I guess i'm writing this to share my sentiments and general outlook on video games. Like most of you, i grew up playing them, but as i started to get older, i became less interested in the game itself and more interested in being good at the game. No, being the BEST at the game. For bragging rights among my friends or even my own personal satisfaction, i wanted to know the ins and outs of a game and what made you a good player. I wanted to be able to separate myself from my peers.
oddly enough, i rarely played RTS growing up. Given, i loved BW and playing it throughout my youth, but i never took it seriously. Man how i wish i did. I'm only 19 now, but i can't help but feeling more and more like the only reason i even play video games (although i really only ever play starcraft 2 now, i just don't ever want to play anything else) is because i can compete against other players.
Yes, i do still enjoy video games just for the sake of playing them, but only from time to time and in moderation. Truth be told, i don't think i would even care about starcraft if it didn't have such a high level of competition. I need to feel like i am working towards something when i play, playing just for enjoyment isn't enough. not even close. Starcraft, hell- mostly every video game i've ever spent time with- wouldn't mean much without a chance to prove myself.
Let me reiterate, once more, the fact that i DO still enjoy just playing. But if my time spent playing starcraft wasn't working towards something (My goal is actually to play as much as i can while in college, perhaps even getting good enough to coach as a sort of part time job. I'm getting closer to there, but i still have work to do), i honestly wouldn't even bother with the game. Maybe i'd play teams with friends every once in a while, but i'd probably move on to another game to try and improve myself in that instead.
I think all of this roots from my interest in sports when i was younger. I loved playing Hockey and Soccer, but after injuring myself at a relatively young age- i kind of started to stray away from sports altogether. My desire to compete didn't go anywhere, though. As i got older, competitive video gaming became an outlet for me- and it still is now. I follow the pros of SC2 and learn from them as a diehard football fan would take part in fantasy drafts and cheering for his favorite team every monday night. Although i don't care nearly as much about sports as i once did, starcraft 2 has become that sport that i follow and want to improve myself in.
Is competitive video gaming something i see myself involved in long term? Maybe. Maybe not. maybe 2 years from now i won't bother with video games at all, and i'll have some other outlet that i spend my time competing is. So long as i have something, i am happy.
I'm the exact same way as you. When I was younger I played games on the N64 with my siblings and other family members - always competitive. In fact, I don't think I've ever really played (for an extended period of time) a game that wasn't competitive. I played WoW for a bit, but I always enjoyed PvP much more than PvE. I've played tons of different video games and have always found the competitive community as fast as I could, making an effort to become better asap. I too, don't think I would be playing SC2 if there were no competitive community like there is. I know I for sure wouldn't have played any of the Counter-Strikes if there wasn't such a brutally competitive community, and I doubt I would've even gotten into RTS games if they weren't so intense.
This makes me think of the usefulness/productivity of video games like sc2. I think there is a lot of negative sentiments towards video games, especially in the adult community. But if you think of how new video games are, I start thinking of how we've grown up to use them and maybe answer why people think of them negatively, associating them with laziness, bad or poor social habits, and non productivity. Most of us had parents that weren't super positive or excited about video games, but more just let us play them as a way to distract us and make their lives easier. I think that this practice has shaped a mentality that has held back the potential that video games (especially ones like sc2) could have. If you watch kids play games these days, most young kids prefer an easy game to a hard one, at it seems more satisfying, entertaining, and less frustrating. Most parents do not look at frustration with a video game as an opportunity to learn, but tend to see it as a negative aspect to the healthiness of gaming. I'm very curious to see how the evolution of gaming progresses in our culture as gamers are now having kids, and are more or less accepting of gaming. No doubt professional gaming has yet to have it's golden age with a huge skill pool like discussed in whatthefat's chess-bw comparison article.
EPT
