Memoirs Of A Gamer 2: Black Frocks And Black Ops

My sister passed away recently. It wasn’t a sudden, unexpected loss but it was still emotionally tough-going. That’s the thing with death – it’s never nice. It’s life-changing at the best of times and soul-destroying at the worst. When I found out my sister was at the final stages of heart failure I simply couldn’t imagine what I was going to do when she passed. Nothing could take my mind off of the situation.

For a day or two after my sister had passed I didn’t know what to do with myself. However, if not only because I wanted my friends to feel comfortable around me when I reappeared on the radar, I shortly started playing online games again, mostly Call of Duty: Black Ops.

At this point something amazing happened. When I was online I wasn’t thinking about my situation or that of my family. I was simply playing games with my friends, making jokes, laughing at other people’s jokes, getting to grips with my good friend Michael Slevin’s manifold afflictions and life complaints (dry eye, anyone?) and just generally having my mind filled with pleasure rather than pain. Each time I switched my Xbox 360 on I was taken to a place of transitory contentment.

Mainstream investigative journalism has yet to really focus on the positive aspects of gaming, which is a shame because every strongly affective cultural influence has both positive and negative aspects to it. Traditional art, music and cinema have the power to fill us with many emotions and to expose us to an array of concepts that we may or may not be positively receptive to.

When you take medication for a medical condition, you are doing so despite the number of side effects and possible addictions associated with taking that medication. You decide that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. When you consider that we’re talking about substances that not only can but actually often do destroy people’s lives, the significance of this notion is underscored. Pharmaceutical-related dependency and ailments are actually very real in our modern, drug-dependent society.

I like the comparison between pharmaceutical drugs and videogames. It illustrates the idea that games can be highly beneficial despite the fact that some people will experience undesirable effects in some circumstances. If I didn’t have access to games and the social networks they’ve generated for me, who’s to say that I would not have turned to hardcore drugs during my sister’s passing? There have been many times in my life where I am certain I would have succumbed to recreational drugs had games not been so readily available.

Games are being increasingly recognised as multifaceted media offering so much that modern society holds valuable including cultural exploration and social experience. Games sharpen hand-eye coordination as well as creative and logical thinking. They allow the scientific method to be applied in safe environments. As a result, many disciplines including those of the education system (see James Paul Gee’s numerous papers for interesting reading on the educational potential of videogames) and the medical profession (for example, see Pulse!!) are heavily utilising videogames for their didactic properties.

My sister’s passing was a horrible event, an event that videogames are helping me get through, just as they have done at every breakup I’ve ever experienced, just as they have done at every other unpleasant life event you could care to mention. And just as they have always been there for me, so shall I now, through Ready Up, be there for them.