I always knew I had a thing for computer games... or is it them who have a thing for me? In any case, I am aware how easily I can get lost in a game for hours or days, particularly if it is a good city-building strategy game. For this reason I have been careful about exposing myself to them, making a point of not even knowing what new games are out there. When it comes to games like Rising Star on the other hand, it's hard to even make this comparison. It's a game for sure, and you play it on your screen... but that's where the similarities end. Somehow it still managed to grab hold of something in my mind.
What playing Rising Star essentially boils down to is pressing a button at certain times of the day. Sure, there is a whole little world built around it all, involving aspiring musicians, playing gigs, getting instruments, forming a band, going on tour, etc. But all that is drawn so far apart that you may as well ignore it background noise. Just looking through the posts I've written about playing this game shows that entire weeks (if not months) could pass between two levels. In between there may be a couple of different missions that make sense strategically, but even there the only real difference is the time you have to wait before pressing that same button. I did my best to come up with a cool background story, but after a while even that faded into disinterest. The only thing that remained was that damn button I needed to press...!
Do you remember the series Lost? There was also a button that had to be pressed regularly, keeping its caretaker in the firm belief that by pressing it he was preventing some kind of enormous disaster, possibly nuclear annihilation. Even though he didn't have certain proof of this, the mere possibility made sure he followed this calling with a fanatic dedication, up to the point of convincing others of its essentialness. Well, after a while this is kinda how I felt about Rising Star.
The mind is a strange thing for sure, and this game just showed me with undeniable clarity how mine seems to be working. Give it some stupidly simple task (such as pressing a button) but at a certain time, keep track of it by dangling some far-away markers in front of it, and I swear I'm going to be constantly occupied by that thought. I may be enjoying a walk in the sun, watching a good show, or just letting my inspiration unfold by writing a Hive post... It doesn't matter what otherwise enjoyable activity I'd be doing, my mind will keep coming back to this dumb button. And if I can't press it when the time comes, it is going to fill me with discomfort. Even now I remember the excitement I felt from seeing this image:
I think I've been a month into playing Rising Star when I first started having my doubts about it. Unlike Splinterlands, or even Drugwars, it was never really fun to play. But when missions started growing much longer, and levels further apart, I noticed that I wasn't actually enjoying it. Still, I kept coming back for more. Half a year later I was still pressing that button, while complaining about it in my posts. At some point however, a brilliant comment in my last Rising Star post just gave me the push I needed: finally I let go of the game, and I didn't even open its link for two months or so. If you're curious, in my six months of playing I got to the middle of level 83.
Unlike many other games that rob you not only of your time but your money, Rising Star is actually a play-to-earn game. This means, I earned myself quite a bit of Starbits while playing. Great! So how much did I get out of half a year of button pushing? Well, I probably would have gotten a lot more if I hadn't invested most of it into strategic cards, which ensured my progress in the game, as well as my own story-line I created. But anyway, now that I'm past it, I started selling off all my cards. There are still four left, but once they are gone, I'll have around 700,000 Starbits, together with what I had from before. At current rates, that is about 35 HIVE. A week of regular posting will generate that much for me, without any unexpected curation.
In summary I'd like to point out that I'm not ripping on Rising Star here. It certainly has its place, and I guess it offers musicians a venue to spread their fame (and tunes), so it's not a bad thing. Also, it follows the pattern of many play-to-earn games (and in fact pay-to-play games also), of keeping you engaged, coming back for more of the same. However, it's always important to know yourself, and for me the lesson is clear: I need to take it easy with these kinds of games... just like how I have to remind myself occasionally NOT to step on all the cracks on the sidewalk, but also not avoid stepping on any of them. Otherwise I may just get too obsessed.
