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Games lead us into the apocalypse

Games lead into the apocalypse ... somehow I get the feeling I’ll be reading this newsflash very soon. Why? Well, it aint so far really. For now they are blaming games for the degeneration of youth, for the depression of youth, their aggression, they link every possible crime to them, ... so why don’t they just say that in the end it shall not be God that shall smitten us but it will be the CD’s that shall slap us with rotary turns of 180°?

I’m starting to get sick of it. Not because I’m a gamer (albeit this is also partially the truth), but because scientists always tend to forget something when it comes to games. Objectivity. Always do I read the games sickening, frightening, horrifiying effects on the person who plays it. In all honesty, if all this was true, how does the gaming community still exist!? Wouldn’t we all be stealing away our cars, doing drive bies at LAN parties, because some of those guys have beaten us in a friendly Starcraft game? Wouldn’t we become the epitome of the once extinct caveman, because we refuse to make social contact but rather stay in our home errr ... cave? The list is endless. But this is the problem! Why is only the list of bad stuff that are related to games endless?

Where are all the researches that show the good side of games? So long has it been that I’ve read an article about games being able to push the young minds creativity into sky high limits. So long has it been that I’ve read an article that games can also help and not destroy social activities or interactions. And this already where I stop listing the positive effects. Why? I don’t remember anymore articles. Yay! ... no wait, this is a definite nay!

So my dear scientists! Where are all the researches that list not only the negative, but also the positive sides of gaming? It seems to me that video games have become some sort of a scapegoat  that the government like to poke their fingers at when something goes terribly wrong with the youth. No ... it cannot be the possibility that alcohol is very easy to attain these days for minors. No, it cannot be that drugs are almost sold at every damn pub you go these days. These just cannot be the reasons! No, no, no ... it are the video games to blame and that’s that!

Though I am a gamer, I will not deny it. Games can lead into obscure things. But it is in my opinion that games cannot the take the blame for this. We, the people, the man behind the controller or typeboard must. The same can be said about books. I still remember the hour of my literature class where my professor taught my about the famous Goethe book: The suffering of young Werther (mistranslation of title possible). He said that the book was so famous and its influence that great that many, many young men did suicides the same way Werther did. But Goethes book was then not banned, it reached even a greater status of fame! Irony, eh? With this example I don’t wish to state that books are favoured more than games, but merely state the fact that even books can lead people to do gruesome things! But we can’t blame the book for that! The people, the readers themselves chose to do this, as do the gamers. I think that if someone is so greatly influenced by a game or book that he cannot distinguish fantasy and reality is an ill person in the first place, capable of doing dangerous things without a game, book in the first place.

To slowly end this blog of mine, I’ll throw myself into it also, just for a little bit. I’ve been playing games for as long as I can remember. Got my first Gameboy when I was 5 and been playing games ever since. Games didn’t aid to destruction of my life, no ... they saved it. I was fat, I will not lie. But not due to the games. But due to my laziness. Because of this, I was very teased and laughed at, when I was at school. Games offered some kind of escape of the cruel world, an escape of the pain. But it was because of games that I’ve made an important decision in my life. The decision that I will not be fat or laughed at anymore. I’ll have to thank Auron of Final Fantasy 10 for this. When I played that game, he was my favourite character. His compelling, sad story and his iron will left a mark on me. I wanted to be like him. I wanted to have his iron will. His iron will that enabled him to do such miracles  in the game ... and I’ve gotten it. With him in my head, with his words I’ve started to lose more and more weight to where I am now. People now don’t laugh at me anylonger, but they are amazed of my feat. And I thank the games of apocalypse for that. Those who should have destroyed me ... have saved me.

Though for my example where the games have aided me, there are also examples where games also aided the destruction of ones life. Either social, romantical or what not ... and I don’t deny it.

But I do not wish that scientists or anyone else in this matter denies one half of the truth! Games can aid, as they can destroy ... but it is up to us that decide what they do. Games do not lead us into heaven, nor hell ... we do.

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands! – Auron, Final Fantasy X