Get a life, gamers - article by Brigitte Pellerin

**Tyrael** · 27th-November-2006

Get a life, gamers

Brigitte Pellerin

Sorry to sound uncool. But itÂ’s pathetic to see so many people lining up for days in a desperate attempt to spend more money and a heck of a lot more time than they should on video games. WhatÂ’s so bad about their lives that they need to get away from them so much?
Last week I was one of the few blissfully ignorant people who didnÂ’t know SonyÂ’s PlayStation 3 and NintendoÂ’s Wii (pronounced Â“weÂ” and not Â“why,Â” IÂ’m told) consoles were about to be released in highly insufficient numbers. Nor that this marketing decision would obviously force countless shoppers to line up outside the continentÂ’s electronics stores for up to two days just to be able to boast about their luck in spending several hundred dollars on one of this yearÂ’s hottest toys.
Then on Friday morning I heard on the radio that soon after 8:00 a.m., when the first PS3s became available, the price of the 60-GB console Â– the only one the truly cool want Â– had reached some $3,000 on eBay, from a retail price of $660 plus a bunch more for specialized peripherals and, you know, actual games. I checked again over the weekend and the eBay prices had fallen to about $1,200-$1,500 (and a mere $1,000 for the shabby 20-GB machine).
Wow. Then Nintendo released its own brand-new Wii console on Sunday, which attracted more than 1,000 people to a Toys R Us store in New York CityÂ’s Times Square for a midnight sale and who knows how many more in every suburban mall from Nanaimo to Memphis.
ItÂ’s true that these consoles are marketed as all-in-one Â“entertainment hubsÂ” that you can apparently use to watch movies and download music and TV shows and stuff. But while IÂ’m no gaming expert, IÂ’m pretty sure the ability to watch Blu-ray movies, whatever those are, is not what had so many people spend two nights camping on a Future Shop parking lot.
Writing in FridayÂ’s National Post about this Â“kidultÂ” phenomenon, Kevin Libin noted that those most likely to devote so much energy and resources getting the newest game console are Â“lawyers, engineers, and businessmenÂ” not alienated teenagers. Â“Once upon a time,Â” Kevin explained, Â“Â‘adult toysÂ’ meant those marital aids that, if you happened to own, you certainly didnÂ’t publicize to your colleagues and friends. Today, the term is as likely to mean the growing number of inherently un-adult products targeted directly at those of us with receding hairlines that we happily share with our friends.Â” And what is, on average, the age of these gamers? Â“In North America, itÂ’s 29. Seventeen per cent of gamers are over the age of 50.Â”
I think itÂ’s insane. That youÂ’d waste a bunch of time and energy playing video games as a teenager is one thing. I spent many sleepless nights playing Tetris and Super Mario Bros. on what must have been the first Nintendo system way back when (I believe it was made of rocks and twigs). But I was 18 or so, the perfect age to be idiotic and spend energy trying to get away from your everyday life into a virtual world where you can, by contrast, control your destiny and Â– if youÂ’re any good Â– impose your rules on others. Once you reach your late 20s and 30s, itÂ’s a bit trickier.
For one thing, it should then be possible to control your destiny, at least more than when you didnÂ’t have money or a driverÂ’s licence or the right to vote. And for another, if youÂ’re still having difficulty setting your own pace in life or getting others to consider your points of view ten years after your first legal drink, you ought at least to have matured enough to realize that the solution isnÂ’t to play Genji: Days of the Blade until you grow a third thumb but, as P.G. Wodehouse might have said had he lived long enough to witness such high-tech silliness, to straighten the spine and stiffen the sinews.
Granted, there are days when real, adult life stinks. And yeah, itÂ’s good sometimes to enjoy a relaxing evening doing nothing productive whatsoever. But this is not what weÂ’re talking about. When so many people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours waiting outside the nearest Best Buy for the privilege of owning the latest high-tech gaming console, it says something about the modern world that isnÂ’t flattering.
It says life in the real world, even as an educated, well-paid professional, is meaningless to us and weÂ’d rather get lost in a totally unrealistic high-definition virtual universe.
Uncool isnÂ’t the word. Pathetic is.

Ottawa Citizen, Tuesday November 21, 2006 (A-12)

Â© Copyright The Ottawa Citizen

Linky.

But itÂ’s pathetic to see so many people lining up for days in a desperate attempt to spend more money and a heck of a lot more time than they should on video games. WhatÂ’s so bad about their lives that they need to get away from them so much?

How much time people spend on video games is up to themselves. Who says their lives are bad?

And what is, on average, the age of these gamers? Â“In North America, itÂ’s 29. Seventeen per cent of gamers are over the age of 50.Â”

What does it matter how old gamers are? There are games for nearly every age group.

It says life in the real world, even as an educated, well-paid professional, is meaningless to us and weÂ’d rather get lost in a totally unrealistic high-definition virtual universe.

Uncool isnÂ’t the word. Pathetic is.

Games offer people a option to do things which are (almost) impossible or illegal in the real world. It's the ultimate type of entertainment imo.

**rastus** · 27th-November-2006

Well, I have to admit to still playing Duke Nukem and Half Life -- and I'm in my mid-50s.

Then there's the Dilbert prediction: that the population will crash the instand man perfects the holodeck.

Personally, I think the author is just compensating for feelings of technical inferiority.

**Sir Loin** · 8th-January-2007

Perhaps our time would be better spent watching reality TV, soap operas, Fox News, and The View.

I'll admit, I've been playing fewer video games since I got my DVR. Now I spend all my time watching shit I recorded from History International. That channel is so great...

Really, there's only so much crap you can occupy the evenings at home with: TV, reading, and video games pretty much all compete for the same time slots as far as I'm concerned. People who bitch about video games are just all pissed off because they (a) don't pick up good games or (b) suck at them.

**Cowhead418** · 9th-January-2007

Like Tyrael said, video games allow you to do a wide variety of tasks that in reality would be impossible. You want to be Spiderman or James Bond? How about form an empire and conquer the world medieval style as a king? The possibilities are endless. I've often been told by my parents that video games are mindless, but it all depends on what you play. I prefer strategy games, and if you've had any experience with some of the good ones then you'd know that they force you to think out a sound strategy in order to succeed (far from being mindless). Sure, first-person shooters are good for relieving stress and are meant to be mindless fun, but I enjoy games with puzzles and obstacles that stimulate your mind (some games are ridiculously hard and require lots of intelligent thinking). What's so bad about that? As long as someone isn't ignoring reality too much it shouldn't matter.

Besides, there are many video games that could have been useful to many modern women who are deep in debt (I own plenty of games that require stable financial control).

PS: People who tell others "to get a life" are the pathetic ones - mostly because they never actually define what a "life" entails. I'd much rather go conquer Scotland or challenge a buddy to a match in Super Smash Bros than have yet another mind-numbing "small talk" conversation with an American woman.

**bola** · 3rd-November-2007

I'm 46 and playing games more than ever. It's better than to listen to some woman whining.

**themanonthestreet** · 3rd-November-2007

Oh yea... spending 600$ on something for yourself that actually has a use is sooooo much more rediculous than purchasing say something for someone else based upon a 'promise' like oh... a diamond ring?

BAH!

TMOTS

**bola** · 3rd-November-2007

The real reason she doesn't like it, is that it implicates rejection. Women prefer to monopolize that, but it's becoming more and more a male privilege. Notice how they try to make themselves believe that THEY lead the marriage strike. Yeah right.

**Groobz** · 3rd-November-2007

Having a life is over-rated.

**Kargan303** · 8th-November-2007

Hehehe why does this not surpise me, she's just bitch because what is it 85-90% of gamers are men who reither have some fun playing game to relax and enjoy themselves by themselves or with like minded friends.
Gaming is the ultmit from of rejection to a women, which is all part of the merriage strike, intetionally or not, just think how bad things will get when holo tech gets combined with sex toys for men, who the hell in their right mind would want to waste time and money on some low down man hating whore when a man can get his rocks off by living out his fanites with a good * Gaming* system.

**MikeT** · 8th-November-2007

Hmm,
Queing up for the latest in Video games, this is a bad thing according to this woman?.
I don't hear her say anything about women queing up for a sale at a clothes or accessories store and literally trying to break the doors in.
No, that's totally different, isn't it.

**bachelor tom** · 8th-November-2007

Quote from Cowhead418

PS: People who tell others "to get a life" are the pathetic ones

Yep, juvenile shaming. Usually spoken by someone ignorant and self-absorbed.

I saw this dynamic when I was a younger musician, girlfriends uptight because the boys wanted to have fun without them. Now that they're married guess how many still have time to rehearse?

**Yan Yan** · 8th-November-2007

Where does the idea come from that 'having a life' and playing video games are mutually exclusive?

In the morning when lady is doing her tai chi, I'm heading for the computer with a big mug of tea. She asks about the difference in our rituals.

To me it seems simple. She's getting her body ready for the coming day. Me, I need to kick-start my lethargic brain before I can face the world.

A challenging game flicks all those mental switches to 'on'. And if you make a mistake it has no serious consequences for you or your family.
Time well spent.

**bola** · 8th-November-2007

Quote from Yan Yan

Where does the idea come from that 'having a life' and playing video games are mutually exclusive?

In the morning when lady is doing her tai chi, I'm heading for the computer with a big mug of tea. She asks about the difference in our rituals.

To me it seems simple. She's getting her body ready for the coming day. Me, I need to kick-start my lethargic brain before I can face the world.

A challenging game flicks all those mental switches to 'on'. And if you make a mistake it has no serious consequences for you or your family.
Time well spent.

I curious to learn what games you prefer to play.

**Yan Yan** · 8th-November-2007

Quote from bola

I curious to learn what games you prefer to play.

Yes bola, I saw your post on the other thread and that's why I'm responding here.

(Ever walked down the street when somebody is coming the other way? You move left to avoid a collision, but he moves left too. So you move right, expecting him to stay on his own side. But he moves right also because he also assumes that you will stay on your own side. You end up face-to-face and laughing at each other - sometimes shaking hands. We call that 'sayaw-sayaw' - dancing-dancing.)

Good question.
Every day I log on to Ogame ( www.ogame.org ). Sir Loin here on AM put me on to that. It's a very slow space-simulation war game. You log on, make your decisions about buildings, defences and attack fleets on your various colonies and log off. Maybe twelve hours later you see how things are going and learn whether your decisions were right or wrong.

For a quick fix I like dogfighting in fighter planes. 'Joint Strike Fighter' is my favourite medicine, because objects and buildings and other planes get destroyed, not people. (Yes, I know that's a cop-out).

Racing games are fun, especially rallies, where there's some interesting scenery. On the rare occasions when I meet up with my eldest son in the west, that's our battlefield of choice. Since he's 25 years younger than me, his reactions are fast and he nearly always wins. Good for him.

But when he comes east he has no interest at all in computer games or other electronic entertainment, even though I have a stack of games and DVDs. Getting out and about in a new world and feeling the heat of the tropical sun on his back and chatting with almond-eyed beauties is far more exciting to him.

We yearn for what we do not have.