Listen to Cal & The Kat on Plato’s Cave™
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Boys will be boys and boys will have toys. Come between me and my computer games or my chocolate chip cookies and you just may lose a necessary body part. Normally, I’m not too vicious, but I have been known to snarl and pounce unexpectedly.
Click on any of the photos, below, to visit the official game website we’re talking about to see if you are interested in getting lost in another world online.
Cal and I met in Pirates of the Burning Sea
Games can be fun, informative, educational and provide an excellent means of releasing the stress that piles up on us in the Real World, plus no one gets physically hurt; mentally and emotionally traumatized, perhaps, which would require an entire book devoted to the matter to understand it completely.
Gaming can become an addiction and like anything that distracts us from our duties and responsibilities it will not be pleasant when your real world comes crashing down upon you because you were focused on your monitor and not monitoring the very world that allows you to play in a fantasy one.
My LotRO Hobbit, Kudor, stares in dread at Barad Gúlaran
Sometimes, our gaming world becomes our only world and we lose sight of our priorities, commitments and need to interact with the very real people in our lives, face to face, to the extent that those relationships dissolve as easily as your avatar’s pixelated death onscreen.
Until your guild, kinship or clan is showing up on your doorstep with baskets of food, buckets of money to pay the rent and a meaningful job that allows you to provide a true service to your community, then beware that alleged bond you think you have online where commitments can be shattered as quickly as typing /ignore Dumbass into your chat window.
We're looking forward to Knights of the Old Republic online
Unfortunately, repairing and nurturing a real world relationship takes more time and attention than just rebooting your computer or logging in on another ‘toon (gamespeak for cartoon or avatar) because your current one “died.”
Neglect a game avatar and the worst thing that can happen is s/he doesn’t level up, gain skills or experience and won’t have the latest virtual bling.
Neglect your mate, your children or your job, however, and you will lose far more than your fellow gamer’s respect as UberLeetShIZNIT of BetaCon 5. If you play, you pay . . . in more ways than monthly charges on plastic or lifetime membership fees to fantasy worlds hidden on servers in places you’ll never see because you never leave your room.
Cal loves the graphics in Aion, but not the grind
Some people in my life might say that I’ve wasted too many days and hours of my life by playing computer games instead of being productive. Define productive, please. As long as I don’t neglect my bills, my real life family and friends or my real world commitments, then I’ll play anyway I choose, if I can afford to pay the piper.
The potential for blending the real world with the computer world in a gaming environment is great and shows no signs of slowing down. Gaming allows us even greater flights of interactive fantasy, which helps us understand ourselves better, learn to play well with others and challenge our minds with problem-solving, situational awareness and teamwork modalities that can only enrich our lives, if we don’t fail to maintain balance.
I envision a world that, someday, may allow us to play and challenge each other on a virtual battlefield without the need for real blood to be spilled, real wounds to be opened and real bodies to lie broken with souls shattered and scattered about the ruins of human civilization.
Perhaps gaming in a virtual world can allow those with inner demons a less hostile means of processing their pain, their guilt and their frustrations with life in a more pleasant and productive manner that doesn’t harm their personal avatar, their family and their friends.
Gaming doesn’t have to be a means of hiding or avoiding our issues. Gaming might be a healthy alternative to the very real destruction in the world continually perpetrated by immature children who don’t know how to play with each other.
Get your game on however you like, but keep it real, be responsible and be respectful to the rest of the kids on the playground. Get outside, go for a walk, breathe some fresh air and get some sunshine, daily. Get into a real conversation about real issues with a real person, daily.
Get offline and get in touch with reality. Then bring that into your game because there’s a whole world of players in there who haven’t a clue what I’m talking about.
I’ll see you in the game.
The Kat
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