Video games in winter

I haven’t always liked video games as much as I do now.

I played them as a kid, sure.

Once I was 15 and got a part-time job, I had spending money to buy a game or two a month. I did this. I didn’t really beat anything of them though, I got bored of games before I could.

When I was 18 or 19, I lost interest in video games for the most part. I went out with friends. Dated. Read books. Went hiking. Things like that.

When I moved to Japan at 21, I bought a Super Famicom right away, and brought some Gameboy Advance games. I liked games, but I didn’t really play them too often.

As I “grew up”, my gaming hobby became more and more intense, and looking in my office at my home, it is probably the most intense it has ever been now. I didn’t really think about it though, it just sort of happened.

With a child on the way, I think about it a lot more now. All of a sudden, I don’t think video games are good. Books and nature are obviously much better. I wouldn’t want any son of mine to just spend all day thinking about or playing games. What a waste!

Wait, how do I spend my time off again?

So there is a dilemma of sorts in my head. If I think that video games aren’t good for someone to obsess about, and I obsess about video games, then quite obviously, I shouldn’t be thinking about and playing video games so much. The problem is that I find it quite fun to do so.

Sometimes I am told that I take things too seriously and think about things too much. Video games are a part of our world, parents play video games too. Hey man, it’s okay to play video games you know. You’re doing nothing wrong.

The bolded dear reader is what I hate more than evil itself, for I am not an elementary school student, and I do not take solace in the fact that it is not considered wrong. I think I am doing something wrong, and as the person who is me, that opinion carries a lot of weight. There’s also this belief that something that (to me) can only ever be completely and utterly subjective can be tackled with such seemingly objective phrasing.

So will I give up my video gaming hobby? Honestly, not likely. At least not right away.

Do I want to scale it down a lot? Yes. Very very much yes. I can’t part with video games before I have finished the complete Suikoden series. Of course I want to have the experience of playing Dragon Quest with my son. What father would not? I just don’t want to think about spare time in terms of video games I can play. I don’t want to have a list of games I want to finish at any time. I want some separation from the hobby, and reduce the mindshare (if that’s a word) it has in my head.

In case it wasn’t clear, the “winter” in the title is metaphorical. Literally speaking, if you live in a place where the winter is quite cold, video games in winter is a great time. If you live in a place where summer is horribly hot though, they’re a great time in the summer as well.

Below is a photo I took from Suikoden III. A people on the edges of the grasslands were able to join the neighboring empire, but not yet as equals. It’s titillating.