Gamer Life: The Cause of Death

This column is going to be harsh and blunt, but honest. If you get offended by anything within this column, then you are exactly what I'm talking about. If not, then good for you, you are different to us all; and you are lying to yourself.

Gamer life, that’s what they call it, is it not? Those ‘nerds’ that sit there playing games, perhaps eating a snack, and sipping on a glass of cola whilst they do, as a major hobby and spend a large proportion of their time enjoying it. A large proportion of us on this website have one up on, 'casual gamers' and maybe even try and justify this as a reason for continuing to play - competition is cool remember. I myself certainly look down upon those Call of Duty players that enjoy sitting there in front of their televisions. I am a competitive gamer, I am better, right? I think the ET community is generally a good one compared to certain others; games like HoN and SC2 as well as MMORPGs such as WoW are much worse off.

However, it is not a crime to live like this, as it’s almost free, it can be fun, and it allows us to enjoy ourselves during those winter months where none of us even want to roll out of bed in the mornings. That does not mean there is nothing wrong with it, though. It is my theory that all of us have some sort of issues. Hell, I sure did. Leaving school un-confident and slightly socially awkward, I found the internet an easy way to get over these hurdles by just chatting easily online. Spending evenings on the skk! ventrilo was a regular occurrence.

Gamers to this degree have issues or are using games as a form of escapism. These issues range from person to person, it could be a confidence issue, as we do not wish to go out and communicate. A whole lot of people have confidence issues, I have met beautiful girls who still manage to feel down about their appearance and seem oblivious to the guys that either walk past giving me the ‘hard geezer stare’ thinking I am dating them, or check them out. It is a silly thing to have, the majority of the time you cannot change these overnight. It could be social issues, as you find it harder and harder to communicate with people, which is linked into confidence. It could also be an issue with schooling and achievements. I feel a lot of us although clever could lack the appropriate grades and lack motivation and effort in general. Games are a fantastic way to combat this; you’re working towards something productive, mastering things from tracking to timing to APM depending on the game you play. The main thing I want the community to remember about this is that, unfortunately, games mean absolutely nothing to the working man. I wonder how many of you put that you play games onto your CVs or University applications. I definitely did not! Depression is also something that comes into a large amount of gamers, a lot of us I would say have had a period of depression within their gaming ‘career’ when it is the only thing that has some stability and therefore we rely upon it. Then there are the physical conditions that could potentially leave you unable to work or do much, these are actually reliable and understandable pardons.
Everything else is done psychologically and can be changed if we want to.

Then there is the healthy side. The events, the good times within the community that although sad, we can all remember and smile about. I’m talking about times like when Drago shot that beautiful panzerhaust on Frostbite and times like when Meez ran into the door, also on Frostbite to get sniped in the back of the face by Matias in the CC7 final, or even when Vila decided to post that fantastic screenshot showing us all openly that he was cheating. You all remember these times, and they were good times. I will never regret gaming and spending 5 years of my life actively playing them. This is not an issue for me now, but I used to be quite embarrassed by the whole situation, and I suppose a large amount of us are still. LANs are another fantastic point, and I feel that all those people that consider LAN goers ‘fat geeks’ because we spend money to attend them (Yes, I am talking about the people wielding the Flag) have got it completely the wrong way. Meeting those people that you have spoken to online face-to-face is one of the most bizarre things when I think about it, but it is for me now so easy and comfortable. I met up with people whilst travelling and got the obvious questions from my friends that I was with such as ‘what happens if he is not who he says he is?’ and the classic ‘what if he rapes you?’ – They simply do not understand, but were all very impressed with the people I did meet up with. I enjoy having friends that I can get into contact with all over the world, and I do not see why it should be any other way, meeting up with those gamers at LANs and having access to virtually free walking tours in cities like Vienna from inhabitants like V1ech, or crashing at b3cks apartment in Lille, or staying at Overboost’s place near Amsterdam and getting a feel for dutch life is something I would not trade for anything, and if you run out of things to say, you can always fall back to that panzer by Drago. I also see LANs as some of the best weekends away ever, the atmosphere is unreal, we are all there for the same reason, and we guys know how to drink, and I mean that.

Overall, although that a large proportion of us do have issues, and few will openly admit those issues, the community life isn’t really that bad, and in reality is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. I am moving on, and I am I suppose growing up. We all get to the point where we realise that in reality, the way you move or aim is not important, and we need to move on with our lives – and that is what will ultimately kill our beloved ET.