But is it really only a game? Speaking for myself, gaming has helped me through a lot of difficult times in my life. Without being too specific, around twenty years ago I'd lost my father and thought I was going to lose my mother. One of the ways I coped was by playing Final Fantasy IV. Playing the game helped me forget the bad things happening to me, and I really do think I came out better for it. To this day FFIV is my favorite of the series, not because it has the greatest story or game play, but because of what it represents. It feels like a warm blanket. It helps me to feel comfortable and secure, and never fails to calm me down.
For many people they are just games. But for others, you can't divorce the experience of a game from the greater context of the life in which it is played. Just as in any hobby, the meaning of an experience is limited only by how much one vests into it. Gaming can mean as much or as little to a person as that person desires.
There are many ways in which games can effect our lives, and I'd like to highlight two extremes. On the one hand, there is an article On Hot Blooded Gaming, Kreyg wrote Video Games: My Guardian Angel. I encourage you to read the whole article, but here's an excerpt:
School wasn’t the only place where things were rough for me, life at home wasn’t exactly peaches and cream. You could say that my parents didn’t have the perfect marriage. There are too many times I can recall my parents having intense fights and screaming contests. Unlike the kids from school, I could immediately escape the madness going on. Most of the time I would close the door to my room and turn up the game volume. When I was playing whatever game it was, I felt like I wasn’t a part of the war going on outside. Video games were my safe zone when the fighting broke out. I didn’t exactly know what was going on, but as a kid, I was scared of all the yelling and knew it wasn’t good. I just wanted it to go away, and playing video games helped make that happen for me. My parents eventually got divorced when I got to middle school. It was a rough time, but I knew I could pop on a game and forget about my troubles for the time being – and I did just that.
Kreyg's story is one I think a lot of us can relate to, and hopefully he'll be joining us for an interview on the next Nation of Gamers.
On the other side of the coin is this video by CirrusEpix and posted at ScrewAttack.com.
Obviously I disagree wholeheartedly with the sentiment in this video, but it still illustrates that, for good or ill, games can have a profound impact on our lives.
What do you think? Are games important to you beyond the enjoyment they provide? Have you had a bad experience made better by gaming, or a good experience that turned bad? Do you feel that games help or hinder your development as a person? How has gaming effected your life?
As always, feel free to comment here or take it to the forums for more in depth discussion!