In Which I talk about Books and Games and Sorrow

Hello and happy Morning, my great friend, reader of this post! And a good Tuesday! How are you, today? How have you been? How is the weather? As for me, I have been overall okay, even if, due to my surgery, my hair has been falling, which causes me much distress... anyway, at least the weather has been pleasant, thank Goodness. Yes, moments of unmotivation, sadness and loneliness. But, as a whole, it has been okay. A slight net positive. I have been making progress in reading the book on Harun the Well-Guided and his world of the 1001 nights. Lovely adventure, indeed! I may finish it quite soon, perhaps before my birthday, even!! So, even with the bad moments, some good ones. I also have been playing some good old Civilization 5, and let me tell you, even if Civilization 5 is not that easy of a game, specially on the level I am in, it is a much more rewarding experience than the frustrating doomstack filled chaos of Civilization 4, and also much more organic and with a much more better paced than the grindy RNG hell that is Civilization 6. I am happy for have returning to it! When I get tired, I will again put it aside, but for now, I am very much into it. Speaking of games, the beautiful world of 1001 nights invited me back to Anno 1404, and I have visit it today!! It has been so nice. I will also speak on Victoria 3 a paragraph bellow, but first I'd like to share a drawing I worked on! Let us see it and some words on it.

This is a portrait I worked on for my great streamer friend Jason aka Mihmnop! Here, I focused on his more recent physical development, as he got into some physical activities these days. He is strong and handsome and healthy! And I wanted to portray him as such! I hope the good friendship with Mihm may last, on a year that have seen many come and go, and some going quite traumatically for me. Ah, my life is a path of many broken friendships, resentment and bitterness, as my catholic friend puts it, a valley of deep sorrow. Whatever can be done, when looking for enduring meaningful connections... anyway, a bit more on Victoria 3, next.

I do think playing as Russia in Victoria 3 is much more interesting and fun, at this moment, than playing as Great Britain on the same game. Why? Just because Great Britain essentially starts the game in such an incredible strong position, it can easily gobble everything up! Its economy is already developed and will get even more strong, its laws and policies are solid, and its population is fairly acceptive of Free Markets and Free Trade as a whole. It is accepting also of free speech and freedom of faith and religion, so in short, a pretty classical liberal society, feels like "my job here is done" overall. When I played as this dignified great country, this huge prosperous empire, I was driven to tears of boredom by the 1870's, there is very little to do by then, just to sit and watch you naturally gobble up whole markets and see other nations gravitate towards you. In contrast, strong contrast, Russia, though also a beautiful country, with plenty of resources, is in a much weaker position of start. Society is very traditionalist, not in the Engish way, but in a way that endorses serfdom, for example, and rough countryside values. Which is... not what I want out of Russia. I want a Russia that can develop in the direction of Great Britain: an industrial powerhouse and classically liberal society. And for that, wow I have a hell of a job to do. Besides the administrative reforms, plenty of them, that are hard and can cause the whole country to turn against you quite fast, you need to increase the training standards and morals of your army, drastically. It is a huge army but not much besides that. And even if you own the biggest empire in the world by the beginning, you still, unlike England, have much more space to expand. You need to research so many new technologies too, because Russia is a bit behind in comparison to Prussia for example. As a whole: you will be busy to the point of overwhelm even by 1890. It is an amazing game and though very hard, even inviting multiple restarts, it is extremely rewarding when at least part of your goals are met!

This is not only the reality in Victoria 3, but also in the old, veteran Victoria 2. Many players avoid England, because England is the main character that has everything sorted out. They prefer other ones, that have far more interesting story arcs. Maybe by the end one can even dare to usurp the position England has, but the road to that point is big and arduous, and if you decide to play as a primitive undeveloped nation, then your goal becomes to survive, which can also be quite fun.

I hope I can write some more tomorrow, because I'd love to do a post wrapping up July, and then another post opening up August. We'll see how it goes. For today, I think this post is of good size, and it is time to wrap it up. When should I see you again? I pray and hope tomorrow, though probably later than that. If anything, before the weekend... in any case, see you again real real real soon! Farewell, my friend!! Wish you the best!!!