Bag of Games

Recently, while browsing through the bit-jungle, I’ve seen more and more youtube clips about upset girlfriends smashing our beloved consoles. While I do not object seeing an iPad being smashed with a baseball club, it is almost horrifying to see consoles sharing the same fate. It’s clear, that women sometimes express their hatred towards video games, since they believe guys are spending more time on video games than they’re to the actual relationship. Sometimes they’re right, but I think most of them don’t understand the TRUE REASONS why we love our games!

Boys and girls were raised differently and most of us has spent a portion of our childhood on smashing buttons on various gamepads. So it is familiar to us and it’s not difficult to approach the sofa or smile when we hear the game theme songs, though to someone else, those strange tunes can sound incomprehensible. You know, there is a reason why everytime I go to work, someone’s cellphone is screaming secret messages of ZELDA! or MARIO!

We also have to remember that gaming has evolved during the years. Consoles and gaming today engages big audiences because major platforms have huge internet communities like Playstation Network or XboX Live which allows us to connect to other players around the globe. This let’s us communicate with our friends and fellow gamers. So against a common belief, gaming is actually one of the most social hobbies you can have!

Honestly, sometimes my wife is frustrated since she feels that the console’s power is almost always on. Hey, we have to remember that consoles actually are not so much consoles as they were years ago. We listen Spotify through the PS3 connected to our home theater, the PS3 is our gate to Blu-ray movies and services such as VidZone and the possibility to even to browse the internet with it, really makes it one of the most essential electronics that must be found in every home! Media is just easier with PS3. It’s also a hell of a good reason to buy that huge TV!!

We enjoy a good competition. Regardless of the situation, men like to compete against each other. Height, weigth and… etc. don’t play part in our gaming experience, but it actually does give us the satisfaction of being better than someone else is. The sheer thought that somewhere there are 10-year old kids laughing at me since they can beat my ass up in some games, makes me desperately want to improve my gaming! Besides, most of you are familiar with in-game trophies and rewards and they exist on that sole purpose. To feed our feeling of “online supremacy”. To some, that shit is very serious business.

In many cases, men are escapists who enjoy getting away from the routines. There are people who spent their time on golf, some are reading books, others are hitting the gym but many of us, are playing games! Roleplaying, videogames, boardgames or any sort of games. It takes our attention and thoughts away from the routines (and women too). Men need their time and gaming can sometimes solve that problem and thus release some stress. So give me a bazooka, friends and a war and soon I found myself in a very good mood.

Yes, we know that this is the closest we are going to get saving the princess or destroying the world. Even though some people may look like it, there are no zombies at the office and I won’t be shooting at them laughing. Virtual explosions, gradual achievements winning the heavy weight championship in boxing or sheer possibility to be a rock star are fantastic things, even though we know that they’re fake. Well, many people are fake so why can’t games be. This especially goes for the role-playing games where a single campaign can take actually years advancing the characters and the story.

All this in gaming equals fun and this fun takes time. Gaming sometimes can be very intensive shit and we find ourselves wondering where did the time go. It’s just a hobby for a lot of people and very efficient way to kill time. There are options of course, but this time we are concentrating on gaming. The thing is that gaming brings together people from all around the world, regardless the age or size or even gender. So there it is, the most essential reasons to love gaming are:

• Our backgrounds / Childhood
• Friends and social environment
• Competition
• Stress release / Escapism
• Achievements and saving the world