Jan
24
The Games We Play
Filed Under Games
At some point, around sixteen years old, I chose a path, a path away from twenty-sided dice and angry orcs. Sixteen years later, at 9am one Saturday morning, I found myself sitting around a table at GenCon Indy playing a Dual Dungeon Duel.
Likewise, after years of relative video game disinterest, I found myself last week on the receiving end of an ass whipping via Wii Sports Boxing from my loving wife.
I’m not one to believe in fate. Our lives take wandering paths via everyday decisions. For instance, not studying for a Calculus 2 exam my freshman year has ended up with me sitting at this table writing these words. Had I done a little better on that test, I may not have switched schools. Had I not switched schools, I would not have made the friends who pointed me toward my first real job. Had I not taken the first job, I would not have moved to the second job where I met my wife. On so on. Because small decisions (at the time) yield much larger impacts in our lives, it’s hard for me to swallow that I am part of some great cosmic chain spinning toward my True Destiny.
After all, what kind of cosmic chain would want me to spend time painting tiny pewter steampunk miniatures?
When it first recurred, I was a little ashamed of my proclivity for geekiness. Mind you, this was before Sci Fi became cool again via Lost and Heroes. I thought of my hobbies and interests as childish, immature. Decidedly unmanly.
Slowly, I understood that my hobbies weren’t rooted in the cosmos, but rather in cultural artifact. They say a man’s physical condition in his twenties directly impacts his health in his forties. The theory is that our body somehow takes a benchmark in our youth that influences, how it will age. (Full disclosure: I am not a doctor. I don’t have any doctor friends or neighbors, either. It’s not that kind of neighborhood.) I think our minds take a similar snapshot of interests at a more innocent time, and this snapshot determines our hobbies at a later time.
So what was I doing at 14? Playing Dungeons and Dragons and Nintendo. What am I doing at 33? Playing Dungeons and Dragons and Nintendo.
This is not to say I’m about to start sneaking beers after halftime at the football game, but some things stick with us. Other hobbies, such as hiking and camping, I can trace directly to my days as a Boy Scout.
I think of my father and his friends who have much more manly pursuits involving old cars. My dad came age in the Days of Sheer Unadulterated Horsepower, so it follows that he would spend his time working on and showing off cars. I’d like to see demographic trending data on hobby participants. Who is building model railroads? Who is restoring old cars? Do these hobbies wax and wane over time, or simply disappear altogether?
Perhaps it’s self-preservation. We start aging and our minds kick us back to the things we liked to do in youth. We forget about the intervening years and tolls on our failing bodies.
It’s hard to think about getting old when you are busy fighting off a band of angry orcs.
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