Saturday, September 30, 2006
My aunt said something to me today. I had the laptop on and a game loaded up while i was revising bio, and i was just about to take a break when she came back from work. She saw the game and said bluntly to me, "Boy, are you addicted to computer games? I think you are," and then some crap about how hundreds of people are warded into hospitals for comp game addiction.
I know too much of a good thing can be bad, and how addiction can reduce the best of us to spastic balls of irritability, and anger, and how the common perception of comp games has been that it's a way of escape and too much of it makes people do drive-by shootings and school killings and such.
But still what do ppl expect me to do at home? Mug all day? Chat on the phone with friends? Would be nice if i had a sibling to at least argue with, but haha you can't have everything. So yup i'm not afraid to admit that my passion is for video games (and shooting of course haha thats why i joined shooting in the first place.) But i like to think that i know when to stop, and where to draw the line between reality and fantasy. I keep my grades up, I have my own social circle, I still find time to engage in meaningful things. Why can't i play games? I can't recall the number of times i've heard people say "Comp games are childish. Grow up". Harlo, the average age of a gamer is 26 and rising. Who the hell are you?
And that was a really hurtful thing to hear, coming from my aunt. I always thought she was the only one in the household who ever respected my privacy and left me alone to my own devices. I think i'm the sort of guy who can put up with rubbish and insults from just about everyone, but hearing a family member put you down like you were the most fei person in the world with totally no future and no potential just sucks. No words to describe it, but it just sucks. To even assume that just because i had the game on means that i did nothing but play all day, it's belittling and it's painful. And i can't and won't ever talk back because thats me, i soak up all the shit people can throw.
But just because i don't say anything doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. I'm only human.
Chris SIGHED @
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
5:38 PM
