Why I Started Playing Video Games

All my life, I thought video games were for losers. Adult losers, I mean. Adults should be doing other things.

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I have also always followed one rule: create more than you consume. Make something instead of only consuming things. Because of that, sitting down and playing games felt almost wrong to me. And when I say computer games, I mostly mean PlayStation.

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But you cannot work and create all the time. At some point, you simply get tired. Maybe I could do it for 20 years. Now I cannot.

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Consuming things also helps us relax, reset and switch off our brains for a while. I finally understand that consumption is also a normal part of life.

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Even Netflix can give us a lot of inspiration. I also use it to learn languages.

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Modern games are huge. They have big budgets, large teams, detailed worlds and long stories. A good game can feel like a film, but you are inside it. You follow the story, control the character, make choices and take part in what happens.

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I completed my first full game at the age of 39.

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And this is what I learned: even at 50, 60 or 70, it is never too late to start. Otherwise, you may miss entire worlds. It is like missing great films, but in games you do not only watch the story. You enter it, explore it and become part of it.

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The image attached to this post is from the second mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), where you can run through a virtual Piccadilly Circus in London while hunting down terrorists and protecting civilians.

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It may be “just” a video game, but the feeling of exploring such an iconic place in an interactive way is incredibly immersive. The screenshot was taken during my playthrough of that mission, and honestly, it’s an experience that’s almost impossible to put into words.

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