Counter-Strike handsome counter-striker
What I miss about video games is something that may never be again. And I have the feeling that I lived a unique gamer time in history. That time where you met with your 3 best friends to play 007 Golden Eye, Super Smash Bros, Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Kart, all in the same room living the same experience. Sharing the same space and time.
I think it was magical, it was not just playing, it was passing control if you lost, getting angry with a friend because he always presses the same key and is invincible, standing as the biggest gamer who has ever stepped into that room full of sweaty teenagers, magical I say.
Video games used to be more personal. Before being globalized, you only had the experience of your other friends to discover secret passages, tricks, bugs, and other extras.
It is like the experience of going to cybers, you know? They were the meeting point for obese and smiling programmers with years of experience in videogames, they were the teachers of the children who were starting out in the world of greasy keyboards, mice with sweat marks and scraps of junk food everywhere.
Amazing. I often laugh of how little shits I gave about those conditions as long as I had my time in the screen. Now I can't separate my face from it.
Counter-Strike, Lineage, Tibia, MU-Online, SilkRoad and many others were the video games more frecuently seen in those smelly computer rooms (I think it was all the melted cheese).
Why nostalgia you might ask? Because LAN parties were the best! Right now video games allow you to do much more, the technological advancement has gone hand in hand with them, but something got lost along the way.
Yes, now I have the opportunity to play with people from literally anywhere in the world, as long as they have a PC and Internet connection (which are not small possessions).
Do not get me wrong, the world of video games is better today than ever, because there are all kinds of games and it connects people throughout the pangea.
What happens is that the connection that exists now is virtual ... When it used to be face-to-face, and the difference between the two is very important. It does not seem like it because we can talk and listen and insult our mothers just as we did before.
And here is the thesis of my argument, beware that the phrase is very revealing:
Technology brings what is far away and distances what is close
Interesting...
That's right, we value the interaction through the screens (telephones, televisions, monitors) more than the experiential, spontaneous and complete interaction of coinciding with someone in a certain place.
Coinciding, we Venezuelans love to romanticize with this concept, and I am going to make a parenthesis here so that you can see what I mean by romanticizing the concept of coincidence.
Do you not realize that if you did not signed up in the moment you did and found this post, you probably would have never read it? I mean what are the chances of you reading an article written by a Venezuelan student in a platform that has existed only for 2 years with about 60000 active users? I would say very, very low. Yet here we are.
We Venezuelans really like to enjoy the moment, maybe a little too much sometimes, and it has had some serious bad repercussions on our lifestyle (like not giving a fuck about laws), but I guess there is always a down side of things.
So... Returning to the thing about the value of real life human interactions.
Technology has not reached the point yet to mediate the totality of human interactions through screens, and I hope it will never come. It would have to be observed in the behavior of the new generations with respect to this...
low distance study, job interviews are done by Skype, also negotiations and even legal trials! We should go more carefully, there are things that can not be done on the screen.
Well, sure they can be done, but let's not ignore the distance just because I can reproduce someone's voice on my phone, there are those who are close and those who are far away. If you wish to change that, nothing will do it rather than, well, coincidence.
How to forget to take a bath
I still enjoy the cooperative experiential games with my friends, in fact they are my favorites. Even games like LoL or NaziZombies of Black Ops ll are great in the solitude of your room with an internet network, but in a meeting with your friends? With drinks, trinkets, women (yeah right), music, board games, and so on? That is already a sublime experience, the climax of enjoyment, as I see it.
I know that people continue to do this out of nostalgia, here in Steemit I have seen several initiatives like that of getting together to play n64 as a group, I think it's wonderful. I appreciate that I can always enjoy that ... What worries me? That I might not be able to teach it or enjoy it with my kids if I ever have'em.
I guess that is all for now, until next time!
Thoughts? Comments!
Other writings
Self steem is not about being a jerk.