PlayStation Frustration

I have long been a fan of computer games. It sticks with you, once a game player, always a game player.

The habit's hard to shake, proving a constant distraction throughout your life. But of course, that Playstation or X-box provides you with so little to show for the endless hours of dedication you throw at it. Many of you might be savvy to the destructive forces of Football Manager. So many days, nights, weeks wasted. The lies i'd tell (perhaps to some of you reading) to get out of social events just to grant me more time to get into that manager hall of fame. The time spent thinking about my tactics or strategy in the upcoming transfer market, even when at work or away from the computer! The imaginary awe-inspiring team talks. I sometimes shudder when thinking back to the time wasted in turning AFC Bournemouth into Champions League contenders.

Recently, I had been good. Very good. No games, no time wasted, throwing myself into the course. Throughout the Christmas holidays I was buried in work and, with some self-discipline, abstained from all forms of gaming. I threw myself into a monstrous essay like a man possessed, and things were going well...

It wasn't until my brother returned with a copy of the new Call of Duty that things went downhill.

Once I knew it was here, in my house, I couldn't stop thinking about it. 'I have to play it,' I thought, 'there is literally no other option'. I fought the urges, carried on researching, losing myself in academia. But I could sense the game was close, feel its presence calling to me, hear my brother playing it in the next room. Finally, exhausted, I closed my laptop, unable to resist any longer.

I played. Then I played some more. I played a lot. A whole day went by and with aching thumbs I disposed of one terrorist after another.  Every now and then i'd glance at the stack of papers and the pathetic word count I had amassed and i'd get a guilty pang that told me this was all so wrong. But then i'd be back in the game, and all those thoughts would go away. I knew I had to beat the game to be free. And so I did. I played through the game, completed it in two days, and  haven't played it since.

However, I recently stumbled across a video that both alarmed and intrigued. I have studied media from A-level, degree to post-graduate and have always been interested in the ongoing effects debate. Do these games seriously impact us mentally? Physically? Do they make us angry or liable to be more violent? Or do they act as a useful way of letting out angst? I was often skeptical whenever i'd see the media tirades against games like Grand Theft Auto for example. Then I watched this video. Now, it's an exceptional case, and an advanced warning, a little bit disturbing...





So...what this shows is playing any game for 17 hours straight is, perhaps, ill-advised. Now, the dark side of me finds this a bit funny, it's an absurd response, bloody emo's, and milk really was a bad choice. The rational side however finds it very worrying. The guy has worn himself down to such a fragile state he looks potentially suicidal.

His issue with the game is that he's not very good at it and with the franchise so huge and the games such a big part of his and so many people's lives, a large part of his identity and self-worth is reliant on his success at these games. Now that sounds all very Freudian and I could be way off, but as these games get bigger, better, more immersive, so people's devotion to them grows. Sure, it's perhaps the more fragile characters like this chap who are at risk, but with films going the same way (post on Avatar to follow soon) should we be worried?

In all likely-hood, no. This guy is not a direct by-product of the game but a mixture of fatigue and varying other pressures, but it does get you thinking...and is it weird I have the urge to play the game again?