Life IS A Video Game

That’s right. I’m not saying life is “like” a video game. I’m saying life IS a video game. Especially from the point of view of us gamers. This is going to be a quick post, and I’ll expand on it more in future posts, but here are my thoughts.

Things were simpler back in the day. Life used to be a regular game. People would compare life to things like Chess or GO. The rules for those games were simple, but the games were still complex. Just like life used to be. No cell phones, no internet, no phones, no electricity, no running water… The rules were simpler, but the game was still complex.

Welcome to the Digital Age

As we get more and more connected with cooler and cooler “joysticks of life” the life/video game worlds are getting more and more blurred. Think about it. This is what a joystick used to look like:

Atari Joystick

Now they look like this:

Xbox 360 Messenger Controller

When you add a microphone and an internet connection to the mix, it’s surprisingly similar to THIS device that I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard of once or twice:

iPhone Gaming

Can you see where all of this is going?

How This Post Started

Let me take a few steps back. I’m getting ahead of myself. This posted started out as a way for me to tell you guys what I’ve been up to and why I haven’t posted recently. Here’s the reason in 30 seconds…

Last Tuesday I found out about a competition where 20 schools could win $500,000 (each). There was a school that I wanted to help, so I started brainstorming. Then I met with the superintendent of the school on Monday and he told me to go “full force.” I’ve been doing that ever since then.

All of my projects were put on hold. THAT’S where my mind has been. While doing all of this I got to thinking “Why is this so interesting to me?” One reason is because it’s going to help a cool school, but another, I think larger, reason is that it’s a new… *drum roll please* (Video) Game!

There’s a “score” (the number of votes), there’s goal/end boss (rank top 20), there’s RTS (real time strategy) and there’s resource management. All of the elements of an awesome game, with the added bonus that it will help a cool school in Milwaukee if I “beat” it.

And, just like the more complicated games of today, I get to use the various attributes that I’ve “leveled up” over the years to beat it. The main tools (controllers) I’m using to play this game are my laptop and digital camera. If my attributes were stronger in other areas maybe I would have composed a song and thrown a concert.

I’ll post about it again later, but one of the things I put together was a competition to give away 5 Xbox 360 slims. You can find out more about the competition and how to vote at this website (and maybe win an Xbox! ).

Back to Life and Video Games

Like I said, the video gaming world and the “real” world is getting more and more blurry. Look at 4square or EpicWin that iPhone App that was released today. They’re half gaming, half reality. And that’s all we’re really talking about. The percentages.

• That Atari remote? Maybe 99% gaming 1% reality.
• The Xbox 360 Remote with the keyboard and mic? Maybe 75% gaming 25% reality.
• An iPhone? Depends on what you’re doing with it.

The point is that the future of gaming is going to be a lot more than just making better video games. Gaming in the future is going to effect all areas of life. I’m leaving a lot of things out of this post. Things like DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), Wii Fit, the Wii, Augmented Reality, Guitar/Band Hero, Kinect, Military Simulations, gaming conventions and a host of other stuff. These are all things that further blur that line between gaming and “real life.”

People might think you’re a nerd or loser because, for you, “gaming is life,” but those people are going to miss the boat on the rapidly emerging flip side of that coin (the one this website represents).

“Living is a game.” (And we’re masters at pwning games! )