Is this sad?

I don't think it's sad at all...maybe because I'm sad. ;)

Some of my favourite childhood memories are from computer games, especially RPGs. I had a tear in my eye at one pivotal moment of Illusion of Time (AKA Illusion of Gaia) on the Super Nintendo.

Terranigma (also SNES) is my favourite game of all-time, and that was largely down to the story.

Riding Epona (the horse) across Hyrule Field as the sun rises in Ocarina of Time. The music is so beautiful too. Sometimes games are better than real life!

I've also had a lot of fun playing multiplayer games, particularly battles on Tetris Attack (nothing like the famous Tetris) with my brother. Co-op on another SNES RPG, Secret of Mana. Endless summers in a friend's bedroom - that was painted black with the curtains drawn while the sun beat down outside - playing Olympic Summer Games (1996) and others. Multiplayer till the early hours on Goldeneye, then Perfect Dark, WWF No Mercy.

The Curse of Monkey Island on PC was hilarious at times. Guybrush Threepwood was one of my favourite characters from game or film, and it was funny that the skull was called Murray, the name of my driving instructor at the time.

Winning the Champions League with Rushden & Diamonds on Champtionship Manager (back in 00/01) with a star player called Lorenzo Tramarin - an Italian footballer I Googled who didn't make it professionally.

I still remember the exact moment I first played Mario 64.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - I never thought stealing cars and running people over could be so much fun. And Blast Corps, where the aim is to demolish buildings by doing things like swinging the back of a dump-truck into them.

Pikmin - I want to cry when I accidentally kill them off. How do Nintendo do that???

Some of my favourite pieces of music are from computer games, or remixes of music from games.

So there's my short answer. ;)

I don't play games so much anymore, only with friends really.
 
I remember a wet Sunday afternoon playing PlanetSide - the original, a large scale world based Sci fi FPS. It was a special event day and I was a member of a small clan. There was ten of us on voice ranging coming from UK, Sweden, Portugal, Holland and Japan.

Now PlanetSide has three factions and the other two had thought that the faction we belonged to had cheated - we hadn't, we'd just been damn lucky. But for 3 to 4 hours we defended an in game base against their combined players (bases usually fell in around 30mins). At one point the server was at it's max limit for players in one area.

It was the most fun, most exhausting and best bit of team work I've ever experienced online. I play online games regularly and have never experienced this since and unfortunately don't think I ever will again.

I never diss anyones hobby and never feel 'sad' at any of mine.

If we were all the same it would be a very boring world :)
 
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Does anyone else want to confess to something similar?

It was years ago, but scribing my Mage epic spell in Everquest and showing off the sparkly stick to my guild. So many people involved in getting me that darn thing over the course of a year or so, even though I got lucky on the drops.

Followed by giggling for an hour as I went back to a zone where I'd had troubles a week before and Fluffy was tearing the monsters apart without breaking a sweat.
 
I think one of the dangers in life is living life by the expectations of others. For sure expectations and standards of others DO shape and influence our lives; indeed to try and deny that totally is often not healthy. It's part of our make up as a social creature and part of our society and interaction with each other. Indeed there is great richness to be had in allowing the ideas of others to influence our lives.

But we have to be careful; as we mature we have to learn where to draw our own lines. To agree and disagree with those viewpoints and to also be mindful not to let those that disagree with us to destroy us.



I know people who cannot understand, let alone appreciate how a computer game could, in any way shape or form, be inspirational, fantastic, great, or moving. Some don't like or get games at all, but others are avid gamers; but their interaction with the game is different, what they draw from it and gain is different.
To YOU and YOUR standards that game was a fantastic experience. To YOU it was outstanding at that point in time of your life; and its lasted. Something that had countless hours spent on it by a huge team of people has touched a part of you. That's not a waste of life, that's just part of YOUR life.
It is only a waste if you choose to allow it to be.

Though, of course, through time you might change, but you should always remember that it was never a waste for you in that moment of time.




Also I think the other side of life is that one of the richest things is that we can draw inspiration and have wonderful interactions and experiences that don't compare. A game, a film, a walk, a sports match, a highly complicated stock management excel document, a multibillion £ company deal, a painting, a religious text, a split second photograph........

There's so much no one person can appreciate it all and, really, no one person can define what should be best for all reasons and what should dominate your life.
 
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