I hardly ever play computer games, yet my brother plays them quite regularly. So yesterday we played some together all night and I had a blast!
Is it enough?
This made me wondering today though, about what computer games do to us.
Replacing life
A lot of us aspire to become successful in life, in different areas. Some of us may want to have sex with the most beautiful girls, earn millions and spend it on extravagant clothes and yachts, others want to be a hero or race supercars. Computer games allow even the most socially awkward and unattractive old men to date the most beautiful young women. The poorest of people can enjoy the feeling of sailing a super yacht, flying an airplane or racing a supercar. People that are weak physically can beat up people that are ten times as big or strong than they are in real life.
Solution
Is gaming a solution to all of us who are so obsessed looking for something we will most likely never achieve? Is it more than just feeling the rush of killing someone with a knife without having to deal with the consequences both psychologically and lawfully? Can gaming help people out of depression, feel good about their achievements even though they are not real. Or are they real?
My point of view
I noticed that, even though all I had done was move a mouse, click some buttons and restarted the level 30 times, after completing it, I felt amazing. Wow! I had achieved something that was very hard to do. I had learned from my mistakes and made really good progress. A game that I knew nothing about was now starting to become easy, okay maybe not easy, but doable. I felt good for the rest of the night, and the day after. Even way better than when I sometimes achieve something in real life. Does it really matter if we take pride in virtual achievements, or should we be cautious and take solitude in virtual pride only, and remember that in real life we are just a spec of dust, nothing major, no force to be reckoned with..
What do you think?
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