I’m at the point in my life where having kids is expected soon, both from the standpoints of my family and from society. The problem with this, though, is that outside perspectives should never matter in making the choice to have kids. What’s unfortunate is that so many people out there succumb to societal or familial pressure and end up having children for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time. Ultimately, this impacts the way those children are raised and treated along the way.

So, my partner and I have discussed many times how much we’re excited at the prospect of having children, yet also how excited we would be to forego that process altogether and travel instead. I think more people need to have this conversation before having kids. If anything, they’ll respect their decision to have kids much more than they would have if they never questioned it. And even better, they would have much more confidence moving forward and have agency in their choice to have children.

Don’t let me get on a tangent, though. While I’m still at a crossroads with my partner on this decision (we almost always agree on the topic, whether we’ve been swayed one way or another), there are still times when I think about how much fun it would be to do little projects or play little games with our future child.

In fact, there would be no shortage of things to do with our kids since we always talk about the what ifs. I know we’ve mentioned on several occasions how we’d enjoy doing some arts and crafts with a rough bunch of shipping supplies, art tools, paint, and canvases. It wouldn’t take much, yet it would be something that our child would remember for a long time while also being educational and growth-oriented in developing their creativity and wonder of the world.

So, I guess you can say we get jealous of others who have toddlers that they get to play with. And even though the thought crosses our minds regarding how much we really would like to spend time building or painting things with things that save us money like shipping supplies, we’re reminded of all the money we’d be able to save to do other things in life if we chose to not have a child.

All in all, I’m just happy that we are choosing to make this a decision we dwell on for awhile, as there’s really no rush at all to deciding one way or another. If it feels right at a specific time, we’ll know. Whether that “right” feeling means we want children or not remains to be seen.

Like many things in life, the video game industry (and gaming as a hobby) is constantly adapting to new demands and competitors, which ultimately pushes gaming in a better direction than it was before. Without competition, cutting edge technology, and innovative ideas, it would become a stale hobby that wouldn’t last long. Luckily for gamers like me, that’s not the case and won’t ever need to be so long as developers are thinking outside the box and constantly pushing boundaries.

Within the last decade, there’s been a major shift in thinking when it comes to physical game copies versus digital game downloads.

https://youtu.be/61Xj2VcOTXM

I distinctly remember back in early college when games were beginning to be available for digital preorder and download, and a lot of my friends (as well as I) thought that physical copies were superior simply because you could own the copy itself as well as the box it came in and anything else accompanying the box art. There was something ritualistic about ripping open the shipping supplies and getting to play your brand new game that the digital experience just couldn’t provide.

Fast forward to today, however, and I’m pretty sure a lot of gamers have warmed up to the idea of digital downloads. Perhaps people no longer want to worry about getting their game at release since physical copies require going to a store and you have to worry about how many copies they’ve got available. Just as well, losing your disc or cartridge means you no longer own that game. But when you buy a game online with an online account, you’ll always “own” that game and it’ll never not work for you when you boot it up. Even better, there aren’t any shipping supplies to worry about throwing away or causing excess plastic to be used since everything is digital and stored on your hardware.

The cool thing about digital vs. physical is that neither one has to upend the other. Both can exist in perfect harmony, since some players like showing off their collection of games and prefer having everything they own in a physical format whereas others enjoy the idea of never worrying about the condition of their cartridge or game since it’s all digital. No matter which you prefer for your games, you can at least appreciate that you have an option on how you prefer your game to be stored and played.