PixlBit

Felt like one thousand.

It took me all day to get those 100 animal babies birthed in Zoo Tycoon. After doing a few other objectives at the same time, I became super focused on breeding and breeding only. I set up five enclosures and asigned all my breeding experts to them. Then I monitored each of them to make sure there was the right mix of animals and remove the ones that wouldn't breed. I was also keeping an eye out for unusual progeny. Other achievements involve breeding every animal's color variant and taking a picture of it. I got quite a few. I had to write them down to keep track because I don't think the game does it for you (There is a photo album that I haven't looked at yet that might sort those out for you, but I'm not sure). There's about 100 animals in the game and you need a variant for each. After I bred and photographed them, I donated them to Mark, so he'd have them when he gets his copy of the game. It made me wonder if those baby animals age suspended in digital limbo until downloaded by another player. Weird thought and probably the sign I was too involved in the game and should've stopped. 

Anyway the game alerts you when there's a birth and tells you the result in a text box. I would dash to the appropriate enclosure if it was a variant to get the picture. I was pretty obsessed with it, but early on I had discovered where the counter was in the achievement list and saw I was about 2/3rds the way done and couldn't resist trying to finish it. 

There is no way in any sensible world that I'm going for the complete variant animal collection. I mean it's not impossible, and I have maybe 15% of them so far, but man is that going to be time consuming. But maybe with the right strategy it can be done in less time. It just might be too tedious and make me not want to play games ever again. I'm already questioning my use of time and energy with today's effort. 

I feel games are getting seriously immersive and psychologically irresistable. So much so, I'm beginning to be afraid of them. When a day passes so quickly like it did today, I wonder what I'm really doing and whether it's worth it. 

I'm thinking of developing an approach to gaming, a time constraint, or a rigid set of rules of engagement. I'm not sure what it'll be yet, but maybe I have to consciously avoid looking at achievements and just stick to my own goals. I wonder if it's possible? Sometimes I think I should go back to when games were short, but then I might just play more of them, so it might not be a solution. I'll think of something, but I know I have to behaive differently, that's for sure. 

Well, may the BaD be with you.