It probably hasn’t escaped anyone that the TV-series based on “The Last of Us” has premiered. I haven’t seen it. The reason I haven’t seen it is because I’m frankly totally exhausted from all the real world disasters that are still ongoing. Covid-19 is still marching across the globe. Unless we act, we’re facing a climate disaster, and honestly no one seems inclined to act. Russia has gone to war with Ukraine, and we’re almost at the year mark for that conflict. Floods, fires, starvation, idiots in the US going on shooting sprees and gangs in Stockholm blowing up buildings.

I can’t handle unusually aggressive mushrooms right now.

I would like a silly, romantic game to play. I would like the production values of Assassin’s Creed or Horizon Forbidden West applied to a game that’s based in Jane Austen’s legacy. Silly – no, not silly, because human relationships are not silly – lighthearted romances with well acted voices and cutscenes where the gameplay focuses on navigating a social hierarchy that’s frankly quite intimidating while still being totally ridiculous.

The end goal is to rise to a level above the one you started out as. Maybe the end goal is marriage. Maybe the end goal is just matchmaking. Maybe the goal is the journey itself, a romantic tour de force, having both men, women, non-binary and additional folk adore you and find a good person you enjoy talking to among them.

There will be years before a game like that is made, if ever. All i can really hope for is a game or a TV-series, or a book that will take my mind off all this disaster. My brain is exhausted from all the disasters that have kept us all in a constant state of stress. I haven’t relaxed for three years. I need a break.