This is a response to the one-word prompt “Restart” by “The Daily Post.”

For all those who grew up playing video/computer #games (who hasn’t in the United States) #or still plays the occasional game here or there, the “save spot” and “restart” features of those games most likely became an important aspect of use when playing. The ability to save one’s progress and then come back later and pick up where left off. Or the ability to restart the game when you #have made too many mistakes to recover from and wish for a second, third, fourth, fifth chance, etc.. at the game. These features of the video/computer game are nice to have, but I think #it can be hard to remember sometimes that those futures are #only in games and #not #real #life.

I think we tend to sometimes wish we had the “save&restart” feature in real life that we have in our favorite video/computer game/s; (I know I do sometimes).  In fact, what is the appeal to such games at heart other than as a means to escape at least for a little while our real-life issues? Yes, we play them for the adventure, action, mystique, intrigue, and so forth; but only because that is what a lot of us really want out of our mundane lives.

With all the uncertainty in our lives from jobs, future career, the economy, politics, news, and so forth; it is not only easy to be drawn into the fantasy of the “gaming world,” to “lose oneself,” but also to wish what we get in those games we could get from our real lives. In some ways, the very act of playing video/computer games is a “save/pause/restart” on “real life” because when we are playing our games we are not focusing on nor worrying about what is going on in our lives in the real world.

There is some good from this aspect of playing computer games, as a distraction from real life, real-world issues; in that it can help elevate some of the stress and lets us relax and “recharge” ourselves. The danger is in the fact that we can become too “glued” to our computer games and lose face with reality as well as what is more important (life or game life). While there is no actual real “save/restart” in real life like in the games we play; when we lose ourselves in them, the games themselves sure can feel as such for a time.

A good video/computer game is always fun to enjoy and perhaps lose one’s self in for a time, but not at the expense of our “real” lives. We need to make sure that as we enjoy those games that they do not hold us back nor confuse our two worlds.

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share them, all are welcome and wanted here.