I Love Playing Video Games
The other day, I watched my friend beat a video game. Normal stuff, no? You know? Start the game; level up; beat the big Bad Final Boss? With that, the credits play. You won and now you have a completed save file! Hooray! Except…that is not what happened. Not at all. So, actually,…no. No, it was not normal stuff.
We thought it was over. I mean, the story cutscene played…but the screen continued to be black. Well, a prompt came up and asked if the player (my friend) would be willing to…DELETE their save file in order to help someone else in the world finish their game. The entire experience was pretty much similar to this current situation, morality questions and events. Save a machine here, or a person there. Deep lessons about who you are as a person.
While I was pretty confident in the fact that I would have not given a second thought in clicking YES, that moment was not about me. It was about the choice my friend could make.
I watched them mull it over for awhile, practically staring at them as the gears turned within their head. After about a good ten minutes…they said YES. But. It didn’t end there. There were a whole slew of questions trying to make sure you were completely positive on the choice you would make. Saying things like you don’t know if the person you would end up helping might be a person you could absolutely hate, or not. If you really wanted to erase all of your data, just to help some random person. And through all of that, while it was a slow decision-making process, they said YES to it all. Knowing how much of a Video Game completionist they are, I felt how hard of a decision that must have been. For from their perspective, It was a truly selfless act.
As promised, the game literally deleted every thing they had worked for. Weapons, character levels, bosses defeated, everything. It actually shows you the entire process.
Finally, once it was done, we were brought back to the main screen. We thought that, maybe, it was just for effect, but no, it wasn’t. The only thing in the start menu was NEW GAME. With that, we could only sit there in silence. In a way, we still are, but in that silence, I thought: I really love watching people play games like that. The ones that test your moral code, your virtues, and reveal your particular nature of sin.
It also made me realize, again, a lesson that I’ve always held dear to my own soul. That if you do something kind for someone, just a small thing, it passes. It’s an instant. Something so minute. So insignificant it can’t possibly seem to have happened at all. Maybe, there is no gain in it for you at all. Maybe, the person will forget. Maybe, YOU will forget.
While I can go on and on in about one-hundred different ways regarding how meaningless it might be as though it never happened. The fact is that it DID happen. You, for that tiny, minuscule moment, bonded with someone else. You shared something with that person, and they, you. Whether a quick saying of thanks, or an even quicker glance. The atoms at that point in time will be recorded. They will forever be configured to show that instance of an act performed.
To show that while our memory may fade, or even, we, expire, Time, as much of an abstract concept as it is, will remember all actions.
Thank you very much for reading and Happy Holiday! 😁
We thought it was over. I mean, the story cutscene played…but the screen continued to be black. Well, a prompt came up and asked if the player (my friend) would be willing to…DELETE their save file in order to help someone else in the world finish their game. The entire experience was pretty much similar to this current situation, morality questions and events. Save a machine here, or a person there. Deep lessons about who you are as a person.
While I was pretty confident in the fact that I would have not given a second thought in clicking YES, that moment was not about me. It was about the choice my friend could make.
I watched them mull it over for awhile, practically staring at them as the gears turned within their head. After about a good ten minutes…they said YES. But. It didn’t end there. There were a whole slew of questions trying to make sure you were completely positive on the choice you would make. Saying things like you don’t know if the person you would end up helping might be a person you could absolutely hate, or not. If you really wanted to erase all of your data, just to help some random person. And through all of that, while it was a slow decision-making process, they said YES to it all. Knowing how much of a Video Game completionist they are, I felt how hard of a decision that must have been. For from their perspective, It was a truly selfless act.
As promised, the game literally deleted every thing they had worked for. Weapons, character levels, bosses defeated, everything. It actually shows you the entire process.
Finally, once it was done, we were brought back to the main screen. We thought that, maybe, it was just for effect, but no, it wasn’t. The only thing in the start menu was NEW GAME. With that, we could only sit there in silence. In a way, we still are, but in that silence, I thought: I really love watching people play games like that. The ones that test your moral code, your virtues, and reveal your particular nature of sin.
It also made me realize, again, a lesson that I’ve always held dear to my own soul. That if you do something kind for someone, just a small thing, it passes. It’s an instant. Something so minute. So insignificant it can’t possibly seem to have happened at all. Maybe, there is no gain in it for you at all. Maybe, the person will forget. Maybe, YOU will forget.
While I can go on and on in about one-hundred different ways regarding how meaningless it might be as though it never happened. The fact is that it DID happen. You, for that tiny, minuscule moment, bonded with someone else. You shared something with that person, and they, you. Whether a quick saying of thanks, or an even quicker glance. The atoms at that point in time will be recorded. They will forever be configured to show that instance of an act performed.
To show that while our memory may fade, or even, we, expire, Time, as much of an abstract concept as it is, will remember all actions.
Thank you very much for reading and Happy Holiday! 😁
26-30
