Basically just "what's your happy place?"
For me, there's this obscure card game that I was really into years ago. It's out of print, the company shut down years ago. But there's still a very small online community that discusses it (and by small I mean like, maybe a post every two weeks on the message board) and it's kinda nice to see people still talking about it. And I have thousands of these cards I still need to sort so I can finally try and get at least a copy of every card before it becomes so obscure you can't even find copies.
Whenever I'm feeling doomer about the state of the world or even just mentally ground down by life, I get those cards out and start sorting. I can easily lose a few hours that way but I'm vibing the whole time. Just wish I had more time for it.
So what about you all? Just be careful not to dox yourself or anything.
I sometimes get around to writing a story about a little shithead g*mer 100 years in the future who makes me happy. He doesn't give a shit about politics, but he lives in this post-American empire world. It's often alluded to that America can no longer exert influence over the world. He knows his grandparents fucking hate the Eastern US who "treated labor badly" but cares very little about it. I sometimes imagine ways I can allude to some dramatic change, for instance, there are "classic 21st century maps with countries everywhere" because there are only 12 to 15 entities that declare statehood anymore. The Eastern US makes no bones that it has fused with the corporate world. The Western US is headed by a Chinese president whose sole responsibility is to reign in reactionary elements, but does very little to control or pay attention to "the sovereigns living in its borders". There's a landlord diaspora that the Eastern US will let make speeches. There's a Texan autonomous zone whose marauders once foiled a team of landlord insurrectionists trying to infiltrate the Western US. Some of these ideas you comrades came up with and I've been having fun trying to fit them into a narrative. The story is mostly about young adult drama in video games, so the copium is sprinkled throughout as background noise for a guy whose mostly concerned about being mean to people in online games
This sounds like a fucking awesome setting for some short stories!
Well, @CopsDyingIsGood , first, your name is correct and good. Second, I'm just starting to realize the potential for this world. If done properly, you could spend your while life talking about it. At present, I'm writing with two POVs. One to talk about the MC and the other to be antagonized by him. But inside a world where states are only necessary for antagonizing reactionary states who are wanting in power, there's certainly some stories there. The problem with writing outside of the video game is that I don't have any lore as to why the world is in late stage communism 100 years from now. That's the trick of a politically agnostic MC; the world is moving around him and he never stops to ask why. He just enjoys his functional society, futuristic tech, and the actualization of labor around him.
Hmmm yeah having an intentionally ignorant MC does make exploring the lore a bit more difficult, it would take a lot more craft to make even the broad strokes of the history clear and interesting without allowing the MC to know about any of it lol