The average engineering hostel geek spends about 20 hours a week playing video games. That's about half the time they'll end up spending in office once they get out of college. The sad part about a gamer's life, at least in India, is the image that comes with it. All people see are spoilt kids with access to the internet, decent devices and a lot of time on their hands (seemingly.) One friend recently commented that he's always felt that letting gamers have the 'geek' tag is unfair to 'real geeks.'
We most certainly are geeks. We take calculated headshots and enter fights based on complex hitpoint and mana calculations. We learn about recoil and angles by sheer experience. We know which enemy we can take on during which stage of the game and which ones we cannot. Every second we spend in that virtual world is as real as it gets for us and we do whatever it takes to get that win. We do not *have* all that time on our hands. We make time. Games make us feel alive and help us deal with the realities of life in a better manner than whatever you muggles choose to do.
I vividly remember one particular summer afternoon when the hostel warden had complained against the consumption of alcohol and other intoxicants by our seniors and the college authorities, including the institute's director, had decided to inspect each room. A bunch of us were camped up in a single room and were so busy playing Counter Strike 1.6 that we completely ignored the four very angry administrators in the room up until one of them decided to yell. We had no alcohol or weed in the room but what we did have on our screens was way more addictive than what they were looking for.
While it may seem that we are too engrossed in the virtual world to amount to anything in the real world, that is not the case at all. Gaming helps us become more tolerant and curious individuals. I'm not kidding. A person who play Counter Strike knows better than to get wild at his team mates at work over small things. Games teach us to be better team players and hence better members of the society we live in.
Overkill? Maybe a tad bit. Seriously though, gaming is cheaper than therapy and more therapeutic than a massage. In the words of Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin "One way to forget about pain is to do something you will be in, completely. So...computer games." Games can help you deal with some of the darkest phases of your lives and when addiction sets in, they can lead you there too. Like all good things, they're best enjoyed in moderation.
It is amazing to note that pro-gaming is being acknowledged in India and Esports have enough of an audience to be taken seriously. Let's hope the trend continues and we catch up with the rest of the world soon. Game on!
We most certainly are geeks. We take calculated headshots and enter fights based on complex hitpoint and mana calculations. We learn about recoil and angles by sheer experience. We know which enemy we can take on during which stage of the game and which ones we cannot. Every second we spend in that virtual world is as real as it gets for us and we do whatever it takes to get that win. We do not *have* all that time on our hands. We make time. Games make us feel alive and help us deal with the realities of life in a better manner than whatever you muggles choose to do.
I vividly remember one particular summer afternoon when the hostel warden had complained against the consumption of alcohol and other intoxicants by our seniors and the college authorities, including the institute's director, had decided to inspect each room. A bunch of us were camped up in a single room and were so busy playing Counter Strike 1.6 that we completely ignored the four very angry administrators in the room up until one of them decided to yell. We had no alcohol or weed in the room but what we did have on our screens was way more addictive than what they were looking for.
While it may seem that we are too engrossed in the virtual world to amount to anything in the real world, that is not the case at all. Gaming helps us become more tolerant and curious individuals. I'm not kidding. A person who play Counter Strike knows better than to get wild at his team mates at work over small things. Games teach us to be better team players and hence better members of the society we live in.
Overkill? Maybe a tad bit. Seriously though, gaming is cheaper than therapy and more therapeutic than a massage. In the words of Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin "One way to forget about pain is to do something you will be in, completely. So...computer games." Games can help you deal with some of the darkest phases of your lives and when addiction sets in, they can lead you there too. Like all good things, they're best enjoyed in moderation.
It is amazing to note that pro-gaming is being acknowledged in India and Esports have enough of an audience to be taken seriously. Let's hope the trend continues and we catch up with the rest of the world soon. Game on!
