Fruity.

For http://thevisiblestrand.wordpress.com, a g33k blog I contribute to.

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Once upon a time

The first question, as always, would be, who am I? Who is Adriel? What defines Adriel? What unique formation of this & that make me the person I am today?

I do not have all the answers, only some. Some of the earlier notions of my life I remember are the days of being bullied. Perhaps, even today, I still succumb. I’ve never been one to fight, or stand up for myself. Never had a taste for conflicts & confrontation.

One of the earliest games I started playing was Fallout & it’s sequel, Fallout 2. I remember my first few attempts at the game, running in the cave shooting rats with my pistol. It was all fun and games, until I left the caves that I realized, the world, no matter how dark you think it is, is always a little darker.

Fornication & drug abuse, excessive vulgar language & reckless violence. The games are always a step ahead of us. Our imagination, is always a step ahead of us. A vague vision of what’s to come.

I was in Primary school when I first started playing Fallout. Barely a teenager, this exposure to sex, drugs and violence had made a great impact on me.

The irony of it all was that I was not quite bothered by it all. At an early age, I had already become anesthetized. I figured, these are the things that makes us who we are, the human race. Actions manifested out of true, core desires.

The seven deadly sins. The more prominent ones being lust, greed, envy, pride and vanity.

The motivating force behind our actions. We do what we need to do to survive. That’s the most commonly used excuse.

They say you cannot truly say you relish being on the good side or the dark side without being on the other side of the fence. In other words, you need to experience what it’s like on the other side as well, before you can say honestly which one you really enjoy.

I’ve tried both, and I’ve always found the shoe fits a lot better, being on the dark side. As much as I loved being the do-gooder protagonist in the games, there was always much more fun in being the dark one, the character who had more depth. More issues.

That’s the wonder in games, you express yourself, quite honestly. We’d have it no other way. Without the restrictions of the law or the limitations of physical death, my best guess would be, most of us with all that angst buried deep in our hearts, would run around like a psycho killing people, be it with superpowers or with automatic rifles.

That’s the way to do it.

That’s why we play games. Beyond the stress relieving qualities, the true, pure element of fun lies in the fantasy.

Truth is, no one likes games that are overly realistic. We like a little room for imagination, exploration, exploitation. We like to be in control. We like to be free. The knowing at the back of your head that you can do whatever you want, and be able to load your savegame if things come crashing down.

Games, movies, these are what we turn to to escape from reality, but hey, who’s to judge? It’s all about putting yourself in the shoes of another, yes?

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