The whole article is good. You should probably read the other four paragraphs. But here’s the best one:
Modern adult life is probably supposed to be more than just a series of futile attempts to recapture one’s lost youth, or at least what we imagine our youth to have been. But the medium of games entices us because it allows us to try. Games are works of make-believe, and we play cops and robbers or house or God with them; we want to be taken to that magical place, the one where potential and possibility still rule, where everything we’re challenged with seems achievable. People revert when playing games— responsible men with good jobs and families transform into ten-year-olds with controllers in their hands. You could see this positively— a rejuvenation of someone worn down by the grindstone of banality— or it might be horrifying.
20 March 2009
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I agree that the attempt to recapture one’s youth, if pursued more than occasionally, is a waste of time. But everyone needs entertainment. What makes video games any less relevant as entertainment than a Bond movie, or a trip to Disney World (without kids)?
I think nothing, as long as it occupies the proper place in your life. The phrase “responsible men with good jobs and families transform into ten-year-olds with controllers in their hands” implies that they suddenly become bad parents, fathers, and employees.
Men get sucked into whatever hobby they enjoy. I’d suspect that more marriages and families have been hurt by men who were obsessed with golf, hunting, sports (as Matt Chandler points out, allowing your happiness to be controlled by the success or failure of 19-year-old boys playing with a ball), and work. But those are “mature” pursuits, so they are more acceptable.
I love playing XBox, it’s one of my times of relaxation, and it’s fun. But it doesn’t cause me to be any less a man.
One of the commenters shared a particularly apt quote:
“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” -C.S. Lewis
Charles Joness last blog post..I Am Now a Photographer
Charles, video games are my main form of entertainment these days, so I’m not really posting that to vouch for it. What I really liked about the post was that it was coming from within the gaming community. Far too often, the gaming community is unquestioning in its immature, violence-loving, obsessive nature. Articles like these encourage me not only because the go against the grain but also because they challenge me to evaluate my involvement in this stuff from another point of view. We could use stuff like this in every medium.
Richard,
“What I really liked about the post was that it was coming from within the gaming community. Far too often, the gaming community is unquestioning in its immature, violence-loving, obsessive nature.”
That, I totally agree with. Sometimes I forget that articles like this one aren’t necessarily directed at me. I have to cool my jets a bit from time to time.
I just checked out your “In Praise of…” articles from last year. My comment now seems wholly misdirected, and ill-conceived. Any chance you could delete it and pretend it never happened?
Charles Joness last blog post..Best Geek Commercial I’ve Seen in a Long Time
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