The Games Men Play

Its holiday time again - A time for fun ,frolick and for people like me joblessness. And as proof of what I am sayin let me tel you guys that I just completed reading a novel(the title of which being of no relevence to the point i'm trying to make).And on top of that I also read through Vignesh's blog which I would usualy not have done.But I am glad I did as it made me realize two important points-
1)Even he is jobless
2)Blogging is a great way to kill time
So without any further useless drivel I shal present to you all this work of crap.
The whole idea for this stems from my discovery that many a people (mostly of the female kingdom) have no clue about why guys are so addicted to videogames and gaming in general.Also some of the stimulus also came from a newspaper article I was going through(also an indicator of my being jobless-would never go beyond the comic section otherwise) which in a way answered the same question "scientifically". So I thought before some more scientists from Japan (i think only Vignesh would have understood the serious Japanese threat to my endevours ) tries to sink their claws into it let my disect the male gaming mind for the benefit of one and all(atleast the one for whom this is intended :) ).
Well to start of I would like to reiterate on the point I made earlier-Gaming is an addiction and I know this cause i'm a proud addict.But just like any addiction it comes in many brands.Well the game I enjoy most is the Age of Empires.Though I don't claim to be the best(though I do claim to be better than my fellow addict Sankalp-@ Sankalp: I can kick your ass in AOE anytime boy and you know it) I certainly pledged my aleigance to it.But this account is not about my gaming habits or about games and I shal now,as I said before, dissect this habit.

Most games provide the player with the sense of conquest or achievement.In the olden days probably it would have been easy to wage a war on your next door neighbour and show him whose superior but it just cant be done now.So the only option left to us is to setup a wireless lan and shoot his inferior bot with a shotgun or destroy his castle with about 20 trebuchets(I apologise to those who dont have a clue what trebuchets-all i can console you with is that your lives have been meaningless if you havn't waged a siege with around 20 of them).See the point I am trying to make is that it is a human tendency to make conquests after conquests.Barberic as it may sound ,the urge to make mince meat out of your competition is inborn in all males and Gaming is a great outlet for that.Even games that lack awesome graphics may do well by just giving a sense of achivement and superiority.For example Mob Wars : an app on facebook has been a great hit with not only Sankalp and me(hardcore gaming gone cases) but also the gentle "Photoshop loving,Excel abusing" gamers like Vignesh :)(As in people who actualy use the comp for things beyond games).
So for all those who think playin games is just a means of killin time i would say that it realy is'nt just that(thats what books are for).It's something more.And for those who still think otherwise just experience the fun of letting lose a bunch of cavalry archers on rival villagers or invoking a chain lightning on your "buddy" :)

BTW wait for the next post :Its about an endangered species(in India atleast- the Female Gamer ;) Happy holidays