Why Play Video Games as an Adult?

There's a wider epidemic of folks in my generation (millennial) not being able to 'grow up' remaining oversized children for their adult lives - this piece will deconstruct one aspect of the childish lifestyle the big kids enjoy.

Playing video games.

What is the video game?

A virtual reality, an experience that IS NOT REAL. Conjure any form of desires you may have; wealth, success, freedom, happiness, all the way down to a specific goal, playing a video game will do absolutely nothing to get you there, or move the needle closer to a life of your dreams.

The most valuable asset anyone has, time, is wasted. Nothing more, nothing less. As a grown adult playing video games is simply a waste of your actual life, the time you have is quite limited and somehow many relegate countless hours to applying their thinking mind in a made up world that bears zero real world tangible results.

At best the excuse so often echoed through the rebuttals of video game enjoyers is: "well it helps me decompress, you know I can just turn on the game and finally relax after a long day."

Sure that's valid, except for the fact that's exactly what people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol say when probed about their reliance on substances.

You can try dancing around the facts, making some sort of claim about how they are different, but are they?

Legitimately consider how many hours of ones life is spent smashing buttons to achieve some arbitrary virtual goal with no tangible reality connected to it.

It's an unshakeable feeling when you realize all of the time spent with a controller or mouse in your hand could be allocated toward an actual lived experience.

Something I've never forgotten - as an adolescent & teen I spent an egregious amount of time playing the Xbox 360.

Granted I give myself some grace for this period as we were living through what is now obviously the Golden Age of video games. The consoles had truly become 'next gen' the graphics and gameplay had ascended, and online multiplayer was a whole new world.

Legendary titles such as Halo 3, Assassins Creed, and others I would not have wanted to miss out on enjoying the thrill of going through those for the first time. That said, most of the time spent playing was a waste; had those hours been spent athletically or intellectually who knows what becomes possible in the early years of my youth. I don't suggest anyone live with regret about these days, just be honest with yourself regarding the actions we take foster the outcomes of our lives.

A massive contributor to my own adverse inclination toward video game playing is the millennial mind disease of thinking we will never get old. That the day and opportunity to do something will always be around the corner, sometime tomorrow if we really wanted to.

That simply is just not true. Our time is limited on this earth, and your youth is even more finite. Cater to every moment wisely, for you shall never see it again.

So we cannot rewind the clock back to recover time spent, but we can acknowledge now that the video games contribute nothing real to our lives.

Then why keep playing them?

Because you're addicted. To the dopamine, the easy way, to ignoring your reality not being how you really wish it was.

So how do you stop, how does one break the addiction?

LIFE ITSELF IS A VIDEO GAME - PLAY IT

Where do you think the developers conjured up any and all of their ideas for how your favorite games functions, out of thin air?

Not some magical whisp of a thought, but our very own lives are used as the mental model that runs all of these fantastical digital worlds.

Video games are simulated realities.

Ever heard of the matrix? You're in it right now.

Welcome to the ultimate open world role playing game, 'real life'.

We are immersed in a massive rolling expansive map with every single kind of climate imaginable.

You can go anywhere.

You can do anything.

There are essentially no rules, minus very limited restrictions within the gameplay itself.

For example under water you can fly, but you cannot breathe. In contrast to that under open sky you can breathe, but lack the ability to fly.

Unless you build a machine with the capability, or purchase transportation services from someone with a flying machine using your coin earned from previous tasks.

Everything has become so regular to you, but when you dissect the details, you see the meticulous work put into making this experience we call life the most immersive, possibility filled game imaginable.

Complete open world exploration - every door works, every window has something on the other side, every hill or mountain you can climb to see the view from the top.

You are immersed in the first person experience, whilst controlling your character from the third person. Walk, run, jump, sprint, climb, lunge, reach for objects, grab them, take the world into the palm of your hands.

Everyone is on a single player mode while simultaneously they are woven into the story lines of others' games. Masterful development shines through again.

Your story is set, play through it.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, no matter how deeply they hide and disguise it, holds a calling within their heart they feel is their own personal purpose in life, this is your main character storyline that only you can progress through.

This is the point in which things become truly interesting; we can observe quite easily that there are no rules, very few constraints exist making practically all actions available - the only factor creating unknown variables is how your choices affect the gameplay of others, in turn creating a response from them.

Here we see how even though everyone is playing their own game called life, it is interwoven into the storylines and games of others. Each player can help or hinder another along their path to completing their main story arc. At times help can be the hindrance, and hinderance can transform into the help someone needed. Masterful design observed again.

Love a good side quest? You've got them in literal never ending abundance. Choose them at will, pursue them to the end, pick up another side quest in the middle of your current one, every item and person interacted with boasts the potential to begin an entirely new timeline of events. Recognize this and notice the events unfolding exactly as they are supposed to right before your eyes.

So you have a main character story arc, and a never ending supply of side quests available, how do you know you're heading in the right direction? There's no markers in this world indicating where to go, or is there?

Once more we must tip our caps to the masterful design of this game, as in the virtual realities of video games there are clearly defined maps built with marker points we can head directly into to facilitate the game progressing forward.

Well here, in the ultimate open world, there are indeed markers. But they are subtle, built perfectly into the game, so as to not stick out and ruin the immersion effects, it requires tact and raw awareness from the user, Player 1 must be focused to notice.

Everywhere you go, everything you do, all whom speak to you, are ushering you either toward or further down the lane of completing your great story, this requires the ears to hear and the eyes to see.

To cite Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, your Personal Legend.

Move with intention, your story line is constantly unfolding.

CREATE YOUR CHARACTER

The fundamental aspect that defines every single one of our lives, demonstrated explicitly through the video game.

Consider the pre-game menus: select the features, the likeness in which your character will portray throughout the world.

Every hero belongs to a class - the headstrong warrior, cunning rogue, unpredictable mage. Choose your class, a subset that pre starts you with general capabilities. From there grant your player with special skills to field particular advantages within the arena of your intentions.

You may be wondering how does a pre game creation menu pertain to real life itself?

Everyone undergoes this process.

Collectively alongside your ancestors: your set of skills, traits, as well as your appearance are are chosen and pre-loaded into your game, i.e. life.

Doubtful? Consider, does your character within the RPG recall the creation process? Being in the menu as different selections were made and other alterations cycled through - of course not.

The simply drop into the game with the selections in place, ready and prepared to take on the quests within the story.

The same occurred for you. Everything you have always thought to be capable of 'naturally' was pre-selected prior to your incarnation via yourself (awareness) and a council of Great Ancestors.

This is the process in which you've come into being, spawning into the world with exactly the skills required to successfully complete your story.

No mistakes were made, be sure to use all the gifts wisely and to the fullest extent: your purpose is counting on it.

You've now dropped into the game, how do you continue to facilitate character growth?

THE SKILL TREE

Certainly you possess natural gifts and talents, now comes the time to cultivate them. Alongside perpetuating your natural ability, there's many other arenas available for you to begin growing within from ground zero.

Everyone is familiar with 'XP' also known as Experience Points ~ the vital component to ensure the maximization of your pursued skillsets.

There's only one way to progress your mission, to play the game. Aiming to max out a certain skill? Seek out every available side quest that has anything to do with its development and see it through to the end. Watch as the experience points pile up and new character traits are unlocked within your skill tree.

Recall the tedious processes, sometimes even dreadfully monotonous. But you see it through, because you want your character to have this specific particular capability so you can carry out the tasks required to complete the mission.

Want your character to have physical stature, big and strong? Take them to the weight room, commit to the routine and feed them properly.

Aiming to be an intellectual powerhouse? Have them study rigorously.

Books are a secret weapon along your journey. Spread across the map are tomes, texts, and scrolls that yield the potential to power up your character, skyrocket the progression of your skill tree and upload entirely new abilities altogether. Seek knowledge.

Be dangerous. Train your character in hand-to-hand martial arts and weapons alike.

There is practically an infinite array of opportunity to develop niche powers once you have a general set of capabilities furnished. See to it that your character is formidable in the given arenas you belong to.

Now, you've toiled and built up your player to be a true contender within the arena of life - how do you make something truly magnificent and unignorable happen?

THE ALLIANCE

As a lone operating player within the game, you can only go so far. Interestingly enough, other players have helped us discover the way for ourselves, build skills, grow awareness, and are most often always a part of every quest.

But now you're aiming for something different, an experience that imprints its residual affect on the entire world game at large. For this, you are required to come into alliance with other capable players that have complementary skillsets and missions that align with your own.

Here opens up a deeply powerful and compounding trait of the life game: players can come together to override already running timelines and events creating an entirely new experience that opens the world to fresh possibilities.

Only a team is capable of this feat; powerful characters can go very far, but to achieve these sort of ultimate aims, support from surrounding factions of other players is required. Many great individuals are remembered, but what is often overlooked is the countless others that took part in propagating the journey.

So, where can this alliance be discovered?

THE SERVER

In regards to the entire world being loaded onto one map, that perspective is only available for the Creator/Developer.

For players, every piece of the world is broken up into smaller subsets, processed and presented as the player enters the area in the first person.

These are defined in many different ways and also appear in a vast array of expressions: Town, Village, City, Neighborhood, Suburb, Parish, Street Block, Region, these are all different servers.

Servers are formed by active players coming into agreement with one another to operate within the game in a particular manner.

Remember, there are genuinely no rules in this game.

This is what makes the server so paramount within the world. All guidelines (if any at all) come from the server - the collective agreement towards a particular set of behaviors.

Fundamentally, this is where the emphasis on playing your game within a realm of others who are like you becomes so important.

When you have players of the same or similar likeness, they are able to foster an environment where in a rule less game, most everyone abides by a code and anyone who breaks or goes against this agreement is in turn punished for their transgressions.

Ultimately, you find it creates what is commonly referred to as a culture.

So as the player with clarity of intentions, you must navigate many different servers in search of the other players who will make up your alliance. After finding them, bring everyone onto one server so you can take measured actions within the game to facilitate quest progression.

The specific types of server and how many a player must travel to are dependent on several outlying factors, given the nature of the current mission, types of other players one is seeking, and a load of other characteristics.

Throughout your travels, there's something you will run into time and time again.

THE NPC

As a rule, non-playable-characters do not exist.

Although quite often you will be compelled to believe you are dealing with one.

Every single person in the world is an active player, and in coming across them there is something they can do or say to progress your story further.

No matter how dull behind the eyes or actionless another player may seem, make no mistake they are 'in-game'.

These types have simply failed to cultivate any meaningful levels of awareness, zero work has been done to water and grow the skill tree, and they likely gave up on any quest started, that is if they ever initiated one to begin with.

This is why the acronym "NPC" has become such a viable insult - because some players lack meta-cognition and personal intention so thoroughly, its as if they aren't even playing the game themselves.

Take note of these characters and be steadfast not to become one yourself - there are alliances of players in the world have created vast networks of so called entertainment and ecosystems of constant media that they've managed to hijack countless other players state of being and thrown them into perpetual states of consumption, making them sources of power and profit, like a battery.

Your goal is to CREATE.

Should you ever need a measuring stick for progress for where you stand currently, weigh how much time you spend consuming versus the effort you expend creating.

Be clear in understanding you will never talk an 'NPC' into adopting their purpose and abandoning a life of endless consumption - the only way to convert them back into an active role is through example.

Through witnessing you in relentless pursuit of completing your mission here in the world, it may render such powerful inspiration in others that they are moved to make the necessary changes in their own lives.

Talk may not hold the infallible power to render other players to action, but do not doubt the power words posses, a simple conversation can be the spark that sends your journey progressing forward.

DIALOGUE

Eye contact, hand gestures, and spoken languages are the way in which players on their own game can communicate across the threshold to one another.

Many video game enthusiasts hold high esteem for a virtual reality that boasts in depth conversational options, probing questions that reveal information, and character responses that alter the outcome of subsequent events.

The real, game of life has a seemingly endless rolodex of conversational options. Questions are power packed with the potential of discovery. And yes, the responses you choose holds deep interwoven influence on what happens next.

Perhaps it comes as a surprise, but words mean things. They can uplift, or tear down - mind your tongue and you will find yourself in charge of a rare power all on its own.

Much like action, any word can be uttered, but no words may be taken back.

Understand that this is the 'real life' game, not a virtual reality played on your console or computer. In virtual games all characters are loaded with phrases and responses that serve the game.

Our world is similar, but remind yourself everyone is another player, they can say anything they like. Truth or lie, use your discernment.

With the basics covered, enter the most curious part of dialogue. The conversation you are engaged in holds the answers that will move you along in the journey. Ask the correct questions, and the answers you have long pondered will land sweetly in your lap.

Likewise, other players may communicate their own concerns or questions of life to you, and it becomes your role to furnish these answers. Do not believe you must "think" of such a thing, it will come to you, naturally.

Relax into the moment, communicate honestly, the questions and answers of the particular conversation will yield results beyond what you may now consider possible.

The key is not to withhold the stream of thoughts and considerations that occur during the interaction - as you learn to relax you become connected to the wider stream of information running the game of life. What was maybe once considered background noise becomes the source of vital answers for you and others going forward on each respective journey.

If simple conversations can provide answers via connecting to the game developer for information, what else is possible?

RESOURCES

There are no restrictions within this game experience, everything is available to you as Player 1 to utilize.

The entirety of the game world often known as the "Universe" is mostly made up of the unseen artifacts; an infinite database and resource list that is constantly accessible.

Your only responsibility is to pull up the menu and make your selections.

Never want, always choose.

There are various items and/or experiences that you may believe will assist you in furthering along your journey, all of this perpetually available.

Pause the game (be still), pull up the menu (use your imagination), scroll through the possibilities and make your selection (DECIDE).

Always remember that you are in a game, before anything can be materialized or shown to you as the player, the background code and operating system first synthesizes prior to anything appearing.

Contrary to appearances, the outside world is not active, it is merely responding and projecting the selections made internally, in the menu aka your imagination.

You are fully immersed, experiencing this role playing game in the first person, yet it is important to maintain clarity and awareness that you are operating from a controller standpoint in the third person.

The choices and circumstances accepted and applied in the third person will directly reflect into the first person experience.

Do not overlook this structure; make no mistake this is how the game works, play accordingly.

Now you have everything required to complete your mission.

YOUR STORY

You are the Main Character - that is why you see and experience from the first person.

This is a single player game mode, no one else can move you to action aside from yourself; everyone else is playing their game as well, all of your stories unfolding independently yet completely intertwined.

Other players can help you discover clues, find answers, and make breakthroughs - but only you know the Main Character Arc of the game.

There's so much intrigue given the infinite side quests, all the other players to meet, and things you can create. But there is still a reason you have come to the game in the first place, to live out your purpose.

Not everyone sees to it, in fact many get lost in the weeds doing whatever else, the labyrinth of desires and addiction - leaving their game ultimately unfinished.

Only you know what you've come here to do, no matter what any other levers of influence others attempt to sway you with, this is the True North guiding your entire gameplay.

This is your fire, the light within that guides you and it never goes out until the game ends (you die). Even underneath mountains of perceived controversy or misfortune, an ember smolders awaiting for you to breathe life into it once more.

Tend to your flame, and ensure you remain ever steady on this path to completion. More than you can conceive is depending on it.

Maintain clarity around the fact no one else can give you this purpose, you are born into the world wielding it - meant to bring it into fruition.

You alone know what it is, and you alone are responsible for its integration into our world through your actions.

Spare no side quest or interesting conversation that may lead to who knows where, but never forget who you are or what you're here to fulfill.

In the words of Cortana:

Wake up John, the world needs you.