Kenia
I game for so many reasons, sometimes it’s to relax and not think about real life for a bit, but there are days when I love slipping on my headset and killing skags in the borderlands with my friends – complaining about tough bosses and laughing at the ridiculous storylines.
I game to get away or to get in touch, I game for the excitement, for the frustration; I game for me.
Aside from the obvious entertainment factor, gaming has given me the opportunity to become comfortable and confident in my successes and failures. I tend to play a lot of FPS games, and when you work in teams to finish levels or beat bosses, sometimes one mistake or a bad shot can undue hours of work. Screwing up is frustrating and annoying, but having it affect the 2 or 3 people you’re playing with is humiliating.
I’ve learned that mistakes (both in video games and real life) are sometimes unavoidable but what comes out of that mistake is manageable. There were times when I chose poorly, throwing my controller, losing my temper, and nothing good ever came out of that, but the other times — the days when I took a deep breath, cracked my knuckles and got back to the grind…those moments were so satisfying. Owning up to your mistakes, correcting them and then succeeding in something you failed at is a lesson I can attribute to gaming.
-Kenia
United States