A little while back I read a small post on Kotaku which showed a video concerning how you would feel as a gamer on your death bed. Would you regret all the time that you spent with your console, PC, phone or the journeys you took with your trusty little handheld to keep you company?
It got me thinking, is all the time that I spend on these games really worth so much of my my life? Should it be better spent doing something that perhaps others would believe were more productive? I've always wanted to learn the saxophone or piano, why I don’t just do that instead? Perhaps take up sports training, go to rugby or swimming a few times a week?
Why are these things considered to be more productive? Why does gaming come with the stigma that it isn't a ‘real’ hobby? Do people really believe that these games and their stories that I surround and immerse myself in are such a non-productive part of my life?
When I was little games had always been a security blanket for me. I was usually left alone in my house as my mum had to work non-stop. I began to enjoy the peace and quiet it offered. Mainly as it meant that I could also play games to my heart’s content; well, for as long as I could get away with it anyway. I would sit on my own getting lost in my N64. Ocarina of Time is probably the most nostalgic game on the planet for me.
Sometimes I wouldn't even be playing the game as I should, I would happily just wander the fields of Hyrule travelling from place to place making up little stories of my own. Pretending that I was asked to vanquish troublesome monsters that were plaguing a town or that I was a secret assassin that lived inside the Kakariko village windmill.
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| "Remember the first time you stepped out onto Hyrule field?" - AIBryce |
Gaming has also been one of my greatest sources of inspiration. The stories that are told through the countless games I've played, and the moments in those stories that make so many of them special to me. It amazes me sometimes how I can have so many fond memories brought back just by hearing a piece of music or a conversation about a scene from a game that stood out to me.
Even the first time that I discovered how much I enjoyed writing, it hadn't come from a book. I was only ten and my class were asked to write our very own fantasy story. It only had to be three pages long but I ended up writing up far more than I or my teacher ever expected. In fact, she even took the time to type it all up for me and gave me a cool gold ribbon for it being best in the class (Insert smug face here.). Can you guess where I got my inspiration from?
Later I came across Final Fantasy. I was a late comer to the series and the first time I actually set eyes on it was at friend’s house. He had stuck FFVII into his PlayStation and I watched as a flower girl surrounded by the hustle and bustle of a polluted city walked slowly through the streets. A train roared into a station and an unknown soldier with crazy spiky hair leapt down from it. My eyes popped out of my head the first time I saw that scene, and then I took control of who I later found out to be Cloud Strife. (He sits next to my PC on his Hardy Daytona, he's so awesome.)
Who needs Disney to show you romance? You can get it all from the love stories of characters like Squall and Rinoa, Tidus and Yuna. Link doesn’t even have to talk and he gets his girl every time. I knew I wanted to write about characters like the ones I was seeing, and make other people feel the same way I did when I played these games.
At around the same time I discovered RPG Maker, and finally I had a medium that I could pour all my ideas into. I began to learn the basics of ASCII coding and game creation. I would do research online on how to write certain events and make characters move. I still remember how happy I was the first time I got the animations right on something as simple as a chest being opened. I was actually making a game, and it was amazing for me to see my ideas come to life.
As I got older I became more involved in PC gaming, I started to chat with people online who enjoyed the same things I did and were just as passionate about them. It was refreshing to speak to others who were so like-minded. I've never felt more comfortable when talking to others on the outside of my friend group than I have when I'm online. Not just because I'm behind a screen, but because the people I talk to usually end up having the same mentality. We all still like to go out and ‘socialise’, but I always feel so comfortable when I get home at the end of the day, crash into my chair, and chat with people I don’t feel like I have to force awkward conversation with.
Even with friends that I don’t get a chance to see much of any more many of them I still keep in regular contact with thanks to the games we play online together, or the voice chat servers we use whilst we’re playing. Gaming can easily bring people together and strangely enough it was the social side of most online games that kept me playing long after I had grown tired of them.
PC gaming also got me interested in building my own computer. I had never had any experience at it, I just always liked the idea of doing it my self. If it wasn't for trying to get the most out of the games I played I probably would never have bothered. So I took the time to understand how things went together, and the friends that I spoke to online gave me the extra advice I needed.
In the end I saved up enough and decided to take the plunge. Now I have another little accomplishment sitting right next to me. My very own home built gaming rig. I'm still constantly learning from it, but now I have a skill that actually has some 'real use' in this day and age. It feels wonderful to know that I took the time to learn all of that thanks to my 'unproductive hobby.' The same hobby that made me want to write this blog, and hopefully have people read it who enjoy gaming as much as I do.
So…do I think that I will regret all the time I’ve spent playing computer games when I’m on my death bed? How could I? Could you regret something that has given you so much, and has attributed to one of biggest parts of who you are today? Gaming can be an art form, a way of expression, a means to bring people together and perhaps even keep your mind active and healthy. I'm sure I could think of far deeper things that I could regret on my death bed, rather than all the hours I spent happy and content in my little gaming bubble.
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| Even Snake could salute his gaming days at the end with pride. |
Just something I thought I’d share.
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