Today For The First Time In A Long Time I Stayed Home & Played Video Games And This Is What I Realized...
I realized that my life is a lot better than it used to be, and I don't need them anymore. I'm not rich, I'm not what most would call successful (by any stretch), but I'm the closest I've ever been to being consistently happy.
When I was a kid (and well into my 20's) video games were an escape. For a few hours (much of the time more than a few) I could escape to foreign worlds where I could be the hero, make the decisions, and fulfill an incredible destiny. For similar reasons I loved (and still love) books.
Video games are really something special. It's a closed world where you can make choices that have an effect but are never totally damning. Because, at the end of the day you can press the restart button or load an earlier save and bingo! you're back in action made all the wiser from your experience.
Video games are a closed puzzle: from the moment the game starts you know that everything you need to reach your objectives is in the game. There's something clean about that. Something fair. It often feels like the opposite of real life, where you never quite feel like you have all the pieces, or know what your objective is, and where all the world feels like a backseat gamer whose only job is to shake their head and tell you you're doing it wrong.
But sitting here and playing today made me realize that my life isn't like that any more. It's taken me a long time to get here, but now I no longer need to escape from my life. Yeah, it could be better. But I've created a vision of what I want and it's becoming clearer and closer all the time. I know what my objective is. The real world backseat gamers haven't stopped, but I've learned (and am learning) to ignore them. This is my life, even if I am living it wrong, that's my right (although I'm hoping time will show that I'm smarter than those people after all, something I admittedly intend to relish).
Life is by no means a closed puzzle, but you can artificially make it one by learning to block out distractions, negativity, and things that are of no use whatsoever in any capacity.
I actually stopped playing games in order to write this post. And it wasn't like pulling teeth, or dragging myself away...I enjoy writing posts. Later I might do some fiction writing, study a language, or learn some Java. Whatever I decide, I'll enjoy that, too.
Slowly but surely I am carving out a life for myself. So even though I still enjoy video games thoroughly, I don't need them quite so much. And that's because the real joy of customization, growth, resource allocation, experimentation, and decision making always occurs in real life.
Friday, November 10th, 2017
You know, life is very much like a video game, the only difference is we way take things in "real" life way too seriously. If we didn't take shit so seriously, most of the social issues/problems will just vanish.
My God, I think you've hit on something. Tell the others (that is, the world). Haha.
Nyc Post! Well done!!
Be contented with what you have and be sure of good life
I think it's that closed-in, predetermined nature of video games that makes them both satisfying and dull. Sometimes we want to know the answers are all right there in front of us. But other times that makes me think, "ugh, why am I struggling so hard on this boss battle? I'm just going to see the same ending that everyone else sees, and a movie would be so much more efficient."