Not (at) All about Terraria

But jumping back in ... I first was overwhelmed because I had forgotten most about the Game. So I looked around and ... that's another story.


But eventually I stumbled upon an item, maybe in a chest or on some Characters hotbar - and I was like ... yea. I mean, Terraria - way worse than Minecraft - is almost an item management game. At some point ... . Say I want to go fishing because I want an infinite Water Bucket and maybe snatch up a good fishing rod. Although the two technically entail different activities they both fall into: I empty my inventory and get my fishing loadout. And that is technically something one has to learn and eventually practice for it to have an effect. Usually it's just ... have whatever in my inventory, the fishing loadout is already occupying a loadout slot.
So - that's ... interesting.
Now, before I could get to the point where I can see that habit making sense, I had some digging to do - so to get the water to where I need/want it, possibly build fishing huts; And so ... that simple goal flushes in far more than a simple Inventory can handle.

So, I found an item ... and it's one of those things ... that's kind of useless for the progression. It's weaker than other things You can get ... and so it's just something I wouldn't use. So I figured that I should start a new Character, and give myself the loadout I felt would be fun. I'd start a new World ... play Terraria, but ... with Wings, End-Game Pickaxe, Crystal Dagger, some End-Game Magic Staff (the Blade shootie thingie); And some Armor. Crystal Armor to be specific. The Set-Bonus has a Dash and I don't know when else I would ever use it.


And that's fun. To myself I have to say: Progress is Fine!
Isn't it the curse of Progressivism, that ever so often it's just like ... fighting Windmills? So, it's almost like ... "What am I fighting fooooor?" ... . To me it certainly is ... a new experience. And yes, well ... thank God for Cloud Computing?

I suppose ... when it comes to Tech there are like ... two Mindsets. And this is where I jump right into the essence of the topic: "What comes out of the Mouth defiles Man".


Well.
What is Terraria? Is it good? Is it bad? - Mind you: Last time I wrote about it, I sort of tried to defend Terraria on the matter of it having its Hardmode locked behind some sort of Voodoo. You have to sacrifice an NPC to Summon the Boss - which is virtually the Wall behind which Hardmode is locked. So, once defeating it some new Ores appear in the World and some other things change. Enemies get more difficult and such.

And this is ... the presentation. And I think that part of the fear when it comes to those is, that we don't fully know "the depth of Evil". The more we believe that it is out there, the more we have reason to ... be wary of it. But not knowing where it is ... makes it ... kind of ... what it is. You're then too scared maybe to "find out" - so You stick to what's familiar - and in this dependency, You absolutely CANNOT question the pillars thereof.

But ... let's move on.


So, I was wondering where to take this - and ... didn't find the answer so I played Terraria. And then it struck me. And so, this is - as per usual, I suppose - not like ... "empirical truth". Like, we try to find it - in a way. And the fact that there's many ways to approach this matter is going to be the primary concern here for now. For it is, kind of, by implying that it isn't the empirical truth, but ... OK, what am I talking about? "Terraria is a Spelunking Game" ... "and therefore it is Good (a sign of Quality) that it has a lot of items (including Junk)". So yes, it is an opinion that I might however relate to as so much of a fact that I might take it as an empirical starting point.

Which then takes me into contention with another idea. And in my mind it has a root that far extends between what I might be talking about here; To say, at some point this root also involves what back then was called: "CoD-ification". I don't know the exact detail but it's like ... everywhere. So, ... it's not hard to 'see'.
So, "Min Maxing" is a term here. And from how I hear people talk about it, it is in fact like ... an Alien Concept that is somewhat stranger to most people. It's like "this other thing" that You can do in Gaming. I mean, everyone does Min-Max ... here and there ... and Min-Maxing pushed to its limits is a Speedrun. But what I'm "weird" about here is how this ... "interferes with the DNA of the Game".

And while I find it somehow difficult to put this into words, I have to ... take a step aside and ... let it sink in for a bit. Detour: Somehow I had to think about this situation ... . I wasn't thinking about Blacklist but it makes a good example to avoid weirder detail. So, Raymond is extremely defensive about his Secrets and Elizabeth really can't let that sit with herself. That's the thing for most of the show. And the situation is, that in Elizabeth's life, Raymond is a big Character that demands a lot of her time and attention. In Raymond's life, Elizabeth is "just" "someone he looks out for". There's that scene from that Van Damme Street Fighter movie where Bison's like "for me it was Tuesday", while for Chun-Li it's maybe the most pivotal moment of her life. Well, in Bison's mind anyway.

And so, the issue between Raymond and Elizabeth is, that for Raymond to "earn" the spot that he claims within her 'life' - he has to come clean. And this would be controversial to someone who doesn't understand that. I mean, strangers You can keep away. Friends You can keep at a distance. But when that fails, it's like an invasion. And the bottom line of it is trust. For the person to be who they "want" to be - there's like an implicit trust threshold that has to be met for the mind to be satisfied or at peace.

And in some way I find this situation to be similar; But, I really don't want to go into that. This wasn't supposed to go there. So ... let's try this again.


So, it is for reasons like this that I have to ... imagine Neo at the end of the Matrix where the three Agents shoot at him and Neo is like: "No".

So ... Min-Maxing. See, the more we lie to each other, keeping secrets, the more we drift apart. So, Min-Maxing solution: Full-Inversion of the Truth.

I mean ... in a game like Terraria, that's a matter of: Getting the Best Gear as fast as possible. And in doing so, you like skip ... 80% of the game. Or more. And from there You can only go two ways: Push or Diversify. Push means: You add some more but at the end there's again only "One best Item" - and Diversify means: Everything sucks, but in a different way. Sort of.

And it's like ... the Seasons. Ever so often we come back around to the new awaited update and it's always like "There's only this one best new item" or "Everything sucks". But that's ... just the "Peasant Harvest". The Pros are like "of course" ... and ... what are we talking about?

In a Game like Destiny, this looks differently. The faster You get the best Gear, the sooner You can begin to kick everyone else's ass; And the sooner You can begin to kick everyone else's ass the less of Your experience will be wasted on being a sucker.

We can call that "A Hyperbolic EXP Farm".

And entering the Ninedom, mind You, is like starting a whole new Game.


So, what we are looking at now ... to help them with their camouflage: Is a Mindset that we can see applies to all Games differently; And at all there's nothing to see here. Terraria is a Spelunking Game where You can attempt to Min-Max towards the/a final Boss and have a fun time doing so.

What I'm getting at is that we can see Terraria as a symbol for the World itself, and see how the different narratives we apply to it change it. We can say that we have to grind out the best gear ASAP because we have to defeat the Moon Lord ASAP - or we can say that it's a Spelunking Game in which one can set themselves individual Goals to progress towards.

So, I've just secured some fishing spots and am "Grinding" for a fishing Rod in the Underground Desert - but was for the most part looking for Marble while waiting for the Goblin Army to arrive. I somehow ended up with 12 Marble in my Inventory and thought I had stumbled upon a Marble biome somewhere. And it was after I stopped looking for it that I eventually stumbled into one. And ... as random chance would have it ... the Goblin Army arrived while I was down there mining it. Well, at that point it would have been so almost inevitably, but that it didn't happen prior makes it ... the thing that it is. It's certainly been more than 3 or 5 in-game days.

And as for the core of it ... well. I don't know. I feel like I'm in the right - in a way that makes me have a somewhat judgmental attitude. Maybe it's fair - and maybe I shouldn't even mention it. But maybe it's weird that I ... deflect authority. I mean, I assume it ... and then deflect it, but to also have it not end up in the hands of some shadow authority ... that needs extra work.

So ... what am I saying?


Well - speaking of actual 'concerns' I'm having, it sure is for once about the quality of the words we're using - but in this specific context there's the matter of what a Game asks from us, the player; And that in regards to social and material commitments.

For once I want to say that we may have different ideas of how Life "has to look" - best case - but the reality is, that we are yet to develop the culture that can actually have a realistic idea thereof. Say ... we have a budget for everything. There's what we have in terms of Land and Resources, then there's the amount of people we are at large, and then there's the whole "riddle" ... the enigma of making it all come together.

So, at some point it's inevitable for us to have an Electric Grid, for instance. And if we want to Min-Max its utility, we're still left with a yet unknown standard of life. Like, there are surpluses and deficits to acount for; And for any bar we set there comes a cost and a distribution of its benefits.

I suppose the average Christian is here condition to imagine life in a cozy cottage, low energy, environment friendly, nature-rich. I'm more about high tech inside, purpose driven, high-efficiency oriented quality of life, so ... Star Trek. ANCAPs probably say "Whatever follows" while going on an Epic Tangent full of Pathos about the duty of Man to Conquer God. And however we look at it, under the line the story always seems to boil down to one thing: What sacrifices are we willing to make?


So, the Guide in Terraria is basically like Jesus. Not to call the NPC 'divine' - but within the context of the CODE of the Game, or so, the function that it presents (from which I draw assumptions) - the Guide just knows stuff. He's there - and ... and serves as some kind of Database. So, you can show him an item and he tells You what can be made of it. Then there are dolls of the Guide; And when dropped into Lava, he dies and the Wall of Flesh spawns. Maybe it has to be Lava in the Underworld. After that, the final Boss of Hardmode is the Moon Lord. And that's ... the Vertical stretch of the Terrarium. Space above ... and Hell at the bottom. So, the thing is full of Monsters ... anyway, which is ... like ... the Game.

And it takes a lot of time. That's ... what I'm focused on here. And when we think about this, the use of it, taking it to our Tally, it's easy to call it all nonsense. And so, once more, we have contact with that very same narrative. Our own real life Min-Maxing comes to the point where we have to say that Gaming as such doesn't have value. The only value that's ever spoken of is how hard You can be at the game; Where ... if You look at these beautiful builds in either of these games; One thing to keep in mind is that "block diversity" comes at an extra cost.
In all regards. You have to have a bigger palette loaded into Your mind, You need to organize storage and creation (unless You're cheating, then it's muscle memory) - and all of that can also come naturally, but it takes a lot of time. Proportionally. So, getting to the Moon Lord for instance ... that's quite a Journey.

If I think back to the old "Pick up a Controller and Play" days, things ... well. What's changed? Why do people talk like that? But yea - in Terraria You start defenseless ... and to get anywhere You kind of need shelter. So, to figure that out ... is already part one. It's a commitment. For instance ... somehow I have to think of "Jesse Cox" and "Total Biscuit" playing it when it came out originally. It was a simpler Game. There were like ... three Bosses ... and each of them just more of a "Highlight" ontop of what was a simple Sandbox "Block-Building Game".

Here the game would be fun for as long as the players had fun spending within "the Box" - and for the long run that meant: More Bosses, more Loot. And the way they did it is ... quite fascinating. And ... I'm here talking as someone who has a lot of time to play. Internally. It's like ... second nature and ... I'm feeling uncomfortable now.


Well ... so, saying: "Terraria is a Spelunking Game" ... that's my Opinion; And I call it a good game ... because I can just load in, go spelunking ... and whatever I have, I have. My goal ultimately is to build a Farm, but I kind of also have to relearn everything. And I don't want to go full "Nerdcore". So, here progress is gradual. I start with what is in reach; While doing this or that I collect all sorts of junk - and gradually some of that junk turns out to be useful. Like, previously You had to chose between three items; And now You can turn them into one.
Eventually You're ready to brave the Dungeon ... or summon the Wall ... and so on.

So, which part is the boring one? To have it make sense, think of the Game as its own thing; And the whole idea of Min-Maxing as something separate. There's a way of enjoying a game for what it is; And there's a way of making it competitive. The latter breeds a mindset, I would say, that then asks for a different type of game. That then is where "CoD-ification" comes in. It's basically when "Game Theory" invades "the Theory of the Game". It's like ... two things that don't mix. Game Theory automatically emerges from within the Theory of the Game, but Game Theory as feather of the Game produces shit.

Well, not initially - but when every Game does it, it's all just ... the same.


But that's not the issue here. Maybe I have some kind of Multi-Spectral idea and I'm connecting the dots wrong; Or so ... I see it in a lot of different ways and am partially confused by it myself. But it's still a good backdrop for the topic at hand.


So ... time. If we then approach the Games we play from a Min-Maxing perspective, there's ... "the time it takes (on average) to Grind out the best stuff" ... and therefore how much time someone is asked to dump into playing it. Here we have it where Gaming can be a professional Sport; Which means: All day, every day.

And so I first wanted to show how Terraria can look differently, if we look at it from a different standpoint.
I play it for shorter periods of time ... therefore it takes me longer to get to the end ... plus I also don't really care to go fast. If that boils down to any advantage other than me having a good time is debatable, but also kind of not important.

So, here the "trouble" boils down to how much time I spend gaming ... "over reasonable alternatives" and why ... . I mean ... to say "trouble" is ... . So, what I do with my time is my own thing; And whether what I do with it is good or not, that's a different story. For me - the issue is settled within a Framework I exist in. Like, given with the 'work' that I do ... my life is pretty much anchored in space and time in such a way that what else I can do is somewhat limited. The first things I tend to do with my spare time is to get the Computer up and running; And outside of gaming there isn't much else that I can do with my life, speaking of downtime.

So, there's no "social environment" that I'm escaping just yet. Conversely, the Internet is yet another way to interact with the computer; And it also happens to have a social component. Allegedly.


And so, while it takes A LOT - actually - to defeat the Moon Lord; For as long as I have a little bit of time to play the game, I might get there eventually.
Some pro tips: Spawn is actually a danger zone, so You don't want to build Your main base there. Also, don't house NPCs on a floor with access to Your main floor (Entrance/Exit) as they will wander around and occasionally leave doors open.

And I find that this is ... already ... a challenge in and of itself. An extra thing to consider while planning. To so ... also have something to Plan around.


But so ... what's the word then?
I guess ... the real issue is, that the word can be used as a tool to surplant our ideas with trash. They can give us aspirations where none existed; And that because our Heart must consider their potential. And ... here's a thing:

Just prior to the 2024 Election, Trump changed his rhetoric and positioning to essentially mirror that of the left. He was the anti-war guy that campaigned on releasing the Epstein files. Everything that the left was saying got drowned out by the right simply walking over it. Meanwhile the Pontiff is denouncing the violence of the Trump Regime; Engraining itself (the Roman Catholic agenda) further in what seems to be the public discourse/consensus on the matter.
Also: Antisemitism has become a word that is used against opponents of Fascism. So ... .

The susceptible mind is like "swallowed" by the consensus as presented by the enemy. I mean, looking at the numbers, Bread-Tube isn't nearly as popular as it had to be in order for anything said amongst us to have had a meaningful impact on these shifts. But at the same time Epstein is there like a Ghost, a Demon, and for as long as this Regime is in power, it will remain there ... like a Mist, or Ectoplasm, invading our minds and hearts ... as the conditions are effectively brute-forced upon us.


So, what was that thing about the ... reflex of ... . I mean, it's ... one of those things ... . I'm not sure myself whether ... people need to hear it or if they need to be protected from hearing it. I mean, eventually it's harmless knowledge. Kid's got to drink. But ... so, where does the story end?

It ends within the Heart.


See ... it's like ... the biggest irony ever. Jesus said, or so the words in the Bible, that not what enters our mouths defiles us; Because it doesn't enter our heart. What comes out of our mouths however enters our hearts ... aand that's what defiles us. Later - in Konrinthians I believe - we read that our body is the temple of God and that we ought to keep it clean. And what is this verse most commonly used for? To tell us that what goes into our mouths is what defiles us.


Functionally. So, if You tell me that this is what that says, then I'm obligated to shut You out of my mind - such as to keep my Temple clean. And that's one of those things. "The narrative". One cancels the other; At least ... in as far as one is DESIGNED to cancel out the other, it truly does boil down to "One or the Other".

I mean, since I became a Fan of Star Wars I came to understand that terms such as "Rebel" or "Empire" are just labels. Good or Bad isn't always that simple. Now, in as much as people come to regard me as their Queen, I'm a bit of an Empress myself ... and so I want to say that not all Empires are evil. Well, there's one that isn't - quasi by definition. And if it isn't, then it will be called a Rebel as it does not cease to claim its rightful existence. Which is also why Empires - in and of themself - are bad.

To be the good one, You have to deal with that. Properly. And for that, it is important to understand that the Universal qualities of life are Universal qualities of life.
It's the conditions that then shape which of them may matter how ... and however the rest may think to twist and turn these truths, ... there's a Light that shines in the Darkness and the Darkness comprehends it not.


"They" will see it differently. We're talking of the same things, but from different roots - and until the World unroots itself, I suppose, there's not much that can be done. Well.
Not entirely. That may be a way to poetically frame the events; But ... . Uhm ... I mean, we have to go through that stuff anyway. So, ... uh ... I ... hmm.


Anyway. That's all I got for now. ...