No , seriously , I mean it . Video games are too awesome .
Let me tell you that back in the day , Atari made a “ football ” game . Honestly , the only way we knew it was a football game was because the label on the cartridge said “ Football ” and there was a drawing of football players on it . The actual game bore no resemblance to the label , or to football , or to sports , or to life on earth . The “ field ” was vertical , and you could see all one hundred yards at once . Each “ team ” had four apparently frozen robots that slid around in lockstep . The “ ball ” was square , and it was one ( 1 ) giant pixel .
The playbooks encompassed two ( 2 ) whole plays . There were no player names , no customizations , no varying levels . Just robots moving in unison , with an off-screen “ crowd ” making a strange grinding noise .
The Atari football game was primitive , repetitive , juvenile , pathetic , and ridiculous .
So I played that thing for 4,506,201 hours .
And not because I was a kid either . I could still play it for hours in one sitting if given the chance . Long after everyone else has tapped out , I can keep playing video games .
This is why I stay away from immersive RPGtype hobbies . Not because role-playing games are inherently evil but because they ’ re simply too fun for me . I ’ m not kidding about this .
I call video games “ awesome ,” and I use that word a lot . Of course , it means “ super great ” or “ amazing ” in the usual sense . But it ’ s from the word “ awe ,” so it also means inspiring fear or apprehension . When it comes to video games , I mean “ awesome ” in both senses .
I ’ m fearful of losing my life to those things . My day-to-day , seemingly mundane real life can ’ t compete with gaming . Gaming is another form of supernormal stimuli and can make me lose my taste for real things .
But I ’ ve made a commitment to living a real life . This is part of my arrangement with God . He ’ s given me one life , and I ’ m going to be loyal to him . He wants me to be fully me and fully present . He put me here , and no one else has the exact same circumstances . No one else is around the exact same people . I have a role to play , and I need to show up for it . He ’ s given me a garden to keep , and I ’ m going to keep it .
My day-to-day , seemingly mundane real life can ’ t compete with gaming . Real life is at a distinct disadvantage because it doesn ’ t always seem to pay off . In games , I know if I collect enough whatever- points or kill all the characters on a particular level , I will level up . There ’ s a fairly immediate win in games that doesn ’ t often happen in reality .
I can have ( seeming ) adventures without any of the mundane work . If I pop in a military game , I skip right past all the real work of becoming a soldier . Suddenly I ’ m a Navy SEAL without doing a single push-u p or halfdrowning in a freezing ocean during training . I can use advanced weaponry without ever learning a thing about it . It ’ s tough for reality to compete with that .
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