According Wikipedia :
“Gaming is the act of playing games. The person who plays games is called a gamer.”
But now I would like to talk about another meaning – about addictive gamers.
Its believes that being as gamer is very bad habit ,its believes that it is kind of addiction .And we all known that it is : bad, it is very unsocial ,brainless and unhealthy ,but is it truth or some kind of myth ?
Nowadays , we all get involved in symbiotic relationship with all kind of technology ,we could start with using phones, PC / Laptop or any another devices to get access to Internet .You should not be the sage to realise the fact that technology is everywhere – in our houses, in our hands, on the desks at our workplaces .Therefore, let me ask you – why do we really are frightening of knowing that our friends or our children are spending so much time at the front of the computer?
I have a good understanding about the gamer’s world – how they live and what air are they breathing with because I was a gamer. In fact, the whole my entire life I was wondering about computers and that kind of stuff,I made my own programs when I was taught to use the simple/basic programing language. And , to be completely honest with you , I was a bit obsessed with it , I did like it so much .. it was like your head is full of thoughts and you literally can feel that those thoughts is about to go out of your mind because they are really a lot .. and when you are needed to start talk about that kind of stuff,you are.. speechless because you don’t know where to start with, had you ever experienced it ?
First thing first, it all started when I was 17-18, I started to play the games on my computer and ,almost right from the start , I played it online – with other people . Remembering those days , I remember my parent’s attitude, which was a bit judgemental, on that kind of entertainment. But nevertheless, I continued playing – I had started with the shooting game – CS (Counter Strike) .
CS
The conception of this particular game was primitively easy , here is two teams : one of them is terrorist , other , obviously, is counter-terrorist group. They have the money from the start ..and the source how they can get additional money is by killing opponents or .. just on next round ,when either of the team will be destroyed or the mission will be completed/failed .As you can see , I already failed with trying to show you the easy or simple way how to describe this game and it’s aims, because there is lots of aspects. I was playing this game for a long time , about 2-4 years .When I had found another server to play on , I had been banned from it for using cheating programs which I didn’t use .When the complaint was build ,according on the screenshots from my computer I had done nothing wrong , they admitted that the admin was mistaken and I was justified, I continuously started to play this game. Hour per hour, day by day, I don’t really remember where I was at that moment ,maybe on school holidays or so ,and I had trained my own skill .Skill.. what the meaning of this particular word on here? Word “skill” – can be used in a game community when people wants to talk about your skill of the game, it involves many hours of training ,quick response on actions(how quick you can make the decision based on one “flash” or on any sound) because the skill is .. everything for you to help you survive and to win. Simply put,this game helped me to find my own niche , I was very helpful to admins by catching all cheaters , and it paid me off – I became the part of the admins team. And this wasn’t about the game and your skill ,it was something much higher , I evolved in something new Sergey – the Admin. It was the first step of my education when I was needed to stay calm , to behave yourself maturely, to talk with people about the game ,be helpful and try to understand them.. it was not about the game anymore(obviously ,you should spend lots of the time playing this game) ,it was about something else like about catching cheaters and building your own respect . After 2 years of being as admin , my server has been closed because of the financial problem and I started to find another game to play.
Frankly , at this stage of my life , the game was sort of escaping from reality but it was a very short moment . Later on , I made my step on the next step of the evolution as a gamer , I started to play kind of MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) – the WOW ( World of Warcraft ) .
WOW
It was the MOST amazing game I ever played. And it still have it’s own place in my heart even if I don’t play it anymore. When I was talking about this game , building my own presentation of random subject for my school , all the group was shocked and impressed by that , because I could speak from my heart .
I played this game non-stop.. but it wasn’t the similar experience , comparing with CS , it was something much more different . Believe me or not, this world was huge , I was the one of 10 million users and players .Surprisingly enough , I had found myself as a very communicative person , very witty and funny .However , I could also be very supportive or very strict and I could lead the people make them feel themselves as in their own house, where is warm and cozy . At first ,I was just a player , later on I was a part of the guild , which contained about 1000 people , and I was the right hand of a head of this guild.
In a nutshell – being a gamer can’t be unsocial at any point .
When I played the games , its started to disintegrate my crude personality to something new – I started to think more strategically, for two-three steps ahead, to think about cons and pros from my actions .. and I started to take care about people .
Now , looking back on my past , I can unexpectedly tell you , that I feel no regret about all what was happening with me .. and , to be honest, sometimes I feeling a bit of regret that I cut off this addiction. I must admit, that ,regardless of spending huge amount of the time by thoughtlessly playing the game,I can’t completely say that I was addicted gamer.
The game can undoubtedly change your life because all what you are experiencing – is your life experience , regardless how real it is. I think that the games can improve you ,can help you to get the clear understanding on the life-questions like “who you are?” or “what do you want from life?” because the games is the scene of life ,because some people can literally live there and they also can feel any of main emotions like anger , love, attraction , happiness , feeling that you are succeeded at some point .. and I can’t mentioned about the flip side of the coin – the hardest lessons like being beaten , to be a failure , to realize that there is nowhere you can go/can do .I’m tempted to say , knowing that this game [at some point] isn’t real , helps you to get through all this problems and if you are trying to do something again and again ,believe me or not , you will get to learn it how to do passively .
Notably , as you may know , we can hear here and there the magic word “e-sport” or “cybersport” . It meant to be the stage of the skill , when you can be on the stage and virtually play the game for money .
Playing another game , I started to be curious how other people play that game and the best source for that is Youtube,where I had found the “Moscow Five” team ,which originally is from Russia. I had seen them playing on the tournament at first time ,where they smashed all well-known team and went to the 1st place pedestal without being defeated. Consequently, I became a fan of “M5” and I still following them on Youtube. After all their wins , they had earned about 300 -400 thousands of dollars each for last 3-5 years ,which is really good money , considering that your favorite job is matching with your favorite hobby .
I hope my story could legally kick you out from the world of the astray .
There were a bit more to say and to mention about the games and about the synergy which the game could possibly build between the people , but I think enough is enough.. at least for now.
kentinorius 