1. Heavy Rain; PS3; Mature; $59.99

2. Endless Ocean: Blue World; Wii; Everyone 10+; $29.99

3. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony; PSP; Teen; $29.99

4. Shiren the Wanderer; Wii; Teen; $39.99

5. Final Fantasy XIII; Xbox 360/PS3; Teen; $59.99

Player’s Page: Relaxation

Over the course of time certain events happen which consume all of one’s free time.  For the world of gaming there are many stories about players who have had all of their time consumed by online games.  Massively–multiplayer online role–playing games, internet gaming cafes, and numerous other games have consumed excessive amounts of time.  There are countless stories about kids who have gotten bad grades, people who have missed work, and destroyed relationships all occurring as a result of extensive video game playing.

As for me, I have spent the better part of February immersing myself in the world of Star Trek Online.  The hours that I spent with this game caused my thoughts to wonder and become lost.  However, it turned out to be okay because February was a rather weak month in the video game community.  There were interesting games, but none of them drew my attention much like Star Trek Online.

The whole experience reminded me of an experience that I had in high school.  I had recently purchased a copy of Legaia 2: Dual Saga, a relatively recent release for the Playstation 2, and had spent roughly 40 hours playing the game over a weekend.  The game had nice graphics and a decent storyline so it managed to hold my attention for quite a while.  It wouldn’t have been much of a problem except for that at about 3 am Monday morning I remembered that I had a paper due one of my early classes.  So after a few choice words I spent the next four hours writing this paper in the hope that I could pass it off as a well thought out piece of work.  Something must have worked because I received a good grade and I had gotten out of the video game focus that I had been in.

Flash forward a number of years and not much has changed.  I am still devoting much of my time towards video games and putting off much of my work until the last minute.   However, a big change that has occurred has been in my attitude towards the whole situation.  I used to get worked up over my work but then I adopted the “take it easy” attitude.  Essentially, I stopped caring about a perfect outcome and let things happen as they might.

It can be very entertaining to play an enjoyable video game, but it is important to remember that it is a game and should not become the dominating feature of one’s life.  Take for example a South Korean gamer by the name of Lee.  He was obsessed with playing Starcraft online against many other people.  He was so obsessed that he eventually lost his job and devoted himself to solely playing Starcraft.  On August 3, 2005, Lee started a 50 hour marathon session at a local internet café.  The gaming session only came to an end when Lee was so exhausted that he suffered heart failure and dropped dead.

Take joy in the fact that your life is not as pathetic as Lee’s.  We all have things that consume much of our time, and it is nice to have things that divert our attention to much more pleasant thoughts.  Have something you can do to take it easy: listen to music, go bowling, read a book, lay in a nice comfy chair and sleep, or play a fun game.  Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you toss aside whatever work you should be doing because it is always fun to take it easy every now and then.  Remember though, if you choose to play video games to relax, or do anything else, make sure that it does not start to consume your life, and if you play them just to have fun there will never be a bad game.