As many talents as I have – as evidenced by this hardly-read blog – handling money in a sensible way is certainly not one of them. It’s not that I’m unaware of the value of money, even after I blundered myself into a lucrative job in Big Tech. But somehow, caring about having a lot of it has never been a high priority for me.
This is once again evidenced by the fact that I recently spent eighty actual euros on a game that every single one of my trusted sources told me was incredibly mediocre: the PlayStation 5 game Wolverine.
If you’re not familiar with video games, fret not, I will pivot into grander thoughts soon. But to set the stage: In Wolverine, you run around as said hero through some very linear levels, kill a whole host of enemies and then the game is done and it’s not really worth going back to it again.
As complicated a relationship as I have with the concept of reviews, in the video game world they’re quite simple: a 7 out of 10 is mediocre and anything below it is just differing levels of mid to terrible. An industry driven by hype in such a way that even reviewers tend to get caught up in it.
Some of the outlets I hold in middle to high regard gave Wolverine 2.5 stars out of 5, a 3 out of 5 and a 6 out of 10.
And yet, despite all this, I was craving to play this game. I badly needed some mediocrity in my life.
Willingly engaging with mediocrity is simply looking for comfort. It is freeing yourself from the expectation that you’re about to see the next best thing and instead it’s meeting a piece of media on its own terms. Sure, at times we expect mid and get something amazing, but if that doesn’t happen, you still get what you came for and can walk away happy.
It’s also proof that not everything has to be the best in its category. A serviceable action movie can be satisfying, a mediocre thriller in book form can scratch an itch you had.
And yet, we will often classify these treats as "guilty pleasures" because culturally speaking we are constantly only on the hunt for whatever is amazing, mind-blowing, simply the best thing we have ever seen. In all honesty I can’t quite figure that one out. Perhaps it’s all performative, as much of living is these days – share with the world what amazing taste you have!
A thought for the creators of mediocre media. No one sets out to create something mediocre, surely. And yet, it exists. Things happen during production, loose ends don’t quite come together, someone had to pivot and you end up with a piece that you did not have in mind when you first sat down to put idea to paper. It certainly has happened to me more times than I can count, or care to admit.
But that doesn’t mean that the audience hates it. Unless something is actively bad, I’m quite willing to engage with whatever output I can get my hands on. Sometimes I want my mind to be expanded, sometimes I want to be comforted. I want to dive into the willing arms of a piece of art or media so that it can give me exactly what I want and expect and not a single thing more. And so far, about five or so hours in, Wolverine is completely up to that task.