The Nintendrone

I am addicted. I cannot stop playing. Video games are my heroin(e).

Everyone has their story, right? That’s what I assume. However, the difference between objective reality and relative reality are great enough that I could not sincerely have written this article any number of years before now. I am old enough to see my life not only from my own eyes, as I have always done, but from everyone else’s percieved perspective, and with a critical outlook.

Maybe you like to lead different lives. Maybe you’re just bored all the time. As for me, I started gaming for a variety of related reasons, that joined together to evolve from a plethora of interconnecting pieces into an enigma with a pressure so unrelenting that it seemed to force me into finding a new option…a new outlet of expression…a new hope.

Generally, I cannot literally remember not playing games. I always have been. However it began as a simple hobby. Rainy days, competitive outings between bitter friends, and even just personal challenge. As life became more emphatic on the definition of complexity, my hobby turned into a full-fledged obsession. But what kind of child would I have been if I had noticed that way back then? A strange one, to say the least.

To this day I remember the beginning of what would later lead to the writing of this article. The beginning of this story. On the recieving end of a nescient comment, my father’s words would ring in my head for the rest of my life, looping like a broken record. “You’re addicted to video games.”

Now here’s where what I said in the introduction comes into play. Had I written this article anytime before this, its perspective would be skewed. It would be on the same end of the argument that my childish mind had played part of on that fateful day. “Games are not addictive.” I reasoned. Playing judge in my head was a scale weighing the likes of drugs, alcohol, sex, and other forms of deviance on one side, against the ever-innocent technological marvel known as video games.  It could do no wrong. After all, they saved me. Pokemon, Mario, and Final Fantasy made me into who I am. If it weren’t for Zelda, I wouldn’t be as meticulous. If it weren’t for Pokemon, I wouldn’t be as good at math. If it weren’t for Final Fantasy…I wouldn’t be alive. They gave me reason to live. They gave me a life to live.

Now I stand in judgment of video games, not vindictively, but with a brain full of realism. Full of respect for the wisdom of someone with much more life experience than myself. I stand before you, fellow gamers, with a hard pill to swallow:

Video games are addictive.

Put aside that they do not contain nicotine.

Put aside that they do not contain THC.

Put aside that they hardly get you high.

Video games are addictive, and are a gateway within themselves that lead to an endless slope of delving deeper and deeper into this addiction.Let me explain.

Take, for example, the Marijuana model. A person gets high. They realize all sorts of things (varying from experience, of course). Like, “Hey, the government and school lied like crazy. This is not as bad as they say.”. Like “Hey, this is fun, wtf are they talking about?”. Like “How the hell does this lead to cocaine use? I’m not retarded.”. The person begins to smoke regularly. Slowly, and many smokers are aware of this, the high becomes less potent. Many chase that first high. Moving on to better kinds, moving on to bigger doses, moving on to different drugs in some cases…to no avail…it is never the same as that first high.

Gaming. You play your first game. What was it? Was it Super Mario Bros.? Maybe it was Pokemon Red/Blue Version. At the end of the game you are overwhelmed by a sense of accomplishment. Its years later. You play a game, on a whole new level of “epic”. You finish it. You want to scream from the top of your lungs to every friend you know: “This was the best game ever!”

Now here we are. Facing the same dilemma as many addicts, us gamers are losing interest. It takes more and more to mollify our desires. You even play the old games, the tear jerkers, and once you’re past the first five minutes of nostalgia, it loses appeal. How was this ever fun?

The Retro Syndrome. You are losing interest in games and you don’t understand why. You spend more time talking and reading about games than playing them.

Your interest in one game genre lead you on an interesting odyssey along a string of games, but you soon realize, that gaming will never be the same.

Well, I am here, with what may not even be news to you. It may not be shocking, or a revelation of any sort. But it is an epiphany to me. You can make games fun again. You can have that sense of exhiliration. You want it?

It takes work.

Any regular marijuana smoker would be delighted to know, that if they were just responsible enough to show some self-constraint, everything would be solved. The smoker begins to smoke once a month, instead of daily, and results are obtained. A very similar high to the first is achieved. Keep yourself healthy and reward yourself with a drink now and then, and it will be enjoyable again. Not the migraine-inducing sloth party it has become.

Don’t play games all the time. Go outside, see the world. Be with friends. Talk. Take interest in the real world. Don’t spend every waking hour following your most anticipated release, because if you just waited, it would be that much better anyways, I’m tellin’ ya.

The exponential falling formality of this article reaches a standstill.  I have a serious message. And some serious dues.

Games will keep you busy, but at the end of the day, your problems will still be there.

Games saved my life once. They have given me reason to anticipate the next day. They have given me reason to want to be here for the coming of the next years. But…they have only kept me on the edge of insanity. I have never jumped, thanks to games, but they can never give me what I need to take the steps back and walk away.

Ironically, it is my passion, and I do not think that I could be saved at this point. I’ll follow your games for you. My name is Kyzer, and I am addicted to the video game. She is my heroine, and she is my heroin.

Now excuse me while I apologize to my father.