This weekend, I sat down at my computer to waste another few hours of my life playing video games. The video game in question is “Knights of Pen and Paper,” a turn-based roleplaying game about a group of people playing a comedic tabletop role playing game.

The average lifespan for an American Male is roughly 78.7 years, which is about 689,412 hours. I spent a little more than 10 hours with “Knights of Pen and Paper,” which is about 0.00145 percent of my life, and after putting that into perspective, I still intend to play more.

The game is presented in a lovely pixelated style the is just that right balance between simplistic and artistic to be very appealing for a long time. In the center of the screen you can see your party seated at the table of your dungeon master, while in the background, you get a visual representation of what is happening in the party’s adventure.

The graphical style never really wears on you, as it presents itself in a way that is very cartoony and well designed style. However, it doesn’t exactly stand out. It’s not even that the visual style is boring, just that it never had a moment where I had to pause and take in how good it looked.

As far as the writing goes, it is serviceably funny. I found myself ignoring it most of the time, as it never truly got me hooked. The stories loose narrative that lacks a major focus didn’t help keep me transfixed in the writing either, as I often forgot why I was doing anything in the quests at all. And when I was paying attention, the jokes just didn’t land as well as I expected them to. From time to time, they solicited a chuckle, but for the most part they made me remember why I didn’t care.

Similarly, the gameplay is serviceable as well. The basics of the turn-based combat are simple enough, but allow for a satisfying depth if you are willing to think a little harder. However, I still couldn’t see the combat as being anything spectacular, or anything that was worth sticking around for. I was employing some strategy, but more often than not that strategy was the same for almost every encounter I had.

And so that leaves me wondering why exactly I was willing to waste 0.00145 percent of my existence on this Earth playing this game rather than connecting with my friends or family, or working to accomplish my life goals. The reason as far as I can tell is that the game is just fun.

Despite none of the systems being spectacular in and of themselves, they combine to make a whole experience that is able to make me isolate myself as I spend an ever increasing period of my life slowly utilizing turn-based combat to defeat the goblin hordes. That is why I give this game a four out of five.

Alex Bertsch is the editor-in-chief for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]