Sometimes, Casual Content Can Be So Stressful

While I’m not a purely casual player in the games I play, I do enjoy a good bit of what many would consider casual content. I spend a lot of time on crafting and gathering, as well as the little side projects developers like to throw into their games. But here’s the thing. Despite being labeled as casual, this content can often be as, if not more, stressful as things like combat content.

A good example of this is actually player housing. I love in-game housing systems. And even F2P games are willing to give players the option to own their own homes these days. Actually, most of the F2P ones happily give players their own housing space at some point in the game, while other games ask that players fight over them. Thanks to the Adepti in Genshin Impact, I have a lovely housing space inside a teapot – one that’s big enough to not only have a house and a yard, but to have small village-like areas and gardens as well. That doesn’t include all the animals I can take home to the teapot.

Honkai: Star Rail gives me my own room on the Astral Express. It’s a pretty nice space, too. Obviously, it’s not a whole piece of property. But hey, we’re on a train. What can you do? And in both cases, these spaces were simply given to us as part of the natural gameplay.

The big difference is the decorating. In Star Rail, the room decorating is a game of its own, having you complete different tasks to fill out the room and build in predetermined things. You can also earn items from the game that will end up in the room. Genshin, on the other hand, is free-form, down to you placing rocks. Of course, you have to make the items you want to put in the house first, which means acquiring recipes and the items needed to do it. On top of that, there is the matter of leveling up your teapot and unlocking more outside rooms and areas in your house. What I’m saying is that it’s not a long process.

The whole thing is complicated even more if you’re the type of person who wants to do more than just throw stuff into the house. If you’re someone who really wants to design something specific, you’re going to have to do a lot of planning before you even start gathering the items to begin making everything.

Then there are games like Rift, where you can build almost anything you want, provided you can get those planks placed just right. It’s almost a test of mouse skills, building something in that MMORPG. But if you can do it, you can make some really impressive things in the game’s Dimensions. The devs know that, too, which is why one of the events they love to repeat is the Dimension building contests. The system is robust enough that the devs can set guidelines on what types of things to create. But, again, to really use it, you need to be adept at placing those items.

Then there’s crafting, which typically involves leveling a crafting class – or two, or three, or… You get the idea. That means more gathering and related leveling as well. Or, if you’re the type who loves collecting things, that can be a whole, lengthy process too. And in some cases, it can require you to do content that you might otherwise not have bothered with because something is locked behind it.

What I’m saying is that casual content isn’t always that casual. In many cases, for me, anyway, it’s all fairly involved. I’m making plans, putting together lists, and just generally outlining what needs to happen to get the “casual” content done.

I know, I know. I do this to myself. But, you know how it is. You want to do all the things. You want a nice house, all the goodies, and the like. And that means putting in all the work, or paying someone else to do it for you. I suppose there is always that. But, sometimes, when I’m looking at my most recent project and all the things that need to be done to achieve it, I’m just a tiny bit stressed about it.. But hey, at least I have something to do.