The confession of a person who wrote video games: At the beginning of the pandemic, games were the savior. They let me participate in something instead of passively watching, and keep my nervous brain busy.

Nowadays? That no longer works.

This is not entirely the fault of video games.

Like most people I knew in the later stages of the pandemic, my non-professional life felt overwhelming. I'm exhausted, exhausted. For several months, I have not slept more than three hours continuously. In turn, I became afraid of the thought of sleeping, so I was often a little tired and a little irritable.

The series of events in 2021 left me in a state of confusion. I lost contact with my family, my cat almost died, and when it went south, trying to start a relationship destroyed my entertainment.

There is no system, no time to collect virtual equipment to get upgrades, no fantasy stories deleted from real life. Recent modern blockbuster video games have exhausted me, relying on players who have a deep language of the medium, and still confuse length and complexity with artistry. Too many things are based on the tedious concept of collecting supplies and magically turning them into weapons.

I haven't given up on games-I even tried to incorporate game principles into my daily work, which is very helpful. It's just that my mind is scarred by the trauma and loneliness caused by the pandemic in the past two years. I can only deal with so many rules in the new game. Sadly, my default emotion these days is depression.

I still believe that play can be a refuge. I'm thinking about the joy of easy role-playing that I have been asked about in many recent immersive theater events with the theme of Halloween. But here, we are invited, usually by the hand extended by a real person, to enter a physical world and become our own protagonist.

Of course I like to play, and I still go to Disneyland every week to prove it. On the subject of video games, I restarted "Super Mario Odyssey", which is the best game in the "Super Mario" series, and it is also a game where Mario and Peach cope with different existing crises. I also like the thoughtful "unpacking", this is a melancholic and relaxing game, the content is organized life, this is one of my favorite games this year.

Fall in love with "unpacking", this is a beautiful and simple story that tells our way of life through what we have

We continue to construct the story of our lives, an evolving story that can be told through our property, and a theme to be explored in "unpacking".

For the past few weeks I have been playing a game that I think has finally rekindled my love for interactive entertainment: "Pikmin Bloom".

"Pikmin Bloom" is the latest augmented reality project of Niantic, the team behind "Pokémon Go". I can already see people rolling their eyes. After all, "Pikmin Bloom" is a pedometer that hardly counts as a game. But there is beauty and playfulness in its simplicity. "Pikmin Bloom" does not need our time, but seeks to strengthen an activity we already participate in every day-walking. It is a kind of technical coverage that can be everything from ordinary actions to important parts of our weekly exercise.

"Pokémon Go" and its upcoming follow-up "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" have similar ambitions — or at least Niantic's marketing department likes to talk about their physical activity induction benefits. However, although "Pikmin Bloom" is still using the current relatively standard augmented reality technology-turn on your camera and see a character nearby-in my opinion is more confident than both, especially for overly complex, The "Witcher Unite" who pays too much attention to the plot (I wrote when it was released, I wish it had footnotes, because it was overwhelmed in Porter's dictionary).

"Pikmin Bloom" could have been more gamified. I am very nervous. After all, the little-known Nintendo property it is based on is a powerful strategy game hidden in cuteness. On Nintendo game consoles, as players guide Pikmin (plant-like creatures with water droplets) to complete a large number of tasks, deal with predators, and find out which color Pikmin is most suitable for, the difficulty of the game gradually increases. My other favorite game in 2021, "The Wild at Heart", is heavily influenced by "Pikmin".

But the good news is that "Pikmin Bloom" does not require any prior knowledge. We only need to walk and plant virtual flowers, and occasionally send our Pikmin to perform tasks nearby. Doing so may cause them to bring back apples, lemons, or plant other Pikmin seedlings. They usually also take some photos during their virtual journey, so we can see our Pikmin playing the role of a tourist in an environment that many players may be too familiar with.

The key to its success is that "Pikmin Bloom" focuses on the subject rather than the mechanics of its console counterparts. The franchise created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda) is ultimately a celebration of nature. "Pikmin Bloom" particularly encourages players to see vibrant plants and emphasizes teamwork, environment and natural elements.

There is no proper fight in "Pikmin Bloom", I feel relieved and hope it will never change. I just like to start the game and look at my downtown streets-every hour fouled by a new layer of trash, dirt, and recent large amounts of rat poison-has turned into a virtual botanical garden. In this sense, "Pikmin Bloom" is not just a simple pedometer, it encourages us to reach the goal of daily steps; it reminds us to continue to seek magic in our environment, regardless of our emotional state or their What about the physical reality.

It also occurs when most mainstream conversations around technology are exhausted. Tired of hearing about the meta universe?

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Whether you answer "yes" or "I don't know what the metaverse is", this is probably because from Epic Games ("Fortnite") to the recently renamed Meta Facebook, no one has been able to create an evolving and lasting online How or why the world will improve our lives. We have seen many general statements that the virtual universe is the result of our lives becoming more and more dependent on technology and the Internet. This is of course true, but it does not explain how anyone plans to make this interconnected world smarter than ours. People who are currently in a mess are healthier or more efficient.

"Fortnite" put forward a brave argument that Metaverse will become the gospel of corporate brands. In the world of Marvel, NFL, League of Legends, and automakers, they can all get along well—commercial advertising doubles— Game experience. Meta's marketing is a mess, focusing on virtual reality and virtual meetings, projects that only benefit the privileged, and advertising campaigns that indirectly argue that art museums are more impressive than Meta's interpretation.

However, although "Pikmin Bloom" slides under the radar of most autumn game releases, it provides a stronger argument for how technology can harmoniously amplify our reality.

The meta-universe is difficult to define because it not only acknowledges that our lives are always going on-that is, inserting certain technologies or virtual worlds. I really like the argument of "Pikmin Bloom" that our future is not defined by the virtual world in which we disappear, but by the combination of the real world and the digital world to enhance the world we live in.

I realize that this may be partly due to my current state of mind, my emotional exhaustion is just a desire to play and talk in the real world, rather than go deeper into screens, texts, DMs, emails, swipes, social media and any other poverty Instead of the actual connection.

"Pikmin Bloom" is not very common, but when we walk, we can plant flowers with other people who might do the same thing and see them appear as avatars on our screen. A small thing, but reminds us that we are connected to each other, out of the house, and beautify the digital presentation of our world. I like the argument that technology is beneficial-walking! exercise! -Even our online selves are interested in self-improvement.

I haven't talked much about the augmented reality properties of "Pikmin Bloom", but this is mainly because the technology here is not advanced compared to "Pokémon Go". Yes, taking pictures of Pikmin under my Christmas tree is cute, but they are more like stickers implanted in my world than characters that actually interact with them. The real-world digital mapping that Niantic has been fine-tuning is impressive, which is why I find this pedometer so attractive.

At the end of each day, we were asked to rank it from frowning face to smiling face. Although most of my face is frowning these days, my Pikmin is still excited by the sight of lemons and is eager to show me a photo they took while holding a green apple in front of the Spring Street mural. Adding gamification technology to the pedometer is not an original idea in itself, but sometimes we need to remind our world that our world is full of miracles, rather than simply stand up notifications.

Now, I find myself stopping where Pikmin stopped to observe the local buildings or monuments more closely, and they choose to take pictures there. After traveling to the farmers’ market this weekend, I also found myself taking some time to admire the fruit I bought and imagine its journey to my house. For example, this game is very excited about Apple, so I suddenly found myself more suitable for their coloring mode.

In the end, what I found in "Pikmin Bloom" was to remind me that now I don't want games to show me a new world; I want a game to rekindle my love for myself.

Platforms: iOS and Android smartphones

Price: Start for free (available for in-app purchases)

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Todd Martens joined the Los Angeles Times in 2007, covering interactive entertainment (video games) and popular music. Previously, Martens reported on the music business for Billboard Magazine. He has contributed to many books, including "Lebowski the Great: An Illustrated and Annotated History of the Greatest Cult Film of All Time". He continued to torture himself by supporting the Chicago Cubs. Although he likes dogs, he is more like a cat lover.

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