’m definitely going to buy it but I have to beat this other game I spent my hard earned dollars on. Even though it’s a slog and I stupidly promised myself I’d 100% the game. Why was I thinking this and where did this mentality come from? I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do and if I wanted to drop everything to go play the newest game, then dammit, I was gonna go do that! Thankfully, this way of thinking really kicked in a while ago and I remain headstrong in this department as time continues to march on. These days I find myself willing to give plenty of different games opportunities that I wouldn’t have given before but if I find myself not enjoying it, I simply walk away with no regrets. (Or no ragrets if you’re a We’re the Millers fan) The biggest lesson I still need to teach myself is that this mindset extends to so much more of life than just movies or games. I was trapped at my awful previous job for 13 years before realizing I should and could leave for crying out loud! (Mr. Perfect I clearly am not)

So, I leave you with this my amazing and faithful reader, are you the type of person who suffers in silence? Like trying to 100% one of the newer Assassin Creed games that takes 1,000 plus hours? (Suck it Ubisoft) Or are you the type to go chase what truly fills your soul with enjoyment? Here’s my belief: We’re all here for a short time so let’s do our best to make it fun while it lasts.

P.S. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a pretty good game if you’re a fan of those types like Dead Cells or Castlevania. Despite my gripes earlier on in this blog, I actually would recommend it others. (Sounds like a skill issue) Can't argue with that inner monologue.

Double P.S. Look at how deceptive this movie cover is! I feel young Prowler is owed an apology for this…