I’ve been playing a lot of video games recently. If I were a child, my parents might be worried about me. “Are you still playing that game? Isn’t it time you did something else? How about going outside and getting some exercise?”
I have been outside: I’ve spent a lot of time recently taking photos of our favourite places, looking for the beauty in our once again locked-down world. And I’ve been active, working out and walking our dogs, Nora and Quinn. But I’ve also been sitting still, playing games. Retreating into a gaming world has helped me cope with a difficult time.
I’ve always been pro-gaming. I’ve valued my kids’ gaming and never imposed time limits on them or said, “Get off the computer and do something else!” But I’ve never been a gamer myself. Until now. My present activity rather surprises me.
Years ago, my kids bought themselves a PlayStation console, and the first game they played was A Bug’s Life. One evening, they asked if I’d like to have a go, and I said no, but they insisted, so I took hold of the controls. But things didn’t go well. I just couldn’t make the bug jump. It kept falling off the log or rock or whatever it was supposed to land on, and I had to keep returning to the start of the level. Because I am stubborn, I sat in front of the screen for hours, trying to move that bug and complete the level.
It got late, and my husband and kids went to bed, but I didn’t. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, with my head aching, I finally admitted defeat and closed down the game. That night, I didn’t get any sleep because the game kept replaying in my mind. The next day, with my head pounding and my brain feeling like mush, I said I’d never play a video game again. My kids were welcome to play, but games weren’t for me. Well, it seems they are for me, after all.
Maybe I got turned off video games because I started with one that was too difficult for me. Have you ever noticed how we dismiss things that we’re not good at? Well, kids might not mind the challenge, but many adults don’t like failing. Instead of persisting so that we increase our skills, we’d rather say, “That was a load of rubbish!” and then return to something that makes us feel good, something we’re proficient at. Perhaps for adults, the trick is finding something that challenges us but also offers us a chance of success. We need some encouragement.
So, A Bug’s Life was much too hard because I didn’t have good controller skills. But it was also the wrong kind of game for me. I didn’t realise this, but there is a huge range of games available. My kids tell me there’s one for everyone. I just needed to find the one that suits me best. After a bit of experimenting, I have decided that games that involve fine movement control are not for me. I also don’t like the shoot-them-dead kind. And I hate anything that has a time limit: Game over! You lost. Please try again.
I enjoy the puzzle games, the ones where you have to work your way through a world by placing the tiles in the correct order or aligning the pathway in a particular way or building rafts or bridges to get from one island to the next.
I’ve been building bridges and rafts as I’ve been playing A Monster’s Expedition. I’ve been playing that game a lot.
“What are you doing, Mum?”
“Playing a game.”
“The same one?”
“Yes.”
No one points out that I’ve been playing this game for hours at a time, day after day. I reckon I will get the record for the longest time ever taken to finish this particular game. Sometimes I race from one island to another, but sometimes I get stuck for what feels like forever before I finally solve the puzzle. And occasionally, I have to admit defeat and go look for some help.
I’ve been watching other people playing A Monster’s Expedition which surprises me. I never thought I’d be a person who enjoys watching YouTube gaming channels. Why watch someone else play a game? That used to sound boring, a waste of time. But now I love settling back and being a witness to someone else’s thinking. It’s fascinating. And inspiring. After watching a gaming video, I rush back to my own half-completed game and try out a few new ideas that I’ve picked up. And you know what? I’m getting better. My thinking skills are improving. But they’ll have to get a whole lot better if I want to be a gaming Youtuber.
Imagine: I could have my own YouTube channel and play games for a living. Yes, people do that. Why couldn’t I do it too? Of course, I’d have to attract a big following. To get one, I’d need to keep up an interesting flow of conversation as I play. Be a Youtube personality. Could I appeal to people who have discovered games later in life?
And I’d need to play quickly because no one is going to hang around if it takes me half an hour or more to solve a single part of the puzzle. But I do know how to delete video and add transitions, so I could cut out the boring bits. No one need know how slow I go.
This morning, while I was sharing my latest thoughts about video games with my husband Andy, I had another idea: could watching someone else play a video game be similar to watching people play chess? Chess championships are huge. The competitors are admired. Their thinking skills are regarded as highly superior. Clever people play chess.
And perhaps clever people also play video games.
I think I need to work on my skills, exercise my brain and safeguard it from Alzheimer’s, increase my creativity so I can write better, be a better thinker so I can solve the problems of my life more easily.
I think I’ll go play a video game.
Photos
Two people who enjoy the occasional video game: my daughters, Imogen and Gemma-Rose. Imogen also likes watching gaming channels. She tells me she gets lots of creative ideas from watching people playing games.
