Video games....Maybe I shouldn't...

Note: Writing with the flu has proven to be quite the challenge. It's not my best work....but I'm just proud that I did it at all..... This week has been the calm before the storm; a slow week that has allowed me to take some much needed down time before the Spring ball schedule swings into high gear. I took advantage of the extra time by playing a couple of video games and, now that it's over, I probably shouldn't have. Minecraft…

I never really had an interest in playing Minecraft.  Having watched the kids play it I found the games graphics dull and the music annoying as hell.  

But Tera talked me into playing it one day -- you know -- that whole parent child bonding thing, and for about the first ten minutes I was like “I have no clue what I’m doing”.  But then, for reasons  still unbeknownst to me, I became completely obsessed with building up my little hole in the side of the hill.  

First, the dirt had to be replaced by cobblestone…..Oh, and windows would be nice because it gets kind of dark in here.  Maybe after that I could put in a second floor and some carpet.  OOOOOHHHH!!! Carpet would be awesome.  Or at the very least a big throw rug….Yeah.

That rug really tied the room together --- (Quick, name the movie!!!!)

Six hours later I have a three story cobblestone house with carpet, a crafting table, a bed, a chest, and a furnace on each floor; the second and third floors had a ton of windows.
Wow….I really need to stop -- my butt is numb and I think I may have lost circulation in my legs.

The next day Toby gets on to play --- and he accuses me of having OCD.

I do NOT have OCD.  I just like things to be neat and organized.  Especially my chests, where this whole OCD thing became a conversation.

Me: “Dude, what are you doing?”

Toby: “What?”

Me: “You dumped everything into one chest.”

Toby: “Yes.  Chests are used for storage.”

Me:  “How do expect to keep everything organized?  Look.  Food stuffs and seeds go in the first floor chest, tools and weapons in the second floor chest next to the trap door, miscellaneous items go into the second floor chest furthest away from the trap door and dirt, stone, iron, etc go into the chest in the third floor.”

Toby:  “Really?”

Me:  “Yes, really.”

So Toby would occasionally put like an apple or something in the tool chest and grin when I got pissed.

Toby:  “Dude, I could keep you busy for hours.”

Me:  “Man, don’t mess with my chests. I mean, seriously, why do ya gotta be like that?”

Later, we began working together on a combination house/mine when we got into an argument over bed placement.

Me: “Dude, you can’t bump four beds up against each other like that.”

Toby: “What are you talking about?”

Me:  “Sleeping shouldn’t be a communal thing.  Don’t you know you can get lice or something doing that.”

Toby was incredulous:  “Dude, what the hell? There are no lice in this game.”

Me: “Yes, I know.  But would you bump beds together in real life?”

Toby: “No.”

Me: “Then don’t do it here….That bothers me.”

He did it anyway…..Grrrrr……

Overall, things in my little Minecraft world were peaceful and organized.  I had my three story cobblestone house, a pen for sheep, cattle, and chickens, and I had a nice little wheat crop going.

Then one evening Toby and his cousin Allen played on my account.  By the time they were finished all of my tools were missing, I was out of food, and all of my livestock got out through a hole in the fence that was supposedly the work of a creeper.

What’s more is one of the little hoodlums caught the forest on fire and burned down all the trees around my house….I was…….soooo…...angry.

I told Toby that I was starting a new game and that he could fix my old one…….

Yeah….Here I am, a grown man (well, at least physically) all riled up over a child’s game. It would be kind of embarrassing if I were to have a stroke over what is really meaningless entertainment. But if it did happen my family would not be shocked... NO......I do not have OCD....

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag

I have never been good at dealing with plot twists.  It’s why I can no longer watch M. Night Shamalayan movies (aside from the fact that they kind of suck).  His movies plod along and have you thinking one way and then towards the end of the movie --- BAM ---- a plot twist occurs that basically tells you that everything you saw previously was a lie.  I can’t handle that; it drives me up a wall. It makes me fell as if I had been duped.

So I’m playing Assassin’s Creed and I’m really getting into the game;  I’m totally immersed in the story.  I eat up the opening storyline of  battle in the open sea between enemy ships and am fascinated when the hero is washed ashore and begins to his transformation from pirate to assassin.

Then --- BAM --- the next thing I know the pirate becomes some geek taking a tour of the high tech, modern day facility that he will be working in.  The pirate is only real inside an online game.

“Whoa…..What the hell?” I yelled.

“What?” asked Toby.

“Why am I suddenly a tech weenie?”

“Because it’s part of the game?”

“Dammit, I don’t like it.  I was feeling all piratey and shit. AARGH!! YOU KNOW?!  Why did they have to go and do that?” "Holy crap, Dad, relax....."
But I couldn't relax. I was so aggravated that I shut the game off and haven’t played it since.

Okay, maybe I'm just not meant to play video games. The next time I have a slow week maybe I should go to the gym instead. Yeah, who am I kidding. Game on....Game on....