An extension of the real world

I grew up with video games. It’s been one of my favourite hobbies ver since my dad let me play on the Atari 7800. Soon after we got the Playstation and I was hooked. Later my mind was blown when I played online for the first time with other people on the Dreamcast.

During my teenage years and beyond I’d play almost anything from role playing games to first-person shooters. In the past couple years however I noticed a shift in my gaming habits.

I buy less games and I spend less time on them individually. I can’t even remember the last game I completed from start to finish. I mean I love Final Fantasy 7 but didn’t even make it halfway through in the remake.

Maybe my short attention span is to blame. I’d like to think I became more intentional. Even though I probably purchased hundreds of games over the years, these days it’s more about quality than quantity for me. There’s actually only three that I play regularly:

The first and most played is Magic: The Gathering Arena. I was introduced to Magic by my childhood friend ages ago and it’s been nice to get back into it digitally.

After that comes NBA 2K. I love basketball and I haven’t missed a single copy since 2005 which is kind of crazy to think about.

Last but not least is Rocksmith 2014, which has been a lot of fun to improve my guitar playing.

I only noticed recently why I’m drawn back to these titles in particular without a need for new ones.

All of the above games relate directly to an interest outside of video games. They’re essentially a digital version that allows me to experience something I already enjoy in the real world. Just in a slightly different way.