Not All Nonsense

Word of the day
taradiddle (tarradiddle) - "a petty lie" or "pretentious nonsense"


Thought of the day
"Win Today. Repeat." - Jonathan Roche


Photo of the Day
A screenshot from the game RIFT, a new MMO that I play.

The Devil On Your Shoulder

My husband and I were going out to lunch when we got onto the topic of games we play. I was telling him how I'm always dying in my games because I'm so reckless, but I don't particularly care because I know I can always go back and try it again.

He likes playing FPS games where he can shoot people, and games like Grand Theft Auto where he can steal cars and run over people without any real repercussions. If he gets killed or arrested by game cops, he will just respawn and can do it again.

Some people try to assert that [violent] games make kids more violent. Some people say it's actually helpful to have some place to take out anger or frustration. I tend to lean towards the former theory. For me, adventure and RPG games are about exploring the world, being someone I could never be, and doing thing that are impossible to do in real life. Most of all, it's about being able to be reckless and go cliff diving or run into a room I know will get me killed, just for the fun of seeing if I can make it out alive anyway.

From this, I came to the idea that "games are the outlet for the devils inside of us", such that, in these games of fighting and killing, adventuring and roleplaying, we are allowed to finally give into those urges and dreams that, in real life, would lead to serious problems or death, and which are not allowed by society's rules, but which we all want to do sometimes anyway.