Why Do I Play Video Games
I like to know why I make the choices I make and consider how I spend my time. Whether it is playing with my dog, turning myself into the human Wookiepedia, pestering my wife into playing a board (bored to her) game, or watching my 160th Braves game of the year. There are reasons behind all those things and all the others not listed, but one constant in my life is the point of contention around playing video games.
In my experience, those who don’t play video games don’t understand why someone would. I have tried to explain it through countless conversations and debates (and arguments with my parents) through my 20+ years of gaming, but I have never taken the time to write down the whys behind one of my favorite hobbies. I’m going to use this post to list out my whys and explain how video games have helped me learn, grow, develop skills, blossom life-long friendships, and more.
Brain Stimulation
A 2017 meta-analysis, Neural Basis of Video Gaming: A Systematic Review, concluded that “It has been possible to establish a series of links between the neural and cognitive aspects, particularly regarding attention, cognitive control, visuospatial skills, cognitive workload, and reward processing.”
What has that looked like for me?
Reaction Time
I’m not sure if it was the first video game I ever played, but it is definitely the first video game I remember playing. Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was a 16-bit wonder for my untrained 5-year-old eyes. Outstandingly colorful pixel art, a soundtrack that constantly plays in my head 21 years later, a princess to save, a villain to defeat, a grand adventure to be had. This adventure doesn’t come easily though; you must learn to become a master of Mario’s (or in my case, Luigi’s) movements, power-ups, and level-design.
Depending on the first level you choose, you are faced with either a line of Koopa Troopas or a shell-less Koopa. This part is the first of many tests of your reaction time. As you progress through the game, you are faced with many reflex tests. You have to ensure you jump at the right time to stomp on enemies, vault over endless pits of death, spikes, and more. You have to learn the right times to duck and not be hit by Banzai Bills, fire balls from Reznor, baseballs from Confused Chucks, and more.
Learning and mastering Super Mario World was what first trained my hand-eye coordination, and I truthfully don’t think it would be as good as it is without the SNES in our home.
Puzzles and Logic
December 25, 2003. Christmas Day. My brother and I awaken and sprint to my parents' bedroom to get them up; we run downstairs, smiles on our faces. Santa has come to our house. I couldn’t tell you everything he brought us that year, but I can tell you one very special gift. My brother got a GameCube. Lucky for us, he didn’t get just any GameCube. No, he got the GameCube that came with The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition. A magnificent, 3.1 inch, Nintendo optical disc. This one hosted FOUR full games: The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time, and Majora’s Mask. We booted up the GameCube, heard what became that now familiar jingle, and played Ocarina of Time.
I was 9 years old, and my mind was blown. Link was riding Epona over the lands of Hyrule at sunrise. A peaceful piano played, followed by the melody of the ocarina. My brother and I found our new home for the next few weeks. Decades later we still return.
Ocarina of Time is a game that is particularly different than the ones we had played before. It is a 3D Action Adventure game. It features the protagonist, Link, through his journey to save Princess Zelda and the land of Hyrule from the evil Ganon. Another game with a princess to save, a villain to defeat, and a grand adventure to be had.
Zelda games are notorious for their intricately designed dungeons and temples. These are 2D or 3D (depending on the game you’re playing) architectural wonders, filled with rooms and keys and maps and compasses and enemies and mini-bosses and bosses and items and lava and spirits and water and so much more. These dungeons were my first experience into what I believe led me into my career—puzzles and logic.
Puzzles and logic in video games are probably my favorite part of the brain stimulation that games can offer. Whether it be figuring out what water level the Water Temple needs to be for me to get that last key or an entire game based around puzzles, such as The Room, these puzzles give me a way to overcome challenges and make progress toward a greater goal.
Creativity
On December 20, 2010, the 1.0 version of the Minecraft Beta had launched. I paid $18 for it. One of my dearest friends introduced me to the game, and I was enthralled. I played it the entire way home on a 14-hour car ride. I didn’t know it at the time, but Minecraft would become a huge part of my teenage years. I would end up spending thousands of hours surrounded by Voxel blocks textured as grass, dirt, stone, and more.
The world was infinite, and it was mine. It lived on my computer. I could do what I wanted in it. That means I could build a house, spend hours spelunking, build a thriving city, hunt zombies, so many options I could never do it all.
That is the beauty of Minecraft. There were no rules, no objectives, just jump in and do what you want. Be creative. See how you would interact in world owned exclusively by you.
Alternatively, you could join a server and play online. You could role-play as anything you wanted. You could have player versus player (PvP) duels. You could join modded servers with quests and other more gamified tasks. Minecraft gave (and still gives) you the freedom to do what you want, where you want, how you want.
Relaxation
I ultimately think this is the biggest reason video games call to me. Long day at school? Relax with some Animal Crossing. Been having a lot of social interaction? Relax with some Doom. Stressed at work? Take a load off and play some Pokémon.
There are so many different genres and sub-genres in the medium of video gaming, all designed for different reasons. Everyone can find a way to use games for relaxation.
My wife truly doesn’t understand why I would sit on my butt for 12 hours trying over and over again to beat Margit, the Fell Omen or a different 12-hour shift attempting to beat the King’s Fall raid in Destiny 2 at a light level where it wasn’t possible. I think it all boils down to relaxing.
Some people relax by reading, others by working out, others by watching TV, others by scrolling. Whoever you are, you have a means to relax. Video games is mine.
Friendship
The Xbox 360 was a game changer for me. My brother and I got it as a Christmas present in 2007, along with [Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare](Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Wikipedia) and Halo 3. Modern Warfare is a game I always look back on fondly, but Halo 3 is where I made life-long friendships. Halo 3 came out while I was in middle school, and everybody was playing it. Forge mode was something so revolutionary for console gaming. Forge allowed players to create custom maps, custom games, custom anything. Halo 3 players went berserk with this mode.
I made countless friends playing Halo 3 and Forge mode. One of the friends I met through Halo used the gamertag CaptainOblivious. We probably spent hundreds of hours together playing Halo and Call of Duty and Battlefield. Years after meeting him online, I happened to be placed in the same small group with him at church. My Xbox friend had become my real-life friend. Our group started spending more time together in person. The Captain even ended up introducing me to my wife.
I’ve made many more friends through video games, and I’ve use video games to build stronger bonds with friends I didn’t meet online. They have provided an incredible way for people to connect, whether via couch co-op or online.
Challenge
Video games can be tough. Some games, like the Souls series are designed around being brutally difficult. Games have the ability to challenge you in ways you couldn’t be otherwise.
I’ve always enjoyed being challenged and the feeling you get when you overcome that challenge. Finally defeating Bowser in Super Mario World. Beating the Mile High Club on Veteran in Call of Duty 4. Putting a self-imposed time limit on beating Portal. Really, anything in games can be a “challenge.” It doesn’t have to be a difficult challenge, it could be the challenge of building your first house in Minecraft. Paying off you house debt in Animal Crossing. Getting Om Nom his candy in Cut the Rope.
Competition
Competitive nature runs in my family. My dad, brother, and I all played baseball. You don’t play baseball without wanting to win. We all play golf. We all want to be the best at everything we do. I’ve always used video games as a way to fulfill my competitive desires.
Team Fortress 2 was the first game that I got extremely competitive into. I participated in five seasons of UGC Highlander and one season of UGC 6v6. We never won any of the tournaments, but we had a great time playing, and I’m still friends with a handful of the guys I met on the teams.
Call of Duty: World at War introduced Nazi Zombies, a wave-based game mode that my friends and I spent way too much time playing. We would have competitions to see who could make it to the highest round solo, duo, as a squad. Finding strategies to be able to dominate the leaderboard was what we did.
Nostalgia
As I have gotten older, I have caught myself going back to play the same games over and over again. I just recently described Pokémon Sapphire as my “nostalgia game.” The soundtrack of this Game Boy Advance game takes me right back to being eight years old. I have played through Sapphire so many times, and I will continue to play through it for years to come, no doubt. I actually made the mistake of trading it into GameStop](https://www.gamestop.com/) in my younger years, but my brother got me a copy for my 23rd birthday.
Playing games that I played previously takes me right back to the time of life I was when I played it originally. Games allow me to feel eight again, like Sapphire. They allow me to feel like I am in middle school in my parents’ basement, like Halo. They allow me to feel like I am back in high school, at Brass Basement (a name we fondly call CaptainOblivious' parents' basement), like Super Smash Bros. I long for the ability to go back to those days, but alas it isn’t possible. Games though? They can make it feel like it is.
Story
Some of the greatest stories of all time have been told in video games. Take The Last of Us for instance. This game had such a phenomenal story that HBO picked up the rights to make it a TV show so that non-game players can experience it. BioShock has a story that is so good that my friends and I quote it 16 years later. L.A. Noire put me in the shoes of a 1940s detective and allowed me to play the key role in solving murder investigations. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic allowed me to enter a galaxy far, far away and stop the Sith or on a different playthrough take over control of the Sith. Halo let me save the world from a disastrous ending. Call of Duty and Battlefield let me be a member of the military and take a part in world history. Fallout let me explore a nuclear wasteland and have the opportunity to make choices and see the type of life I would live if World War III ever occurred.
Video games as a story-telling medium have such an amazing and different method to them. You can take control of the story, you can be involved in the decisions, you can truly relate with the character while you play as them for 6-40 or more hours of gameplay.
Collecting
As I have grown up and stumbled into a steady job with an income that allows me to have a $50 per month allowance, I have caught myself getting more and more into the collecting aspect of gaming. I have always preferred having physical copies rather than digital (which is a trend that is overtaking gaming and I hate it). I am proud to display the Game Boy games that have kept me company through my life. I love to browse my collection and pull Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005)off the shelf and relive spending the night at a friend’s house, staying up all night playing as Yoda on Tatooine.
One of my friends and I have bonded over our affinity for retro gaming. We get to share our list of games we hope we can somehow get lucky enough to find in the wild at retro game stores. We send each other pictures of games we bought or storage ideas for displaying our collections.
Having original copies of the entire Sonic the Hedgehog series and consoles to play them on gives me the ability to one day share such an important and exciting experience with my children, which gives me comfort and joy. (Side note: how did it take me until the very last point to mention Sonic. Sonic might’ve been the most important game I ever played, but maybe I’ll write a “why” post another day about my love for the blue blur.)
Wrapping Up
There are so many reasons why I play games. There are so many I didn’t list here. Maybe I’ll come back and add more as I think through it more.
To whoever reads this, whether it be my wife, parents, friends, or anyone, if you don’t understand why people play video games, I hope you now understand a little bit as to why I choose to play them.