Why I Play

I've often, myself, wondered what makes gaming the hobby that overtakes us.

I think the fascination has stayed the same all these years: the ability to control a story, beat a challenge, and survive the onslaught. The character design, the weapon upgrades. The music, the speed.

I've never had to defend myself and this habit. To be honest I keep it a secret as much as possible for fear of public ridicule and societal misconceptions. Though lately, as I've grown older and learned more about the industry as, well, an industry, I've been injecting conversations that have no business in games with actual mature commentary relating to them.

The themes and the ideas in games have real purpose in life and, like books, offer the cultivator substance and depth. As long as you can get by with the obligatory "well this video game I played did this once", and you can stand your ground in a realm populated mostly by the offspring of your dinner party, you might stand a good chance of keeping the chuckles at bay.

Adult hood offers something that most kids lack when it comes to discussing video games: vocabulary. Getting rid of the "this frickin' game is awesome" and replacing it with a nomenclature that may actually include the word "nomenclature" is key.

What drove me to purchase Zelda and Gears of War? Hype? Graphics? Story? I suppose it's a grouping of like terms that is putting my cash on the table. It's a hunger for content, regardless of the kind. Just like when I was a kid standing at the racks of rental games, it's the appetite of the moment that keeps you coming back. You can't have them all, so you take one and come back for something later.

I like to think that my gaming library is concocted from a large palette of flavors and textures. Okami sits in close confines with SOCOM. Mario knows the Master Chief is watching his every move and is counting on the Prince of Katamari to DDR his way over and save his ass.

I'm able to call my library such because it is a wealth of knowledge and expertise. It draws from very different backgrounds and cultures and puts it on my television at a whim. It challenges my reflexes and memory and my emotions. It's another form of art concealed in beeps, flashing colors and animation. It's interactive art.

I love being an art collector.