I guess the best way to discredit the arguments against my habit of gaming is to take a quick look at the arguments against it. I think one of the major arguments comes as a result of some people completely enveloping themselves in the virtual world. This tends to come primarily as a result of playing real-time role playing games, such as world of warcraft. I don't know if anyone has actually played W.o.W. (admittedly, I have twice), but it is boring garbage. I mean, one of the reasons I play video games is because it gives me a slight illusion that I'm accomplishing something in a fraction of the time it would take in real life. I mean, if I can build an ore refinery in Command and Conquer in 2 minutes....I mean, take that industry because it'll take you months upon months. Sure, it won't produce anything "REAL" but the sense of accomplishment is still there. These real-time games, where things happen at the same rate that they would, are just a massive waste of time; I don't care how many marsh bats you can kill in a minute, your level 3 firebolt spell will do nothing against my AK-47. Just saying. That being said, all you haters need not worry about me becoming intensively invested in a virtual reality. But, as a bit of an aside, here's the level to which this investment can go: World of World of Warcraft.
The extent that I went into these real time role playing games was Diablo...the original. There was something strangely fulfilling about finding Arkthereon's Warhammer with +3 to light aura and finally banishing Baal to the third ring of Hell. Only a fraction of people will know what I'm talking about, but yeah, you know what I'm talking about. But that's it...and that was years ago.
Nowadays, the fun lies in First-person shooters. I should correct myself, these have been big since Goldeneye. If you don't know what that is, I recommend you go re-live the latter half of the '90s. Followed by Perfect Dark, and then I moved on to Halo 2 (I skipped Halo 1...just in the same way you should skip the first generation model of any new product...or anything by Apple), and then after my mission I discovered Call of Duty and my life hasn't been the same since. Some of you may call the change that has overtaken me "being desensitized," but I beg to differ. I still can't watch some brutally violent movies without throwing up a little in my mouth, but these war style games are different. I have never felt so involved in national security as I did when retaking the White House from those dang Russkis (however you spell it. And that may have been an exaggeration).
Another thing is that people see me play and think I must have spent a long, long time playing a video game to develop the skills I have, but I'll have you know, I learn things quickly. While others were still trying to figure out that the controls from the y-axis weren't actually inverted, I was working on...killing them and laughing hysterically...because that's just the kind of person I am.
To end, let me just say this: I am fully aware that video games aren't the BEST use of my time. That's nothing new. It's a time-killer, so while I'm waiting for that date that never seems to happen, I'll keep rescuing Soap MacTavish from a certain death, and you can READ...or whatever you nerds do.
HA I didn't even know you had a blog. go you. I say, do whatever the freak you want to do. who cares what other people think. I'm no fan of video games, but you might not be a fan of what I do, and that's fine. I'm over it. Thanks for being yourself.
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