Why Play Computer Games? From a boomer perspective
I have been playing a computer/console game for the past few months, quite intensively, and I thought others like me could also benefit from this activity. If you have an open mind and are looking for ways to enhance your life after the fifties and beyond, or if you are parents with teenage children who may have a different perspective on the values of gaming, then read on.
The game I am talking about here is Call Of Duty BlackOps Cold War (let’s call it COD in short):
I have been playing this game on a PS4 Pro console with a 55-inch TV mounted on a wall three meters in front of my sofa (see picture below). It occupies me for about 1 to 2 sessions a day where each session can be an hour or two. I have left my job in mid-May this year (2021) and have quite a fair bit of time to play. In fact, in the first month of playing, I was running about 4 to 5 sessions each day (after breakfast, after lunch, before dinner, after dinner, and before sleeping). Both my sons (aged 16 and 19) are also playing with the same account and we sometimes share the playing session together, either two of us watching one other play, or one continuing the session when the other needs a break (such as to go for a toilet break or to have his dinner).
I would not be discussing the details of the game as there are many sources of information on the web. But I do relate to some of the elements in the game and I would assume the reader is not a COD gamer and provide some explanations. For those (who plays COD) who are curious where my level of the game is, I must say that we have upgraded many weapons to max level, and have used up all the Aethereal crystals for all kinds of weapon upgrades like ammo mods, skills, perks, field upgrades, etc. We mostly play the Zombies mode in Outbreak while one of my sons plays the Multiplayer mode as well. I clocked about 60–70% of the time spent in the game compared with both my sons since one is home only during weekends and the other is still schooling.
Computer gaming is not an activity I am frequently engaged in. Though I have been keeping up with console gaming as a whole (I had PS3 consoles, PS4, and then PS4 Pro and looking forward to PS5), I do not indulge in any serious console or PC or mobile games; though I have the consoles, I only play them sparingly (a few times a year). If you were a busy IT professional like me, you tend to think that you would get to it when you have the time, and never does. When I was in my mid-twenties (that’s almost thirty years ago), I did get to play network games (eg. Doom)on PCs connected to the same local network, and that was the time that I got hooked into playing co-op games (meaning you play with a few other players with a common objective). Since then, I never have the time to play computer games seriously, as there were always other life activities that have higher priorities (like doing my job, getting married, career development, and having kids).
But this love for co-op-style gaming is always in my heart. Of course, the co-op computer game today in COD is vastly different from yesteryear’s Doom. We only had one single goal to kill the biggest bad-ass enemy and we called to each other (all of us are playing in the same room) to get help when needed. And that is the key thing that I wish to convey to those who have not really played (seriously) computer games today. The games that you have played 10–20 years ago do not have the sophistication today. You are likely to think that the “skills” learned in gaming are only useful in the game and do not translate to real-life situations. And this is where I beg to differ and offer my opinion on the values of computer gaming today, especially for folks like me, aged fifty or more with teenage kids and starting to feel the body failing and weakening.
Let’s start with the look of the game and the physical aspects of the benefits. I do my COD’ing on a 4K HD TV, and the realism is stunning. After playing for a month or so, I discovered that my eyesight has improved tremendously in the dark (eg. in driving a car at night), especially in detecting glowing lights (looking for chests in the dark in COD game) and moving objects in the dark (responding to zombies moving in the dark in COD game). There is a location (called Sanatorium in the Outbreak game mode) in the COD game that is mostly dark (especially if you have OLED or equivalent HD TV) and you have to kill zombies that lurk behind doors and jump at you when you can only see their eyes. (There were also other game modes that operate mostly in the dark like Mauer Der Toten, Die Maschine, etc. I chose not to play these game modes often precisely because the whole game is always in the dark.)
My hearing has also improved in some ways. I can hear low volume children's voices or laugh much more clearly (sharpen my hearing from the chasing of the Orb in the Outbreak game mode), objects moving beside me, and even sounds of objects like helicopters (chasing after the Omega helicopter in Outbreak game mode). As we age, our sight and hearing degrade, and having frequent exposures or stimulations would help to revive the sensitiveness in our sight and hearing.
The PS4 has a game controller with two little joysticks and two sets of 4 directional/symbol buttons and also trigger buttons. Proper sequence and timing of pressing the buttons are essential in executing your move or task in the game. Both your thumbs and fingers on both hands will get stronger after frequent hectic chasing or scrambling from zombies attacks. And your hand-eye-finger coordination will improve tremendously through executing the sequence of moves in fighting hordes of zombies. Over time, this strengthens my thumb and fingers and I no longer feel weak in grasping or doing pressing actions with my hand (especially with my left thumb; I am sure I can press anything down, after constantly pressing down the stick to run and move with the controller).
Now you may think that playing the game is repetitive and success in the game is merely killing as many zombies as you can. I started playing COD with that in mind. But after playing for a month, I realized that there were different strategies and objectives that one can adopt. The COD game itself has many game modes (Campaign, MultiPlayer, League, Zombies), and with each game mode, there are also different sub-modes and locations (called maps in the game). To succeed with ease, each game mode requires a slightly different strategy in the choice of weapons (guns) and add-ons (like Field Upgrades). And you may play the game with different objectives (between killing other players or zombies, achieving higher levels in weapon levels, and etc). For example in MultiPlayer game mode, you will join one of two factions who will battle out in the various locations in 2 vs 2, 6 vs 6, or 12 vs 12 fights. You can be a hunter (who wanders around and shoot as he sees opponents) or a sniper (who camps at certain locations and shoot his opponents from afar). To be successful in the game, you need to strategize the choice of weapons and add-ons, your movement, and your finger skills (to jump, dodge, crouch, etc.). You can also be working on improving the level of the weapons by the number of eliminations you achieved with that weapon. Weapons with higher levels allow you to start off with easier kills (fewer shots to kill) in your games.
The skills you learn from the stuff in the para above are no different when one embarks on his career. You can see many parallels between the game world and the career world. How you deal with tasks, tools, resources, engagements, challenges, collaboration, competitors, peers, personality, etc. The only major difference is the time scale and the costs of each iteration of play (of each job/activity/task that you do in your work). In the game world, each session may take hours and no cost, while in the real world, each attempt may take days, months, or even years and possibly high cost. Successive iteration of gameplay actually helps you prepare your strategizing and adaptation skills in adversarial or unforeseen conditions. And I believe this really helps to develop the player’s mindset (eg. underdog, newbie, expert, etc.) and mental capabilities (eg. determination, resilience, decisiveness, etc.).
After observing my sons’ playing of COD, I realized that we do not play the same way. My younger son is a master of any weapon and resources (throwable like Tomahawk, scorestreaks like Death Machine, etc.), while my elder son is a master of just one gun (Gallo), and I played around with many weapons and prefers SMG. This difference is reflective of our individual personalities and the genre of gameplay we like. When my younger son plays, he is only interested in completing his objective (for killing some number of a particular type of zombies with a particular weapon such as a melee knife). This may be for a reward (operator skin, weapon camos, etc.) or a new weapon’s right to use. Finishing the game is secondary. For me, completing the main objective (a successful exfil in Outbreak co-op mode) is key, and I would usually sacrifice my own gains (in zombies kill points or using up my own bombs) to save my co-op players; I have often got “killed” while reviving a fellow player. But I do introduce variations in my games with different starting weapons so that I could master the other weapons (then just SMG or sub-machine guns). In short, the complexity of gameplay is as complicated as real life as there is sufficient variability in every aspect of the game. To be successful (in whatever objective you have chosen), you need to know your stuff and figure out the path. This skill of strategizing and testing it out to see how well it works in a short time (like agile programming) is not something that is taught or practiced in school. And there will often be new sites (eg. ARMADA map in Season Five), new enemies, new add-on’s that one needs to learn to use (COD has new seasons every few weeks, and with each season comes new locations, threats, and perks). This encourages one to be always on the learning streak, as you need to continuously sharpen your tools in your gaming.
Also, by playing with my sons, I get to peer into their mindset about how they strategize their approach, how they fight in tough situations, how they play with others, or how they handle unforeseen cases. We often discuss our impression of the various weapons and foes and our recent fights. And that is a very valuable insight to know your kids. For example, when a co-op player dies from a zombie attack, he has a chance to be spawned again, within a time limit. If he is revived within the time limit, he will get to keep his weapon upgrades and other perks that he carries. But if he did not get revived in time, then he would respawn with a basic amount of resources (which is much less than what he was carrying). For me, I would tend to get killed in the game and depended on my co-op peers to revive me (within the time limit). But for my sons, they would rather not to killed and preferred to keep their perks with them (sacrificing the chance to revive their peers than to risk themselves in clearing up say a cluster of zombies to revive their peers). Being older, I tend to be a more altruistic and cooperative player (to achieve the bigger picture of the exfil objective) while a younger player tends to be more self-centered and lack the trust of others. A mature player tends to prepare himself first before taking on a big challenge, while a newbie player tends to over-estimate himself and got himself (and others) killed (such as in opening up golden chests that launch formidable enemies). And I often use this to teach my sons the virtues of patience, preparedness, support, forgiveness, and others, when playing in co-op mode. This is a very good way to build up a rapport between father and son. And I hope this type of joint play would be more common in the future and the game developers could include features that are easier for boomers like me (eg. more daylight maps; teenagers do not mind hiding in the dark to play computer games, but elders like me would prefer to play during day time).
I hope this article has opened a new perspective on computer gaming for you. It not only helps you improve your physical and mental abilities but can also help in the mental development of your teenage kids and serve as a bridge to them. Do leave me a comment if you have any questions. Thank you for reading this article.
