Life’s a Game…though, make sure you have the cheat codes

Born in 1990 (yes, not the 90s or 80s, exactly 1990), I grew up not exercising my fingers by constantly pressing the iPad or turning up the volume on the iPod. There were no such things as HD TVs, and the only video games available to us were the ones that had cartridges with “999999999999999999999 in 1” games on them, with each page consisting of 50 games (No one, including me has gone beyond the first few pages, because we would rather finish the games quickly so that we could go outside and play some cricket as well, rather than waste almost a quarter of our lives trying to play every 999999999999999999999+ game on the cartridge (though I highly doubt that less than 90% of the games were not duplicates of each other).

Most of the games on the cartridges were RPG(ish) games that were a pretty worthy pastime for a 90’s kid. My favorite games were definitely Mario and Terminator 2 (an unofficial one, obviously). But even before  go any further talking cartridge games, let me rewind a bit…….there was a time when I used to love PC games. I still remember dying each time I had the nerve to face the first boss in Prince, or facing the hyenas in Lion King. But my favorite pre-junior school gaming experience was Wolfenstein 3D. I simply loved the gameplay, and the violence (that trait hasn’t left me in terms of movies and games, unfortunately). It was escapism at it’s best….it was the first time such a revolutionary 3D first person shooter was made, and I’m glad it was an integral part of my childhood.

But one day, about the time I was in the 3^rd or 4^th grade, I happened to walk into my friend’s room and lay my eyes upon something that would change my life forever…that, my friends, was the Sony Playstation.  I was absolutely amazed by the graphics, and especially by the WWF Warzone game that my friend was playing (I was, am, and always will be a WWE fan). So, due to my obsessive nature, pestered my dad enough for him to buy me one, and I remember playing with it day and night (accumulating to the fateful day in grade 11 where I discovered I need spectacles). During that time, I again happened to lay my eyes upon the Nintendo Gameboy (bundled with Pokemon Yellow), and that, as well, changed my life forever. 

Playing Metal Gear Solid V on the PS4, with the 20th Anniversary Edition Playstation Controller

                                            

 Now, I will not go into specifics of each game I ever played on each of my consoles, that range from the Playstation and PS4 to the Nintendo 3DS XL and Sega Dreamcast, as that will require more reading than even a Phd student would do. But I would like to say that gaming has been something that has been as important to my life, as sight is to a pilot, or patience is to a serial killer. 

Gaming not only relieves stress after having a tough day, it also makes you sharper. For example, solving puzzles in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time or Major's Mask, in a short period of time, makes one develop the ability to make quick decisions. In a way, the puzzles in the Zelda games are as tough as the decisions one makes when one is at the office. Gaming also makes you escape into realities you always wanted to go to. For example, playing GTA San Andreas and GTA V (my favorite game), made me wear the shoes of people trying to climb the “corporate” ladder in California, a place I have never been before.  Gaming makes one more sociable as well. Apart from getting 4-5 people at your place and beating the shit out of them in a game of FIFA (sometimes I do beat them……really), you can use social media to form teams (consisting of people from all over the world) and actually play games together…not only in the PC games, but in console games as well. So, it is safe to say that a good gamer develops good social skills along the way. So when you hear your parents yelling at you to go play outside, tell them that technically you are.

Now, for the philosophy behind gaming- Maybe, sometimes we want to have one reality, which of course is succeeding in real life at whatever it is that we choose to do, but what if we cannot become spies in real life? What if we can never hope to be Snake from Metal Gear, in real life? What if we can never hope to rescue princesses after tripping on magic mushrooms in real life? (unless Mario is not the dope head we all thought he was) What if we can never hope to throw our friends off a cage in a wrestling match? What if we can never hope to win the Champions League in real life? What if we can never hope to “catch em all” in real life? Or lastly, what if we can never hope to become an outlaw and earn our Red Dead Redemption? So, maybe video games are our very own wormholes (hopefully with Anne Hathaway) that take us into multiverses that we can never expect to see get made at CERN.

All in all, if you’re a gamer, I’m sure you can relate. Keep on solving, keep on fighting, and most importantly, keep on winning.