Sugarcane

You close the tab and move on with your day. \n\nTen minutes later, a friend sends you another game design blog post. They don't overtly ask you to read it, but the comment included with the link implies they want you to.\n\n[[Read it. They asked you to, kind of.|Read out of obligation]]\n[[Read it. It looks interesting.|Start to read]]\n[[Don't read it. It doesn't look interesting at all.|Don't read]]

The flash of assurance instantly fades as you get distracted by another link someone posted on Facebook – puppies! Or kittens! \n\nIt really doesn’t matter what kind of infant animals you look at. The result is the same. You feel your brain spreading out as if seated on a comfortable sofa. \n\n[[Click on more things|Click more]]

You post it to your social network. Even though it was just OK, you think it contains a few things someone you're connected to might not be familiar with, or that you think they could use in their work. Or maybe you know they won’t find anything new in there, and you want to discuss the topic. Or maybe you just want to incite a torrent of comments and replies, culminating in a heated discussion where nothing is resolved. \n\nIn any case, someone clicks the link and reads it and you have a lengthy, meandering discussion about the topic. Or no one does. Maybe someone clicks the link and gets bored quickly and never brings it up with you. \n\nOr maybe no one clicks it and all of your connects continue living their lives, making use of the precious minutes left to them to work on a project, visit their families, write in their diaries or feed their pets instead of reading a tired retread of a popular topic that’s been better addressed in many other blogs.\n\nThe useless, vapid blog post that they saved themselves from reading goes on to gather more victims to enslave, more minutes to squander. The dots on the web page dance imperceptibly as they constantly refresh, like dying skin cells incessantly regrowing. \n\nThe post's insatiable hunger for your time, anyone’s time, will not be stopped – until you decide this is the last time you will be a part of this problem. \n\nYou will cease letting garbage bloggers and zero value web content creators take advantage of you and you will retake control of your life. \n\nYou will stop succumbing to clickbait images and sensationalist headlines. You will take personal ownership of your productivity. \n\nAnd you will start today, by resolving to no longer click on empty blog post links that leave you with nothing except a feeling of emptiness inside. \n\nYou close the tab.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

A seductive headline pulls you in, with vague promises of delivering new information on a field relevant to your interests (without detailing any specifics, of course).\n\n[[You start to read.|Start to read]]

Over time the distractions get worse and worse. You start to notice how you spend your time - with friends who co-opt your evenings, by signing up for activities purely because the opportunities present themselves and not because of a genuine interest or personal enjoyment. \n\nYou watch your life spiral away from you – until one day, you decide you have had enough. \n\nYou will cease letting others take advantage of you. \n\nYou will stop grasping desperately for the next answer. \n\nYou will take ownership for your decisions and life trajectory.\n\nAnd you will start today, by resolving to no longer click on empty blog post links that leave you with nothing except a feeling of emptiness inside. \n\nIn fact, this was the last one.\n\nYou close the tab.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

You must've mis-clicked on something, or opened this tab in your browser and forgot about it, whatever. \n\nThe blog just sits there on the screen, not knowing how out of place it is.\n\nHopefully this read turns out to be a nice surprise instead of a waste of time.\n\n[[You start to read.|Start to read]]

You are reading a game design blog post. \n\nYou got here because:\n\n[[The headline grabbed your attention.|Headline]]\n[[A friend suggested you read it.|Friend suggested]]\n[[You don't know why you're here.|Why you're here]]

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The topic doesn’t interest you at all so you don’t bother to read it, instead opting to get back to what you were doing. \n\nMaybe your friend takes affront – they were looking forward to a discussion, after all – but it quickly fades as they forget about it. \n\nThe pull of clickbait articles has never beckoned you far, being well in control of your attention span and willpower to avoid many of the timewasters on the internet. Your friends are constantly in awe of your ability to get things done without succumbing to the tedium of cat pictures, gifs, viral videos, top ten lists, opinion pieces, listicles and other paraphernalia of the online lifewasting industry. \n\nOver time your friends seek out your help to better their own lives and fight their weak wills. \n\nYou look directly into their eyes and tell them that today, you will cease letting garbage bloggers and zero value web content creators take advantage of you and you will retake control of your life. \n\nYou will stop succumbing to clickbait images and sensationalist headlines. \n\nYou will take personal ownership of your productivity.\n\nAnd you will start today, by resolving to no longer click on empty blog post links that leave you with nothing except a feeling of emptiness inside. \n\nAnd then you send them the link to this blog. \n\nMay god have mercy on us both.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

You continue reading. The author makes the expected points hinted at in the headline and in overall agreement with the current trending blog topics for game design. \n\nThere is nothing insightful or surprising about it. You come away with zero additions to your game design repertoire.\n\n[[Close the tab and return to what you were doing|Close tab]]\n[[Send it to a friend|Send to friend]]\n[[Post to your social media network|Post to social network]]

Instead of passively clicking links and absorbing things, like you've always done, now you’re creating them. \n\nAlways in pursuit of new ways to benefit others and grow your own abilities as a creator, you feel a sense of greater connection, of reaching out to the world. Even though you're early in your endeavor, you sense a clear benefit from being an active contributor instead of just consuming. \n\nSuddenly, all of the clickbait articles you used to fall prey to seem trite and disingenuous - these people are not trying to better their readers' minds or lives. These people are preying on the consumer-minded, hoping to suppress their capability to become creators themselves. They are actively trying to control the discourse with kittens and puppies and the almighty listicle.\n\nThe thought gives you pause. The power and responsibility of blog posts. Could be a good topic for a post.\n\nYou close the tab and begin writing.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

As you continue to read, you get more disgusted. \n\nYou could do so much better! Why is this idiot extolling his idiocy so publically? \n\nYou could obviously do better than this. You should start your own blog.\n\n[[You start your own blog.|Write blog]]\n[[Instantly forget about starting a blog.|Forget blog]]\n

You clear some time and start writing your own blog.\n\n[[Post one entry and forget about it forever.|Post one]]\n[[Get into the habit and frequently post.|Frequently post]]\n[[Get halfway through a blog post and give up.|Give up]]

You don’t finish and get distracted by the next thing, perhaps another blog post with a sensational headline, or maybe a webgame someone posts, or maybe your dog licking your toes. \n\n[[You’re always being distracted.|Distracted]]

You close the tab and get back to what you were doing. \n\nWhat were you doing again? It takes you five minutes of intense concentration before you can remember, but just as it comes back to you, a friend sends you another blog post. \n\nThey don’t come out and ask you to read it, but the implication is that you will so you can both discuss it.\n\n[[Read it. They asked you to, kind of.|Read out of obligation]]\n[[Read it. It looks interesting.|Start to read]]\n[[Don't read it. It doesn't look interesting at all.|Don't read]]

You Are Reading a Game Design Blog Post

You continue clicking on articles, posts, top ten lists, viral videos, listicles, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, until you look up and realize two hours have gone by and you haven’t gotten any work done. \n\nA flash of panic ripples through your forehead as you realize you have just traded two hours of your life that you will not get back for looking at cat pictures you have already forgotten. You notice that the dopamine rush from looking at their cute faces already seems like a faded memory, and you jones for it like a practiced addict.\n\nThe flush stays in your face as you realize that this has happened before, happened too many times for you to comfortably stand and you resolve that today is the day it ends. \n\nToday you will cease letting garbage bloggers and zero value web content creators take advantage of you and you will retake control of your life. \n\nYou will stop succumbing to clickbait images and sensationalist headlines. \n\nYou will take personal ownership of your productivity.\n\nAnd you will start today, by resolving to no longer click on empty blog post links that leave you with nothing except a feeling of emptiness inside. \n\nThis was the last one.\n\nYou close the tab.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

You finish one blog post and forget about it - you wrote it out of a fit of spite, after all. \n\nYou’ll never regain the time you spent reading a bad post and writing your spitepost. In the future, you continue to let your emotions be manipulated into doing things you don’t want to do, always searching for the self-control that eludes your grasp.\n\n[[But there is one thing you can do.|One thing]]

The post is trite and unimaginative. Ugh.\n\n[[Continue to read|Terrible continue]]\n[[Close the tab|Close the tab]]

You start to read. \n\nImmediately the first paragraph puts you off – the author makes a terrible argument based on nothing but personal opinions and outlandish generalizations.\n\n[[You can already tell this will be a severe waste of time.|Terrible continue]]

Your friend has decent taste, so you prioritize reading the link they send you over a few other things you've marked to look at.\n\nBefore you even start to read, you're already thinking about your personal stance on the topic, since you're fully expecting to discuss the article with your friend. That's why they sent it to you in the first place, isn't it?\n\n[[You start to read.|Start to read]]

You send it to a friend. Even though it was just OK, you think it contains a few things they aren’t familiar with, or that you think they could use in their work. Or maybe you know they won’t find anything new in there, and you want to discuss the topic. Or maybe you just want to waste their time. \n\nIn any case, your friend clicks the link and reads it and you have a lengthy, meandering discussion about the topic. Or you don’t. Maybe your friend clicks the link and gets bored and never brings it up with you. \n\nOr maybe your friend doesn’t click it and continues living their life, making use of the precious minutes left to them to work on a project, visit their family, write in their diary or feed their pet instead of reading a tired retread of a popular topic that’s been better addressed in many other blogs.\n\nThe useless, vapid blog post that they saved themselves from reading goes on gather more victims to enslave, more minutes to squander. The dots on the web page dance imperceptibly as they constantly refresh, like dying skin cells incessantly regrowing. \n\nThe post's insatiable hunger for your time, anyone’s time, will not be stopped – until you decide this is the last time you will be a part of this problem. \n\nYou will cease letting garbage bloggers and zero value web content creators take advantage of you and you will retake control of your life. \n\nYou will stop succumbing to clickbait images and sensationalist headlines. You will take personal ownership of your productivity. \n\nAnd you will start today, by resolving to no longer click on empty blog post links that leave you with nothing except a feeling of emptiness inside. \n\nYou close the tab.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

You finish a post and sit there, glowing in the aftermath. This feels good.\n\nThe process of writing that post was way more enjoyable than you expected. The initial spiteful motivation to do it is now gone, replaced by a satisfaction of contributing something to the greater discussion that hopefully somebody will see and be positively affected by. \n\n[[You’re making a difference, no matter how small.|Made a difference]]

You begin to read.\n\n[[It's more or less what you expect.|Meh]]\n[[This is terrible.|Terrible]]

You decide right here and now to be more thoughtful, more deliberate with your time. Instead of letting your attention be swayed by articles and distractions and all of the transom of the internet, you decide that from here on out you will thoughtfully govern how you spend your time. \n\nGradually, you get better at this, wasting less time on impulsive articles and clickbait, but also less time on meaningless obligations and responsibilities in your offline life that you've long outgrew. \n\nOne day at a time, you find yourself taking back control of your life.\n\nYou close the tab.\n\n<html>Ben Serviss is a freelance game designer working in commercial, social, educational and indie games. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/benserviss">@benserviss</a>.</html>

Ben Serviss