My soul

     I think at some point my soul has left my body and has become a part of the video game world. I can not tell you how many hours over the past couple weeks that I have spent glued to the couch with my XBox controller in my hand and my mind wrapped and lost in the realm that is Skyrim. I have lost hours of sleep over this game and it has started to take its toll on me. I haven't become irritable or anything but I have managed to do so much that it seems like all I think about is what I am going to do next as the Dragonborn.

     For those that have played any of the Elder Scrolls games, you know what I am talking about. For those that don't know, once you get into any of these games and start getting things done and discovering new places, you tend to lose yourself. I have spent about 150 in-game hours dungeon crawling, dragon slaying, and exploring. I have planned out everything that I want to do in one session of gameplay and typically complete my goals within about 3 hours or so. I have found that it has been very easy to just tune everything out and forget about the household once I hit that magical start button and the game loads up. I have made my Sneak skill legendary and made a multitude of armor and weapons to suit my current needs. If it wasn't for the fact that I had to go to work or get up the next day, I would be playing this game nonstop. The sad part about all of this is that I have only completed about 18% of the game. There is such a long list of things to do that I would take about an hour to just list them all. I have pretty much become a master at killing people with a bow from a fair distance away. The kill sequence and the slow motion shot is just something to be admired. I like watching the arrow leave my bow and pierce into the neck or head of my unsuspecting victim. I have killed over 10 dozen animals so that I could use their hides to make leather, which in turn is used to make armor so that I can sell it to make money. I have smelted way too many ores to count and I currently have Exquisite or Flawless weapons and armor. Most things take about 5 swings of a sword to kill and sneaking up behind someone to slit their throat or jam a dagger into their back has become something of a routine for me. I have cleared about 75 dungeons and murdered about 50 individuals just because it was fun for me to do. Nothing is sweeter than taking a victims life without them knowing you are there. It reminds me of playing Assassin's Creed and jumping from the roof of a building and knifing a man in the throat. It is just a sweet sensation. It gives me chill bumps just thinking about it right now. Normally, I would be setting up the XBox and getting the game going so that it is ready for me once I put the children to bed. Since the wife is recovering from surgery, I have "gifted" her the console so that she can watch movies while she is resting. She has currently made it in to Season 4 of the Gilmore Girls. I haven't played since Friday and it has made me a little antsy.

     Since I can't play Skyrim, I have turned to other sources of video game entertainment. I have recently started playing League of Legends again. It has been far too long since I have even thought about playing that game. The last two nights have been spent learning how to play again without getting too badly slaughtered and getting yelled at by people who are probably younger than me. In fact, most of the people that play this game are in their teens. What I wouldn't give to go back to those times of having nothing but homework to do and then hopping on the computer to play this game for hours on end. I still feel that way sometimes when the wife is at work and I just sit down and lose myself into the deep immersion of a good story line in a console game. I'm not much of a PC game player, but I do happen to like League a lot. In fact, once the children go to bed I will be logging on to play for a few hours tonight. As long as I stay near my phone and respond to her requests, she doesn't really know what I am doing downstairs. Hell, I have even thought about doing exercises while waiting for my respawn timer to reach zero. At least I will be doing two things at once and getting a nice workout while playing. Then again, I haven't really been dying so that may or may not pan out like I want it. I blame my buddy for coming over on Monday to play. It's his fault for getting me into a game that requires literally no interruptions.

     Speaking of interruptions, have you ever been so involved in a game that everything else is just obsolete? I seem to go into this little invisible box that has one window that may or may not be open depending on what game I am playing. League is easy to have a window because if you die, you have to wait to respawn. If I am playing on the console, don't bother me. There is no window and you will have to leave a message after the tone. That is how immersed I get when I have a console controller in my hand. As much as I want a PS3, I think that I will end up spending too much time playing Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX and very little time doing actual housework. Yes, I said PS3. I enjoy being a Console Generation behind. I know it works and that mostly all of the bugs have been worked out of the system. Plus, I won't have to feel the disappointment from not being able to get the newest generation of console because they are all sold out. I don't even want to spend the money to get either of the new consoles because I know that there will be problems with them.

     Oh boy, enough about my soul and how it is forever lost to the video games that I play. "I am a gamer. Not because I have no life, but because I choose to have many." I know, I'm a nerd.

Until next time,

From the Arena,

Wickid