A wise woman once said, "We will only know what is of over-mastering importance when it has over-mastered us." If nothing else, the sheer amount of time spent engaging with digital entertainment seems to indicate its over-mastering power to occupy and thrill people all over the world. If you are working in entertainment, there are more opportunities than ever before to get your work out there - to get it heard, seen or experienced.
I love playing video games. There are so many that I frequently don't know which one to play. Mass Effect (3 games), The Witcher (2, soon to be 3), Just Cause (2, soon to be 3), Assassin's Creed (9 games), Dragon Age (3 games), Deus Ex (4 games), Batman (3, soon to be 4), Alan Wake (2 games), Dishonored, Saints Row (3 games), Tomb Raider (6 or 7 games), Red Faction (4 games), Civilization (I have 3 games), Thief (4 games), Bioshock (3 games), Prince of Persia (5 or 6 games, I think), Far Cry (4 games), Metro (2 games), Total War (I have 6 of the 9 available), Max Payne (3 games), Elder Scrolls (3 games), Half-Life (2 games), Portal (2 games), Age of Empires (2 games) - and that's not even getting into some of the many other less-famous titles that I have in my game library. In total, the number of games available to me totals over 400.
I have played barely a fifth of them. And by "played," I don't mean I played them from beginning to end. I mean I played them until I lost interest. For about two dozen titles, I have played them to the conclusion. The rest - well, I don't know if I will ever return to them. I experienced them once, and was not impressed enough to finish them. Why would I want to return to them? There are so many other games to play...
I remember when all I had was a handful of titles that sat on my bookshelf. I played them over and over. Then, when I got tired of them, I discovered mods to renew their attraction. Now, I have so many games, I worry I won't be able to play them all. The days of relaxing with a game and getting lost in its world are long gone. Now I hop into one game, play it for a bit, then hop into a different game, trying to experience everything. And in the process, experiencing nothing. With new sales happening almost weekly on Origin, Amazon, Steam, Bundle Stars, GOG, and other websites, the temptation to add to my library is huge. The other day I purchased a game for Origin from Amazon called Syndicate. I watched the beginning of some "let's plays" on YouTube, and it looks like a cool game. I really want to play it. But when am I going to have the time to do that? Right now, the Sniper: Ghost Warrior Trilogy is on sale. The first Sniper game is a classic. But when would I play those games, if I purchased them? They would just go on the already-long list of games that I haven't played that I want to play. And some games on sale look cool, but I haven't bought them simply because I have no idea when I would play them, if at all.
I love watching good TV. Friends is a favorite sitcom of mine, as is Community, Cougar Town, Parks & Rec, and many others. Then there's adventure TV like Battlestar Galactica and Arrow, dramatic TV like Game of Thrones. If I kept up with all the shows I want to see, I wouldn't have time to do much else with my life. Then there's the question of whether I want to own the shows on DVD or Blu-ray so I can be "liberated" from the shackles of network programming and / or internet Flash ads (plus all those cool extras that fans love). But what is left after all that vicarious living?
Music is everywhere. On our phones, our tablets, laptops, in garages, on street corners, in shops - it has literally never been easier to find music to listen to (I'm listening to some right now as I write this). Online platforms like Spotify and iTunes make the task even easier. I have over a dozen different recordings of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Brahms' 4th Symphony is equally well represented, and that is not even getting into the violin concertos, piano concertos, cello concertos, string quartets, piano quartets, piano solo, violin solo, and other genres that absolutely clogs my listening queue. There is my playlist with Aerosmith, Scorpions, and AC / DC. There are other playlists of movie soundtracks, game soundtracks, Poets of the Fall, Simon and Garfunkel. Thanks to modern media platforms, the entire discography of Huey Lewis and the News is just a few clicks away. Now, when I DON'T have music pouring into my ears, multiple songs wage a noisy battle in my head for which one will ring in my ears for the next few hours. Sometimes I would listen to music, but I just can't anymore.
It's the same story with movies, books, pictures, even YouTube - there is simply too much media in the world today. I can tell that there is a lot of good stuff I am missing - and that, I think, is what fuels the constant consumption. I am so scared of "missing out" that I compensate by hoarding whatever I can grab cheaply. I've heard The Wire was an awesome show, but I'll probably never get to watch it. I've heard Alicia Keys is an awesome singer, but I'll probably never get to hear her. I've heard Guardians of the Galaxy was a fun movie, but I'll probably never watch it (not soon, anyway). Each movie competes with a new album, which competes with a concert, which competes with a video game, which competes with a TV show, all of them fighting amongst themselves for that golden trophy which is used to judge every entertainment - time. The time people take to experience the thrills and excitement that they have to offer.
There is too much media for anyone to enjoy it all.
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