Dream On

I would like to explain why I quit online computer gaming, and why I hopefully will never return to it.

I used to be an avid gamer. It was one of my favorite past-times, and sucked up endless hours of my time. The genre I was most attracted to was multiplayer real-time strategy gaming, in which I would wield vast armies of units against other would-be commanders, with spectacular clashes on the battlefield. Sometimes there was treachery, and I had to deal with an ally who had suddenly back-stabbed me. Other times I was outnumbered as much as four-to-one, and yet still would somehow manage to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. I found it all to be exhilarating, to say the least.

But now, thirteen years after I played my last real-time strategy game, I have few regrets about my decision to lay down the mouse and keyboard, and move on. It isn't that I feel I wasted my life on gaming. I can think of far less important things to do with one's time than having a bit of fun, and meeting new people from different cultures across the world in the process.

I made the decision to quit though because of where I saw the trajectory of online gaming going. And recent news stories have only validated my concerns. Gamers continue to be doxxed in record numbers, having their real-world identities exposed, often times with dramatic and terrible personal consequences for them.

Online games have always been sold as a place where the user can explore other dimensions, be whomever they want to be and do whatever they want to do. That was always what attracted me to them, and even as recently as a decade ago that was still the case. But times have changed, as have the realities of the games we play. And we now must confront the fact that games in the modern world are based upon fallacious reasoning.

The fallacy is that there really is no such thing as a "game" any more. There are such severe real-world consequences for misbehavior in the average multiplayer online computer game that a) they are no longer fun to play, and b) they become dangerous, particularly when one pushes the boundaries of common decency. It is incredibly easy to expose another player's identity, finding out who they are in the real world, where they live, and who their loved ones are, all of which allows poor sportsmen to exact retribution up to and including murder. And all of the above both has happened, and continues to happen, resulting in real harm being done to players.

In such a world, where games resemble the deathly seriousness of shady late-night poker parties more than they do anything carefree, one can no longer really approach them with a playful mind. They become an extension of the real world, and are no longer fun or enjoyable experiences. And anyone who fails to realize this fact is gambling with their very well being, as well as that of their friends and family.

Thirteen years ago, I was able to accept the fact that computer games were becoming a thing of the past. With that knowledge, I made the decision that, if online simulations were to be just another facet of the real world, then they were not worth further pursuing, nor risking one's life over. As I stated above, thus far I have not regretted that decision. And if anyone else is becoming discomforted by the increasingly disturbing nature of modern online gaming, I would encourage them to follow suit, because while some dreams may be worth dying over, a cheap imitation of life, as far as I can tell, is not one of them.