Yes, I am a nerd, and I like playing video games. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about the time investment. Should I really spend hours on an awesome Minecraft house or WOW character? Isn’t that time better spent on being a really awesome dude in real life?
I don’t mean to be melodramatic, but do I really want to be thinking as my last breath rushes from my lips: Well, this is it, but at least I made level 85 last night?
A Minecraft scene. PHOTO: Peter Harvey
Still, I can’t help thinking that I’d be a more enriched human if I spent those sheep-punching moments reading, or working on a book of my own, or… something. Right?
Works of Art
On the other hand, is spending a significant amount of time working on a Minecraft creation really any different than lying on one’s back and painting a symbolism-laden work of art on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Mind you, I don’t mean to suggest that everyone who punches a sheep in the face is Michelangelo, but what is art if not the considered application of a set of materials?
Who am I — indeed, who are any of us — to say what those materials have to be?
I think that if Michelangelo were alive today, he might very well come up with something along these lines:
Finding your Nietszche
When I look at that, my first impulse is to contact the guy who put that together and invite him to come out into the sunshine. “Hey, buddy,” I would say to him, “How about we walk around in the sunlight a bit… maybe talk to a girl?”
What if someone had had that conversation with Nietzsche, though? He might have agreed, met a sturdy German lass, fallen in love, and never pronounced God dead. He might have shaved off that terrible mustache of his and lived a happier life, but we might be without certain Elton John lyrics, without the greatest movie opening of all time, and without a significant portion of the DVD commentary from Fight Club.
That last one’s a deep cut, I know, but trust me… Ed Norton has a lot to say about Nietzsche. Pitt just wants to laugh about the sex scenes.
Keeping Perspective
I don’t have all the answers here, but I’m trying to live a life that converges upon the things that I think are sweet. I want to write things that others find helpful, or interesting, or funny. I want to kiss a pretty woman on the face. I want to travel and ride bikes and sing songs. I don’t think that spending an hour a day in Minecraft or WOW is really going to get me any closer to those things.
I think that I can only make these judgements for myself, though, and I’m definitely not going to forsake video games entirely. I mean, come on… how could I? Portal 2 is coming out soon!
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A#1 I would just like to thank you for the informative links in this post. I must admit, I was unaware of sheep punching and I had never really appreciated how absolutely huge the enterprise is. Thanks to Michelangelo, I mean Halkun, I now know it is f-ing enormous.
Truth be known, I have dated a few guys with similar video game tendencies and I did spent $100,000 thinking about all things “art”. So, I noticed you failed to mention one thing: the importance of (semi)mindless creation. Yes, it can result in people obsessively knitting endless ugly scarves. But, I feel like regardless of the results it simply gives many of us space to think. Personally I prefer bead weaving and legos- there is something about the repetition in combination with the act of making that creates clarity for me. I won’t pretend that i “get” video games- my last experience was with Donkey Kong and lets just say I might have invented Wii. But I think that developing and accepting our own process even if it includes ugly scarves, sheep punching, or a lego collection is key to death bed satisfaction. but I might be wrong…