i’m joining the league of cheaters who started early although i come to you today bearing little fruit. a few days ago i hatched a little man named patch and i have neglected him ever since. to be upfront, i’m not a fan of virtual pet games to begin with and i’ve been having a lot of real world to explore recently so this really fell by the wayside.

i think the premise of peridot is pretty dependent on taking the game outside but due to this app’s drain on my phone’s battery (that i need for gps and translation), patch is 6 days old and has yet to see the sun for the first time. not to mention when i’m walking around i’m focusing on getting to a train on time, or carrying the world’s heaviest luggage, or looking forward to the thing i’m going to see. pretty much the last thing i want to do is pull out my phone and complete a to-do list.

it could also be because my phone is a bit of an older model, but whether i’m on wifi or data i can’t play this game without a serious amount of lag. i’ll throw him a ball, the game will freeze, and then he’s brought it back already. this happens for virtually every interaction for me, it’s a nice surprise when it doesn’t. i suppose i’m having a hard time feeling organically engaged with this game but that might change if everyone on the trip suddenly starts going all in on peridot. i will say i genuinely feel bad for how little attention i’m giving patch, the guilt feeling is why i avoid these kinds of games to begin with, because the natural conclusion of all of them is that you move on and never come back. genuinely, i wish i had better news.

[patch in the dark void of a hotel room, the only home he’s ever known.]