Devin Townsend Says Video Games Aren’t Interesting Because They Feel Like “Work”
Prog metal statesman Devin Townsend is a busy man. Never one to rest on his laurels, he’s always looking to the next project and looking for the next thing he wants to convey in his music. As such, the guy probably likes to sit back and relax from time to time to unwind and appreciate the little things in life. And while many people these days manage to find solace and entertainment in video games, the man behind Ziltoid just can’t seem to find the appeal.
During a recent interview with Ola Englund, Townsend said the only thing that really caught his attention in video games is a dynamic mechanic in Rockstar’s spaghetti western magnum opus, Red Dead Redemtption 2.
“I don’t like video games at all, man. I keep trying… because everybody tells me there’s some fundamental flaw in me because I think they’re just like work. [They tell me], ‘You just haven’t played the right game!’
“I like gardening, I like meditation, I like eating. I like coffee, I like tea…
“Plus, I remember, with the whole ‘you haven’t played the right game’ thing, there was this guy who [kept saying that], and he puts [a game] on some 75” screen, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is horrible! This is a horror show!’
“[And] the guy’s like, ‘Yeah, there was this guy who spent six months making sure that the horse’s balls got shrunk when it got cold. Red Dead [Redemption]… And I’m halfway through it, and that’s the only thing that’s interesting about this to me.”
There you have it, folks. Decades of video game progress and the only thing catching Devin Townsend’s attention is a pair of horse balls that shrunk or droop depending on the weather system. You can check that out in action in the clip down below, if looking at virtual horse testicles is your jam.
Townsend said his feelings on video games almost mirrors his thoughts on recent popular TV shows like “Breaking Bad” and “The Wire,” saying the extremely tense and dramatic shows are “draining.”
“They’re like, ‘Well, we go here, and you press the scope, and it opens up this other thing’, and I’m like, ‘That’s fucking work! That’s work, that’s not fun!’ And [it’s] the same reason I don’t want to watch ‘The Wire’ or ‘Breaking Bad’! ‘You know, man, I know you had a really heavy day, and you’ve had interactions with all these people on an emotional level that you find draining, but at the end of the day, we’re gonna watch somebody melt a kid in a barrel of acid!’
“I’m like, ‘Get fucked, man!’ So, my algorithm on YouTube is just, like, Korean baking, people making cakes, train videos, people cookin’…”
So what do you think? Do you like to curl up with a PlayStation controller after a long day of work or are you doing something else like reading?
