Many of us who have played games have at one time or another had moments, periods of time, when for whatever reason our favorite game loses its luster. We are no longer excited to log on and finish that next quest line, or mission, or attend the next raid. Usually what has happened is some new game has tempted us with something even more glittery and lustrous. Sometimes, it is life itself that tempts us away.
I have a friend that discovered the demands of being a new father were greater than he expected. While blessed with a cute baby girl, she is not one of those babies with a quiet disposition. She is demanding of his time and attention. He found that devoting the time needed to World of Warcraft nearly impossible to maintain. In the interest of being a good parent he has let his account lapse, at least for now. Most mature gamers would agree that this is as it should be and not at all surprising. But perhaps it is not that the game has lost its pull rather that he has chosen to prioritize his daughter over playing a game.
I have another friend with whom I share a bank guild. He had heard some people in another guild he is in have been playing a new game called “Rift”. This weekend he decided to give it a go. He hasn’t been on World of Warcraft for 2 or 3 or 4 days now. He too has been tempted away by the shiny new toy, so to speak.
Lest it sound as though I am complaining and lamenting the loss of my friends in the online world I should point out (fess up) that I too have been pulled away. What pulls me away is not, as it is for my one friend, a new family member. Nor is it the call of a shiny new or different game, as it has been many times before, it is not even the impending upheaval in my domestic circumstances. What lures me away is an old passion rediscovered. I have been pulled way by that most demanding of lovers, music. And, more specifically the guitar.
For reasons not pertinent to this article, I have taken back up playing the guitar and I can tell you that for me the games do not even compare. The high, or sense of accomplishment from reaching the highest level, surviving a real tough battle, making it all the way through a raid or dungeon by the skin of your teeth just do not hold a candle to the sense of accomplishment, excitement, and progress that comes from playing an instrument. In the case of the guitar there is first, surviving the cutting of the strings into the finger tips and the cramping of the hand as you struggle to hold the strings tight so they make music and not some dull thwup. Then there is learning the notes and the rhythm or speed at which those notes are played. This part can require hours of practice and repetition, playing the same barre or two over and over and over again. At some point, you find you now have all the bits in your head and you can play the whole song, all the way through, without stopping and returning to some reference material. Now you will spend hours more playing the same song, the whole song, over and over again and again trying to get it just right. When you finally make it all the way through the song there is a feeling of triumph that you have, at least this time, survived and maybe even conquered.
The satisfaction is complete. The pain and the gain both are real and physical. They are not some virtual repair bill or achievement or loot.
While I have enjoyed my time playing online games and they have served me well in entertainment, making friends and things they have allowed me to learn about myself, they do not sing the siren’s song for me as does that object of sound and beauty that sits on its stand and harkens to me to pick it up and bring it to life even as my fingers ache and burn and scream. I will pick it up and play.
And so as the glitter of the online world fades for me I return to reality, yet, unlike the princes and princesses of Narnia, this reality is not lack luster and less exciting than the world I just left. This reality is more like Sleeping Beauty awakening to find her prince, and my prince is a guitar.
Support artists. Buy their music.
Keep music and art education in our schools.
Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.
