Pantheon Rise of the Fallen will be good for your mental health.
The mind of an old person is generally total mushy goo. And because time is linear I assume I too will one day have a goo brain. So I will be taking steps to prevent my brain from deteriorating to the point where I would play a Skar.
Examples and science stuff:
The brain suffers from increased dementia if you go to bed too early as you age.( https://www.healthline.com/health-news/the-surprising-link-between-bedtime-and-dementia ) Pantheon will keep me up way past the 10pm bedtime because I'll have to get my corpse back before sleepytime. (Note-this assumes I die often, a safe assumption)
Another fantastic way that Pantheon Rise of the Fallen will help me achieve geriatric mental exceptionalism is to allow me to take physical exercise breaks during game sessions. The \Follow feature in the game will allow me to walk around the neighborhood while someone else leads my avatar to the dungeon where I can bash rats. (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/keep-moving-10000-steps-a-day-may-halve-dementia-risk )
In fact the list goes on and on.
Following are elements that can lead to dementia and the ways that Pantheon RotF will help us all stay healthy.
Education level: the higher the better, and we all know that this community is made up of some very bright and intelligent individuals. We are readers and content creators, artist and coders, all manner of smart folks. Heck! Just having me StoneFish in your community is a sign of advanced cerebral capacity.
Hypertension: Is your blood pressure good? I bet it is. Fiber is good for this and I expect most of you enjoy a high fiber diet because I have see you spend time reading/talking about the news concerning the Human Resources Department of a game developer that hasn't released a game yet, so you're all masochistics already, might as well assume you love celery.
Obesity: you already love celery so this should not be a factor, I'm sure you are all slim and sexy.
Hearing loss: We have volume control and are not idiots, so no worries here.
Smoking: Smoking if gross so I expect only Kilsin smokes because he's from Australia and Australia is gross.
Depression: We get to play a magic avatar in a game world designed for fun and comradeship, and we could not possibly be depressed with an infinite number of rats to bash. "Feeling down? Here is a club, go bash a rat"
Social Isolation: VR is making this a social game, where grouping is strongly encouraged. Solo play is often only brought up by community members, who were home alone, bored and lonely. They have all played with themselves before and are wondering about doing it again, while pretending to be an elf, no judgement. The VR team seems to understand that play is best done with others you enjoy and find a pleasure to be with. They are making every effort to get us to play with each other, as elves or whatever your kink may be. Group stimulation is good for brain health.
Diabetes: Donuts are the leading cause of diabetes, there are no donuts in Pantheon so playing Pantheon RotF helps avoid diabetes. Science!
Alcohol consumption:. More that 17 units of pure alcohol can cause brain issues so perhaps the game will send a therapist dragon to you when they detect your play has deteriorated after the 20 minutes it takes you boozers to suck down 16 units of alcohol. I personally recommend LSD but you should ask your therapist dragon is acid is right for you.
Air pollution: this will not be a factor for anyone that lives outside of Pennsylvania. If you live in Pennsylvania then move somewhere that is not Pennsylvania.
Traumatic Brain Injury: Pantheon RotF is best experienced while sitting down . Sitting leads to a diminished likelihood of falling down and hitting your head. Avoid playing Pantheon RotF while driving at high speed or walking up the stairs.
Anyway, I hope this clear, scientific based, totally real post will help keep each and every one of your brains humming along well into the the next decade or two or three. But, if you feel like you may be suffering from mental decline please feel free to reach out to me, StoneFish, with a CC number and all your personal data so that I can "assist" you in your transition to becoming a full time Call of Duty player.
Peace
All jokes aside, I have been thinking about this quite a bit. Currently, I'm playing FFXIV *very* casually. I log in, do some dailies, and then do whatever else I fancy. Usually don't spend much time each day playing, and tbh that is a good thing to me. I used to play EQ fairly obsessively in my younger years, and it wasn't healthy. And now we have Pantheon, which promises to bring back the "good old" gameplay style that we loved in EQ...but it also promises that reasonable progress will be possible in smaller time frames.
I really hope that Pantheon manages to accomplish this. As much as I want to experience "living" in a game world again like I did with EQ, I don't want/can't afford the negatives that come with excessive playing. Obviously it's my own decision how much I play, and I can't blame anyone else but myself if I overdo, but depending on how mechanics are implemented in the game, it may be necessary to play a lot more than the famous "two hours" a day to get anything meaningful done. If I start playing Pantheon and notice myself slipping down a bad path again, I guess I will just have to stop completely, as much as I may love it.
Exactly why I have been pushing for more than a few years for meaningful soloable content, even in a group-focused game. So that a player *can* log on and accomplish something in 30 minutes or an hour or even two hours without needing every single day to budget enough time to form or find a group, get to a dungeon, and either finish the dungeon or at least get to the next logical camping spot.
