Why I Love Video Games

Pow! Zap! Zoweee!

The sounds of plastic fists beating a plastic chest blasted out of the room. A small army of little men, painted every color of the rainbow, littered the floor. You couldn’t walk over the carpet without crunching little plastic torsos. Sure, your foot would get cut in the process, but you’d get even because their eyeballs would pop out.

That describes my bedroom as a kid.

See, I used to love playing with action figures of all kinds. My toys included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Star Wars Characters and GI Joes.

My favourite toys were the green and tan army men. You know, you’d buy them in a huge tub, they all looked alike, and they sported cheap plastic constitutions. I liked these cheap army men best because I had enough of them to set-up epic battles. My imagination turned my carpet into a huge territory full of shell holes and barbed wire for years.

Then I out grew toys. Video games, of all genres, let me experience epic battles all over again in a character’s shoes. I start by using my imagination and a controller to create my character in the games. Then the best part occurs when I can jump into the action and blast the enemy myself.

Games let me play as the heroes I used to command on my carpet. That’s one reason I love them: they let me play like a kid again.

I’ll be writing more about why I love video games in the future. This post captures a little of why I love to play them.