The Dangers of Playing God
My wife gave me a copy of WarCraft II for Christmas of 1996, about two weeks before my first daughter was born.
She’s never given me another video game since.
I can’t begin to calculate the hours I wasted sneaking off to play that game. Just one more level. Just let me finish this. I’ll be there in a second. I’m almost done, I swear. It put a strain on my marriage, on my health, and on my professional career. And for what? Was killing orcs really that much fun?
Yes, it was. That’s why I need to stay far, far away from anything where I get to command digital armies.
I’ve always been a bit of a computer geek, even back in the days when I spent my paper route money to buy an Atari 400, which featured a really annoying plastic keyboard and all data had to be saved on audiotapes. It took about a half an hour to save even the most simple computer programs. Dreadful.
But I played all the games. I wasted those half hours. I remember loading up “States and Capitols,” a game on tape where you guessed what the capitol cities were of every state in the country. You can probably google a similar program somewhere today that would take about two seconds to load. Those aren’t the games that interest me now, anyway. They don’t waste nearly enough time.
I’m into God Games.
God Games are the ones where you essentially rule the universe and play out the consequences of your decisions. WarCraft is probably the best one out there, so I’ve scrupulously avoided getting anywhere near the whole World of Warcraft thing. I love my wife and I want to stay married.
The ones that have wasted most of my time since the initial WarCraft have been the SimCity and Civilization games. Especially Civilization, versions II, III, and IV. I keep deluding myself into thinking that every time I boot one of these suckers up, I’ll only play for an hour or so. At the end of a day wasted in front of one of these things, I’m left with a feeling of ennui and crippling guilt. Don’t try this at home.
On the surface, this looks like a fairly innocuous temptation. After all, it could be worse. I don’t do porn; I’m a complete teetotaler; I haven’t gambled in almost two decades. And these games are educational, right? You learn about civilizations and city management and interesting stuff, so how could it be bad?
Trust me. It is.
I’ve tossed all my Civ CDs and gone cold turkey. As long as I stay away from the hard stuff, I’m OK.
Rumors are that Civilization V will be released next year.
She’s never given me another video game since.
I can’t begin to calculate the hours I wasted sneaking off to play that game. Just one more level. Just let me finish this. I’ll be there in a second. I’m almost done, I swear. It put a strain on my marriage, on my health, and on my professional career. And for what? Was killing orcs really that much fun?
Yes, it was. That’s why I need to stay far, far away from anything where I get to command digital armies.
I’ve always been a bit of a computer geek, even back in the days when I spent my paper route money to buy an Atari 400, which featured a really annoying plastic keyboard and all data had to be saved on audiotapes. It took about a half an hour to save even the most simple computer programs. Dreadful.
But I played all the games. I wasted those half hours. I remember loading up “States and Capitols,” a game on tape where you guessed what the capitol cities were of every state in the country. You can probably google a similar program somewhere today that would take about two seconds to load. Those aren’t the games that interest me now, anyway. They don’t waste nearly enough time.
I’m into God Games.
God Games are the ones where you essentially rule the universe and play out the consequences of your decisions. WarCraft is probably the best one out there, so I’ve scrupulously avoided getting anywhere near the whole World of Warcraft thing. I love my wife and I want to stay married.
The ones that have wasted most of my time since the initial WarCraft have been the SimCity and Civilization games. Especially Civilization, versions II, III, and IV. I keep deluding myself into thinking that every time I boot one of these suckers up, I’ll only play for an hour or so. At the end of a day wasted in front of one of these things, I’m left with a feeling of ennui and crippling guilt. Don’t try this at home.
On the surface, this looks like a fairly innocuous temptation. After all, it could be worse. I don’t do porn; I’m a complete teetotaler; I haven’t gambled in almost two decades. And these games are educational, right? You learn about civilizations and city management and interesting stuff, so how could it be bad?
Trust me. It is.
I’ve tossed all my Civ CDs and gone cold turkey. As long as I stay away from the hard stuff, I’m OK.
Rumors are that Civilization V will be released next year.
posted by Elder Samuel Bennett | 9:20 AM
4 Comments:
I'm not a video game guy at all. After 15 minutes I get bored and have to go do something.
But I have the same problem as you with Tomb Raider. I can watch that gorgeous ass run through ruins for hours and hours and never tire.
The movie or the game?
The game.
The movies sucked. Even though I'd sell my soul to sleep with Jolie. In a nanosecond.
I love the music in that game. And I love the Atlantian ruins. It just all seems to fit together and somehow has the perfect mixture of adventureous excitement, and sadness of days gone by.
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