My addiction to games helped me create one
Hide and Seek was the first-ever game I remember playing, by choice. It’s a fun game, with simple rules. I loved it.
20 years on, technologies have evolved, my priorities have changed, we are spoilt for choice to keep ourselves entertained — and, my love for games is now an addiction.
The journey of being addicted to games has been kickass.
I can’t choose between Mario or Prince when I think of the first game I was hell-bent on finishing, even if it meant staying up through the night. I discovered my inner competitor through this addiction. Obsessively playing games alone wasn’t enough. Back in the day, Contra and Fighting Force fuelled my craving for games and friendship.
With access to better hardware, the compulsion to play games only went up. I was equally intrigued by Age of Empires and Roller Coaster Tycoon as much as Road Rash and Need for Speed. The former was my first experience with managing resources on a timeline, while the latter pushed me to finish at the top. The way these games shaped my personality helped me survive Engineering (in India) better than most.
By the time well-illustrated games (in 2-D) — Alladin and Mortal Kombat — came to the fore, gaming had become a habit. They pushed my imagination to its limits at the time.
Sachin Tendulkar, through cricket on TV, was a brief threat to replace my fixation for games. Not saying cricket isn’t a real game, but the high of being able to control your players in FIFA, PES, and EA Cricket felt even better than that 2002 match win in England.
Even when games didn’t have a clear purpose, I gave in to my compulsion to play anything and everything. Motocross Madness was a great guilty pleasure at the time.
Open world games were my gateway to a teenage, where I spent 90% of my time getting back to my Pentium 4 PC. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Far Cry encouraged me to go beyond the norm. Meanwhile, Call of Duty and Tom Clancy made me feel like God. The action and pseudo-immortality kept my dependency on games intact.
I fell in love with stories through Tomb Raider and Max Payne. The emotional connection to these games at a very young age made me strong and weak at the same time. Their reboots and sequels have been a revelation.
Gaming on the go
Gaming on hand-held devices encouraged a whole new spectrum of mania for games. It meant that I could play them anywhere. Yep, even in the loo.
From Snake in black-and-white on the Nokia 1100 to Bounce on the early Java-based colour phones, put my addiction on display to the world outside the loo.
With multi-touch screens and accurate motion sensors, the experience of mobile gaming is too good to miss out. The brick game console and its big daddy — the Nintendo — paved the way to all this. Though I’ve never owned a Nintendo, I experienced playing Pokemon on it courtesy of a few wealthy friends of mine. It was probably the AR/VR of its time.
More recently, WatchDogs, Dishonored, and Hitman — not only had great visuals but introduced me to holding back, patience and stealth. They made me feel like my choices mattered. Now, that’s how you get hooked to someone or something, for life.
With the multiple 1000s of hours that I have invested in playing and re-playing games, it was an intriguing proposition to create one from scratch. At the same time, I didn’t want it to have a regular purpose.
What if a game could positively impact the world around us?
When we began our journey, inspired by Netflix’s Bandersnatch (a Black Mirror special), it seemed quite easy and straightforward — which we quickly realised wasn’t the case. A reality check.
Through multiple iterations, we received unique insights on aesthetics as well as game mechanics. To see people play a game that I helped create, I felt that familiar obsession — inside and outside the loo.
The game is just a tiny start, towards a bigger goal. To experience it first hand, click here [EcoWarrior — created on Twine, powered by Hetrics].
“I am not a gamer, but games have given me something that nothing else could — something to be obsessed about.”
