Intrinsic Values: Zen Moments

Playing video games is sometimes relaxing. It's a de-stresser. Takes your mind off your worldly, corporeal drama. But with some games you can achieve a higher state of gaming.

I was playing Forza Motorsports 2 last night and was just having a heck of a time tuning a car to suit a set of races. It was constant starting a race, losing control of the car, quitting and retuning. It took about a half hour of work to figure out what was wrong with the car to get it running right. A pretty taxing task.

Then I went in for one more race. Surprisingly, the car was hitting the corners just right. I caught up to 1st place and passed him in a few turns. Then it was me, out in front, the competition eating my dust. I had 8 laps to go around the winding course.

After the first few laps, I realized I wasn't tense anymore. At first I was fighting the turns, learning the break points and acceleration points, but now they were programmed into my fingers. The visual check points for breaking and accelerating were almost automatically transposed by my fingers. I was on auto pilot, increasing my lead, soothed by the sounds of the car's engine and the wheels on the pavement. I barely had to think to stop from over accelerating or breaking to stop the squealing tires. It was a pure zen moment.

Not many games can do this. I would maybe imagine a baseball game, where you knew all your players movements and could hit any ball the pitcher threw. Or maybe a puzzle game, where you could see 5 moves ahead of your computer player. I know I've done that in Hexic many times.

Games can be violent and exciting. They can cause you to throw a controller across the room. But they can also relax you so much you could hear your own heartbeat.