Game / Life Ratio
The electrician came by today because we seem to have destroyed a 50 amp fuse. As I plug in the third space heater between the six desktop systems, the big screen TV and the three game systems, I'm pretty secure in blaming that space heater.

He started talking about how he spends all his time on Dark Age of Camelot, and how he is a really high-ranking GM. At one point, he told me that he had instructed two of the clerics in his guild to cancel their holiday plans, because he didn't intend to be missing any buffs over Christmas. On the outside, I'm smiling and nodding. On the inside, I'm shaking my head in pity. He reminded me of another soul I'd encountered briefly about a year ago.

When I was visiting my parents in Vegas, I was going through the obligatory hotel/casino walk. While I was waiting for my parents (I forget what they were doing, shopping, maybe), I saw this girl standing listlessly on a Dance, Dance Revolution machine. I say she was a girl, despite the fact that she was probably as old as I was. She was as thin as a crack whore, pale, and gaunt, with stringy blonde hair tied up into a short ponytail. She was wearing gray baggy sweats, and an oversized dark blue hoodie. She had her hands in the front pocket, and she just stared down at her shoes. For a moment, I wondered what she was looking at, then I realized she was just waiting, as suddenly her legs started pistoning under her.

Her torso didn't move at all, her hands never left the pocket of the hoodie, but her feet touched the pad with precision, timing, and grace. I watched her go through three levels like that, rarely looking up at the screen, and only taking her hand out once to scratch her nose.

Later that day, I saw her again, this time dressed in a blackjack dealer's suit. Her hands moved with deft precision and light swiftness, but again, her expression never changed. She never looked up from the table. She had the practiced ease of an experienced game player, but almost no joy at all. It seemed unbelievably sad to me.

She was an extreme example, there probably aren't many out there like her. However, the world is full of people like my electrician. People who honestly, seriously live for the game, not out of a sense of fun, community, or even accomplishment. To them, it's a job. He talks about how he gets a certain amount of XP per day, while it takes others a week to do it. He talks about his buff bots, and speed bots, like a craftsman showing off his favorite tools. I picture him listlessly skimming through forums every night, trying to find new tips, tricks, and God forbid, exploits.

There are a lot of people out there like that. They live for the game, then they live through the game, then they just game without living. I don't want to call it an addiction, because it's probably just as easy for them to stop as it is for a person to switch jobs. Still, it's really sad because it is more like a job than a game.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Video of the Day: Dangerous Place

- posted by BrandG @ 11:24 PM