I've Got A Fever

Often times when I'm talking to someone about video games, I'm usually met with "Oh, I can't play video games, I'd get too addicted", and that always bothers me. I feel like people should be able to exercise more self control. Video games aren't a drug that one can get addicted to. However, looking back there have been many cases of the masses getting addicted to video games. Back in the days of the arcade there was PAC-MAN Fever. Later on in the mid 90s, there was Pokemon Fever. Maybe video games can be addicting. Maybe video games have the propensity to get people hooked without them ever intending to be.

Surely, one can exercise self control when playing video games. After all, how simple is it to just hit the power switch and turn off the game console? Apparently pretty dang tough. I know this all too well. I have spent many nights arguing with myself that this will INDEED be the last try, and if I fail I will turn it off. Alas, there was that moment of "I almost had it! This next time will be the one." time and time again: no. It took me seventeen years to put my initials at the top of the scoreboard of Star Fox 64, so there must be some reason as to why I keep on trying.

Games are a challenge, and there is something within us as players that it beckons to. We feel the need to overcome that challenge, and when we do we feel accomplished and empowered. Video games make it very easy for us to pick ourselves up and try again. It's just one "retry?" away from another endeavor into whatever game we were playing. Too many times have I faced down that "Game Over" screen, and thought to myself that I could beat this. It's something that goes beyond pride, I feel. There's something withing us, a will, a strength, that drives us to go for the finish line. We want to win. It feels good, but it is so much more than that. I'm sure that athletes, after training and training and training, when their hard work finally pays off and they bring home the gold, it's more than just a feel good sensation and a stroke of their ego. No, they've invested heavily into that victory. It was months before kickoff that player spent running plays. It was years before that runner got to the Olympics that he started training. We gamers are very similar on a number of levels.

This is where that addiction comes from. Games are our battlefield, our track, our court, our test of worth. We feel that accomplishment when we finally overcome.We spend nights working on our leveling, working on our strategies, working on our skills, to overcome whatever may come our way. How are we not to get pulled in, when the promise of greatness is on the horizon? It's right there, and it is within our reach. Just one more continue away.