Gaming Nookie

Why do we play games?

* Gaming helps you connect with friends. It certainly is keeping my high-school buddies and I together (though not as much as before).

* It releases stress while stimulating the side of the brain you don’t use as much; left or right, take your pick.

* Not so much as entertainment and amusement, it is an activity that you look forward to and most of the time becomes a regular part of your day.

* You can do stuff you can’t normally do in real life, like fly jets, or jump of cliffs or do a vert 360.

As for the passion, from what I have learned, it is a function of the depth of the gaming world you are in. Magic, my first CCG, was not so much about the back story but the elements it was part of, taking from the mythos of the real world, as well as having great game play.

L5R, now that has a good back story. Even if you didn’t play it actively, the story will keep you glued like a soap opera or telenovela. This was the case of the other games that came out in the heels of the widely popular M:TG.

I also played VS for a while, but I played that for the game play rather than the story. It had none, anyway, taking superheroes from DC and Marvel as its characters. That was pure, unbridled play style passion, which eventually what made me quit it as well.

Don’t play miniatures, figs, RPGs, PC games, arcade games or MMOs. I’ll have to research on those.

Personally, I think the games we played as kids (or are still playing now in the case of others) are the ones we’ll be looking back to play again. That passion came from something you really enjoyed due to the infinite possibilities it presented you, the new concepts it introduced to the young, inquisitive mind and the chance to interact and share your passion as well.

Now leave me be, I need to finish my research for this article.

posted by Glenn @ 6:31 PM