While I was playing videogames
Many of you may not know that, as a foreign when you are studying English at a certain level, you are asked to be able to sustain a conversation with a fellow student about the most random topics, making it seem spontaneous and opinionated.
I can’t recall how many photos of people enjoying outdoors activities I’ve had to discuss, pretending to agree with key points made by my exercise partner and presenting opposing concepts in a polite manner.
As if there was anything polarising to be said about playing volleyball in the park!
But it was the 2000s, the rise of the internet as we know today. Technology was taking over our hobbies and the shadow of videogames was creeping up on unaware students, even in the form of discussion topics.
'An increasing number of boys and girls are spending over two hours each day playing video games. Discuss.'
Two hours? I barely spend 2 hours per day awake and away from any internet connected device. As I said, it was the early 2000s, jeans had low waist and shoes had square point, frosted tips were all the rave and people said ‘all the rave’.
During these videogame-oriented discussions I always made sure to pick the ‘in favour’ side of the argument, just so that I didn’t seem too nerdy yet to impress the professor with my rhetorical expertise.
Oh, the irony.
What’s even more ironic: I had not played any videogame other than The Sims, which is highly debatable whether it could be considered as such. Yet, there I was, proclaiming the blatant benefits of higher coordination and focus capabilities, always remembering the omnipresent parental guidance and time restrictions.
That got me a guaranteed nod from any professor.
To be fair, it sounded plausible to most people I’ve held this conversation with, however, now that I do play a videogame that’s more legitimate than The Sims, I get it.
One day I was at home and the PlayStation was sitting there, so I thought to myself ‘if young kids can do it, why can’t I? After all I have a degree!’ So I turned it on and started playing.
For eight hours.
Focus and coordination were indeed the least compelling points I could have ever made. Let’s talk about the amount of planning, memorising clues and location, lateral thinking to avoid fights or team building to win them, interaction with surrounding environment, ability to make quick decisions and optimising the effort required to reach a goal. I'm not saying that all videogames are based on pure strategy and problem solving, for example, The Sims is nothing more than an egomaniac dream.
I’ve learned all this after about sixty hours of gaming, which is ironically also the average time it took me to study for an exam, which cumulatively lead to my degree. Would I have graduated if I had a PlayStation during my teenage years? No. Would time restrictions be followed? Not even by mistake. Videogames suck you into their virtual world and you do lose track of what’s happening in your real life. Only the saving log can tell how many hours I have been sitting in the same position.
But hey, I gained a few new skills that include: raging power, resist fridge temptation, repel blinking, and, in winter, expert camouflage with my surroundings.
Image: via
I can’t recall how many photos of people enjoying outdoors activities I’ve had to discuss, pretending to agree with key points made by my exercise partner and presenting opposing concepts in a polite manner.
As if there was anything polarising to be said about playing volleyball in the park!
But it was the 2000s, the rise of the internet as we know today. Technology was taking over our hobbies and the shadow of videogames was creeping up on unaware students, even in the form of discussion topics.
'An increasing number of boys and girls are spending over two hours each day playing video games. Discuss.'
Two hours? I barely spend 2 hours per day awake and away from any internet connected device. As I said, it was the early 2000s, jeans had low waist and shoes had square point, frosted tips were all the rave and people said ‘all the rave’.
During these videogame-oriented discussions I always made sure to pick the ‘in favour’ side of the argument, just so that I didn’t seem too nerdy yet to impress the professor with my rhetorical expertise.
Oh, the irony.
What’s even more ironic: I had not played any videogame other than The Sims, which is highly debatable whether it could be considered as such. Yet, there I was, proclaiming the blatant benefits of higher coordination and focus capabilities, always remembering the omnipresent parental guidance and time restrictions.
That got me a guaranteed nod from any professor.
To be fair, it sounded plausible to most people I’ve held this conversation with, however, now that I do play a videogame that’s more legitimate than The Sims, I get it.
One day I was at home and the PlayStation was sitting there, so I thought to myself ‘if young kids can do it, why can’t I? After all I have a degree!’ So I turned it on and started playing.
For eight hours.
Focus and coordination were indeed the least compelling points I could have ever made. Let’s talk about the amount of planning, memorising clues and location, lateral thinking to avoid fights or team building to win them, interaction with surrounding environment, ability to make quick decisions and optimising the effort required to reach a goal. I'm not saying that all videogames are based on pure strategy and problem solving, for example, The Sims is nothing more than an egomaniac dream.
I’ve learned all this after about sixty hours of gaming, which is ironically also the average time it took me to study for an exam, which cumulatively lead to my degree. Would I have graduated if I had a PlayStation during my teenage years? No. Would time restrictions be followed? Not even by mistake. Videogames suck you into their virtual world and you do lose track of what’s happening in your real life. Only the saving log can tell how many hours I have been sitting in the same position.
But hey, I gained a few new skills that include: raging power, resist fridge temptation, repel blinking, and, in winter, expert camouflage with my surroundings.
Image: via
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