The Game By
Mr.e

A stylized letter icon sits on my desktop. One of two icons reminding me that the computer life style is not all work.

With a double click on that icon I’m transported to an unreal world of this first person shooter game.

Adrenaline, anticipation and fear are served up for those, brave enough to enter the fray with some serious cyber discomfort inflicted for good measure. The game is not unlike some elaborate version of paintball, except that this mayhem takes place on your computer screen; less painful too, I assure you. And you don’t have to wear goggles.

…I tap the number eight on the number pad of the keyboard with my right hand and move ahead, my hesitant footfalls echoing in the eerie silence. My left hand rolls the trackball allowing me to look around. I tap the number six key and move towards the protection of a towering castle wall to my right; away from my exposed position in the open courtyard. A quick look around. I see no one. All is quiet. Too quiet.

Just as I’m about to jump (right arrow key) past the arched doorway, my machine at the ready, a figure leaps out of the darkened doorway, blasting away at me with a rocket launcher. I retreat (number five key) and jump back (right thumb on right arrow, middle finger of right hand on the number five key) as I weave from side to side (number four and six keys) as I try to evade the deadly missiles homing in and exploding around me.
I fire my own weapon (thumb of left hand on the right mouse button) reacting in a terrified effort to inflict some virtual damage (spinning the track ball with the middle finger of my left hand) upon this threat while I try to save my own skin.

I move behind a nearby pillar, crouch (down arrow), select my grenade launcher (space bar) and lob a hand-full of bomblets in the direction of the approaching threat spin around and leap onto a lower level.

A game has been scheduled for this evening. I’m going up against four players I don’t even know other than by the monikers they use in the game. ‘Bubbles’ will probably be show up as will ‘Death Bringer’ and ‘Barbie’. I never did fancy myself a ‘gamer’.

I didn’t consider myself a gamer and only a few weeks ago this particular icon was tucked away in a folder at another location on the hard drive. Thanks to some handy tips from someone attuned to the finer points of tweaking this or that control option and other such arcane lore, this icon is at my disposal whenever the urge to go head to head with another gladiator rears it’s virtual head.

This type of game offers several thrilling options of play including the on-line choice. You can choose to play in single player mode and traversing countless levels filled with terror, unfamiliar territory, some limited problem solving and no end of frightening creatures that must be overcome, outrun or annihilated before moving on.

Or you can pit your skills against game ‘(ro)bots’, characters who don’t do the same predictable thing every time. You can program their intelligence and skill levels as well as choose the number of ‘bots’ you’d like to go up against in a free for all.
What makes this kind of game so interesting is that the game is played against real players. Other persons sitting at their computer terminals.

I still remember the first game. My heart was pounding so hard that I thought my wife could hear it in the next room. I remember the fear of not knowing what I was about to come face to face with. Just knowing that someone you know is in the same game gunning for you makes this experience just a bit more edgy.

Something about wonton violence and gore and disregard for human life forms gives me the willies. But hey, it’s only cyber death. Please don’t get me wrong. I am sensitive to the argument that perhaps these types of games tend to desensitize some towards the worth of a real life.

I’m fully aware of the co-relations between violent video games and recent real life horrors that continue to haunt communities’ worldwide.

Pitting my pitiful combat skills against someone I know from time to time keeps me out of more competitive forms of violence like hockey, lacrosse or football where a very physical and very real form of violence entertains countless thousands daily.

The other icon has me quaking in my boots.