I am one of many victims of a disease: a disease called Over-Immersion.
Side-effects include passive aggression, lack of perception, and yelling about people who don’t exist.
The culprit? RPGs: role playing games. Or, to put it simply, make-believe games on the internet. Games that, supposedly, are played for “fun.”
Anyone who has played any sort of RPG cannot deny the fun part. But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn’t ranted about their gaming vice as well. The following comments are common by my fellow sufferers:
“I hate this game!”
“The whole game is out to get me!”
“I can’t sign off, they NEED me.”
Now let’s look at these comments.
1) If you hate this game, seriously consider why you are playing it. Seriously, seriously consider it. The point of a game is to have fun. If you don’t have fun, quit. Simple as that.
The world will not explode.
You will not wake up with severe withdrawal symptoms that leave your face covered in angry red spots.
You clearly had fun at one point, or else you wouldn’t still be playing (I hope. I’m optimistic). Evaluate if you’re still smiling now.
2) No one is so special that an entire player base decides to team up, strategize, and plan to ruin your fake life. Again, this is a game.
Games are not real. Even if several hundred people (who have reasons to play this RPG that don’t include you) did, by some bizarre coincidence, want to ruin your gaming experience, it wouldn’t matter. Why? Because it’s not real.
You might as well be crying because J.K. Rowling killed off your favorite character along with nearly everyone else in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (if you harbor a grudge against Ms. Rowling I apologize for trifling your sorrow). But the point remains: this is not real.
3) No. They don’t need you. Sure, maybe you do the best bloody punch kick of magic awesome ever, and maybe you are the best RPer within a 50-mile radius, but games don’t need anyone.
You need you. Your homework needs you. Your friends and family (I assume) need you. Your pet fish that you won from that Beta sorority drive thing needs you or he’ll die.
If a bunch of people who you don’t know suddenly matter more than your failing grade in Chemistry, it’s time to unplug the power cord for a second and lock yourself in a room free of wireless internet (I recommend the highest floor in Vaughn).
Do not bring your Ethernet cord. It is not your friend.
I say all this lovingly. As a fellow nerd who does indulge in her RPG hobbies, I am not attacking my fellow gamers for spending hours of their life in escapist fantasies and making jokes about emotes and artifacts and lolganking.
Just remember: it’s a game. Have fun. You deserve to have fun.
So the cures I’d recommend to my fellow over-immersed gamers? Movie nights with your friends. Reading your favorite book.
Taking a sip of tea with a healthy dose of logic and perspective.
Essentially, remembering to step back when your oasis of internet calm decides to become a spiraling hurricane of emotional refuse.
It’s just a game.
I’d finish this article, but my internet village is being raided, and they need me.
They really, really need me
Stephanie Selander can be reached at stephselander@gmail.com.