A new PS5 Controller and putting away childish things

Sony made a strange announcement about their new generation console, teasing us with a BMW i3 inspired controller, with a slick dual tone design. This, combined with the news of the release of Modern Warfare Season 3 in tandem has led me to the realisation of a simple fact: I couldn’t care less about video games any more. It’s a weird feeling, because there may still be a day when I want to pick up a controller (what will controllers look like in the future? What cars would their design be based on?) and play a first person shooter, idling in my living room, or training myself to get better in the hopes of being a Twitch streamer (if Twitch is still around…), but right now, I know that there are more productive ways to spend my time. Mine is a lost generation of gamers who spent a lot of our time playing first person shooters without the opportunity to get rich the way gamers today could. There were still wealthy gamers, but there wasn’t the same amount of money in the game, much like modern footballers, earning an order of magnitude more money than footballers in the past. There were millionaire footballers back then, but now even the worst premier league clubs pay their players seven figures. Simply put, video games did not provide me and other gamers a legitimate career back then and now I’m properly past it. There are better hobbies, and better ways to waste your time. Even making stupid TikTok videos would probably stand me in better stead for the future. So be it, then, it’s time to put away childish things, permanently, for now.

Cruising into recovery in the post corona world

I haven’t been on a cruise for over a decade, because, you know, I’m not a retiree. Not that cruises are just for old people, there is actually a compelling case for why cruises should appeal to everyone, including young people. It’s like a much more comfortable version of a sleeper train, or the glamping version of backpacking.

Why carry everything on your back when you can just leave everything in your travelling hostel? Why go interrailing through landlocked Europe when you can just go to the nicest port cities around the Mediterranean? It makes even more sense if you’re in America, and you’ve got the ability to stay on a floating hotel whilst travelling around the Caribbean.

So it should come as no surprise that a company like Carnival Cruise will be able to make a case to young people in the long term, and should be able to recover in a post corona world. Yes, at the moment it’s a terrible idea to go on a floating hotel, with narrow corridors and spaces intended to be packed with diners and audience members. but hey, how’s that different to buildings on land?

I know people who works on cruises and it’s a close knit crew, so sure, having so many people working in close proximity is not a good idea, but people staying in their rooms? I mean, there are lots of balconies, after all. So Carnival stock will likely go back up because people will take cruises again. A lot of reputational damage has been done to the idea of the cruise, but I would make an argument that if airlines could recover, and they will recover, then so will cruises.

People will fly again, less people, sure, but it will survive. People will want to travel again, less so, but they will do it. Make sure everyone’s health is monitored whilst on a cruise, make sure only healthy people can get on, but you can’t fly without going through an airport, and security and health checks is not exactly perfect there either.

This is an opportunity for us all to ponder when industries, despite the conventional wisdom, will actually recover, and I can tell you that working in architecture, I worry a lot more about the construction industry as a whole than I do about the travel industry.