Why I'm Back, and Why I Have Gotten Distracted from Writing.

Behold, the deadly sin of sloth!

I have allowed myself to be derailed from writing my screenplay because I am playing a strategy game called Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

For those not in the know, Sid Meier's Civilization is a series where you pick a civilization (Europe, Africa, Asia Minor, East Asia, the Americas, etc.) and usher them through various, social, technological, and political ages.  You can go from a humble chieftain presiding over a tiny encampment to, conceivably, a space age civilization that colonizes the Moon, Mars, and perhaps elsewhere.

It is an engrossing game.  It is world building on the scale of JRR Tolkien.  Correction:  It is world building on the scale of world history.

I have for example used the personality of Cleopatra to lead Egypt from a plot of land to a city state.  Then I evolved to multiple city states.  Then I evolved into a nation state / empire.  I built research facilities for medicine, space travel, and a myriad of other sciences and disciplines.  I launched a satellite into space.  I even had a sizable military to patrol my borders and prepare for combat.  I thought I was unstoppable...

Until Korea came rampaging through my borders with what the game describes as a "giant killer robot."  It was not meant for me, rather it was to conquer the distant land of Sumer under the lead of King Gilgamesh.  To make matters worse, my space age Egypt bordered on Sumer.  The giant killer robot was conquering the city of Uruk, which was in close proximity of my scientifically advanced empire.  I knew it was a matter of time until Korea trained its greedy eyes on the "acquisition" of my city states.  So I beefed up my military with drones, rocket launchers, tanks, anti aircraft cannons, helicopters, and...

Too late.  The game grimly informed me that my civilization LOST, and in turn, so did everyone else.  Even mighty Korea, with its giant killer robot, could not stop the economic and cultural decay within its boundaries.  The human experiment failed.

I, the player, was presented with a tableau of a ruined city, vacant of human life, with birds of prey circling above seeking out whatever prey it could find.  A mournful voice delivered a eulogy for the human race, but held out a desperate hope that the species homo sapiens sapiens would rise again - this time triumphant.

That's what I call cold comfort, Mister Meier.

Time and again, I have played game after game in the role of Sisyphus.  I push the rock of progress up the hill of time and toil, only to watch said rock tumble down the hill and into global collapse.  Or more humiliatingly, I watch another nation state surpass my progress through commercial, scientific, missionary, or plain brute military force.  Yet, as Sisyphus, I press my brawn, intellect and will against that damnable rock in order to fulfill my dream of venturing among the stars.

That, my friends, is why I have been dawdling with my work.  I have postponed building my own world for the sake of playing a modern day version of Risk or Stratego.

To make matters worse, I have annoyed my wife.  She chafes at me spending hours upon hours of playing Civ VI until the wee hours of 2 AM.  I have been contrite and spent less time with the game, but the foundering galley that is my script is high, dry, and possibly rotting on the forsaken shore of writer's block.

Forgive me, my friends.  I have not been loyal to you or to myself.  Games are engrossing.  Sloth is inviting.  At the very least I am not strewn out in front of my flatscreen watching the Blibberty Blabberty Bloo Show.

I will notify you when I push the good ship screenplay back into the waters and sail toward terra incognita.

Ad astra per asperam!

- JJB