31/31 Day 17: Wipe Me Away, Set Me Free?

        Hello everyone, and welcome to day 17 of my 31/31! The inspiration for today’s blog came from a little road trip I took. I’m currently at an undisclosed location on the East coast, and my family decided to take a little road trip to the beach. The only problem being that the beach is 3 hours away. So, we pack up early in the morning and head down to the beach. The long car ride gave me a lot of time to reflect though, which was especially prevalent today after yesterday’s blog. In addition to just sitting and thinking in the car, I did so at the beach as well in between swimming sessions. About half way through the day, I found myself, face down towards the sand, music in my ears (I Sat By The Ocean by Queens of the Stone Age. I love that song so much.), and a small stick in my hand. I was just doodling at first, but I was thinking about what to do for my blog tonight, especially since I knew that I wouldn’t have a lot of time to blog once I got back to the hotel room. Now, my doodle started as a single square. Then, I added a triangle on top of the square. Then I added a triangle to the right of the square, then one on the bottom, and then one to the left until it looked like a compass rose. The water then came and washed away my drawing. However, some markings were still there. I drew a circle around the center square and some triangles in the corner positions, and had myself a sunflower. The water then came and wiped away the drawing again. I then rounded the edges of the drawing, and found myself with a picture of the sun. Again, the water came once more. I then rounded the lines of the sun’s rays so I know had a hurricane. The water came once more. This process was repeated for about 5 more drawings until I noticed the inevitability of the approaching surf, and decided to give up my pursuit. 
                    
        It was a really beautiful moment how I experienced it, and it reminded me of something significantly less beautiful in games. Save files. Now, due to time, today’s blog is going to be a shorter one. My question to everyone though is: “Do you forget your old save files?” The game that first comes to mind when I think of this is Pokémon. In any game in the series, you are required to pick one of three starters, and then follow through with just one save file with the starter. Why do they decide to do this to the player? I’ve heard arguments suggesting that they could try using 2 or 3 different save files for the game. Honestly, I think any amount would be fine, since each would provide their own set of challenges. For the time being though, it’s just one save file. This causes some issues with gamers, and makes them delete their save files, ones that they have spent precious hours into, just so they can experience the same game with a different starter. Whenever this happens, I always try to remember what I did with my old save file, and try to tweak it in some way. I think of it like the Avatar State from the show: “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” While each person may be a unique individual, they have their own connection to the past too. I think that the same applies for save files as well.
 
        That’s all for today’s blog. Sorry it’s really short, I got back to the hotel at 11:45 today, and I sped through this blog as fast as I can. Have any questions? What memories occur to you when you play a game after deleting an old save file. Feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be sure to answer back as soon as I can.