It doesn't matter when

Érase una vez una noche solitaria en la ciudad de las palabras hastiadas. Un hombre cuya silueta se entrecortada por la luz del portal número 29 de la calle Saudade hizo un leve movimiento inspirando el frescor de la noche. <>. Pensó antes de echar andar repentinamente por la calzada de trazos gruesos. Apresuró el paso pero sus zancadas sonaban igual de mullidas que la de los cuatro gatos escurridizos que jugaban a perseguirse por la calle. Finalmente llegó a un extraño callejón de ladrillo ennegrecido. Miró a ambos lados sin atisbar ninguna luz azul y roja que le alertara y extendió la mano esperando topar con una puerta metálica. Solo encontró aire, la puerta estaba abierta y aquel sótano parecía emanar la propia oscuridad. Dio un pequeño paso cuando la luz de un cigarro reveló el rostro barbudo de un hombre con aspecto de lobo.

-I was waiting for you.Here you have, guide him well, ”he said snoring the Wolverine.

The man looked at both sides again and grabbed the small package wrapped.He developed it with an imperceptible smile and confirmed that it was a video game.Before someone could warn them, the man slipped as fleetingly as Mapache thief of the video game himself.And then the night reaffirmed in his own dream sway remaining for dreams and prohibited things: video games.

The burning of time

It could be the distant story of any dystopian novel in the artistic style of The Among of Us or Calvin Noir, but given the pandemic circumstances any dystopia does not seem distant to me, and any story seems plausible to me.Not long ago, someone known from Twitter, commented that when buying a video game, especially in physical, he still felt a small unease, a stop guilty ... as if he were wasting his money in a whim not typical of his age.After a while, more people responded by the tweet saying the same.And about our own perception and that bitter feeling I want to delve into this inspiring text.

"Video games are culture." Claiming phrase that we could hear, not long ago, of the words of the Minister of Culture and Sports. Now with the Covid-19 crisis apparently less culture than others, with aids that place it at the same level as bullfighting and below cinema and music. The word "video games" does not even appear as such in its areas. Without having that consideration and neither solidly believing in its potential, already demonstrated, it is hardly possible to compete internationally, the only viable way of having an industry dedicated to video game. This does not have enough draft to be treated as a field worthy of study reducing to the arduous effort of individuals who are passionate about video games. Individuals who have already given us great books on the history of video games and interesting reflections in this regard, but without the scientific endorsement they deserve. Because this stigmatization of the video game not only affects the consumer, but who lives for and for video games.

The issue would have a special interest in psychology, but even more from an anthropological point of view because it would respond to whether our hobbies define our degree of maturity or that hobbies have lost their sense of age.Can you derive from our childhood?Is it possible to start with video games from a certain age as with other hobbies?Thousands of questions waiting to be answered that from my humble texts I can only wander as who is limited to contemplating the stars imagining worlds in them and without being able to touch them.

As a curious person, I have my own hypothesis. Thinking carefully when we were children, one of our greatest disbursements was the gift of Kings or Pope Noel at Christmas but that same or the rest of the year could well be a video game. Who we have been fortunate to have a pay, either by unsuccessful attempts to do the things of home, we have saved each euro of euro or every peseta to buy the video game we were waiting for. Or sometimes it was the reward of a good note or simply the illusion of having it. Video games during much of our childhood is the most expensive, and unlike a computer that could "take advantage" for studies or clothing, or money itself ... the video game did not take any part for the vast majority of parents. Later, more expensive gifts would arrive such as trips, concerts, state -of -the -art phones ... but for my generation, the previous one, the video games has been for longer. At most, in my playstation I could get one or two games throughout the year (legal video games, of course). That means completing each game to the millimeter, several times and 100% as far as possible. For example, getting all the gray, colors and crystals of the Crash Bandicoot 2, one of my favorite games.

The treasure of a video game

The emotion of receiving a video game was and is still so intense that when I turn on the video console (or computer) I can feel that aura that fills my lungs and prepare me to immerse myself fully in an adventure of sensations.Perhaps the same feeling as jumping in a pool or sliding down a snow slope.Sensations that can be revived within the video game, I still remember the persecutions of the Prince of Persia or the first Assasin’s believe with the jumps of faith.Why discover a new landscape aboard a Jeep in Uncharted 4 makes my skin hair shed?Why listening to the soundtrack of a game like Super Smash Bros Ultimate excites me?Why see the beginning of a remake like the Final Fantasy VII moves me?These are questions that we will not have an answer.(Ok moth)

We are where we come from.Something remains in us that when we are going to buy a video game, with our own money, there is that annoying feeling that we are doing something we should not.In my case, if I buy it in digital, it does not happen or does not give time to happen, but if I go to a store and buy it in physical, I keep having that unpleasant feeling.All on that tweet we share our experience and I think it is something implicit when we reaffirm ourselves in a "gamer pride."It is not the word "Gamer" that unites us, in fact, we do not like a large majority, but if there is something so truly defining in the player it is the emotion that seizes us when buying a video game.And from any field, from any age, a Gamer card is not necessary to feel it or to be part of that existing brotherhood, in the bad and good.

Sometimes I put myself in the skin of those people, regardless of their age, who decide to collect things.I imagine them as small hermit beings living in caves with portals to other worlds, small scholars and sorcerers who create their own language.Whether people who collect old board games, movies, comics, figures or merchandising of your favorite saga, video games ... thinking about how expensive it is to have a hobby like that.But it is a hobby that can start at any age and I feel that healthy envy when they hear them talk about their collection with that passion that characterizes them.An illusion that comes out of the soul as if we were small children playing to be older who play to be children.

The legacy of lost children

In six months I will turn 30.And unfortunately, I have still been able to hear scathing comments like “Are you still with that?Do you play video games at your age?Are you not a little older? "of acquaintances and relatives that limit video games to a mere hobby of children.At first it makes me angry but then it saddens me because they will not experience the same as me, nor can they understand me.It is almost the same sadness that causes me to hear an anti-vacunas or homeopathy talk bad about doctors.Or someone to affirm with overwhelming frankness that wifis waves damage the brain.Or who think that TV is still a magical box.And yes, I can talk about sorcerers and magic in many of my texts but I love science and know the limits of reality itself.

The daring can disregard me saying that I have Peter Pan syndrome, technically a fear inherent in growing, retaining the child's mentality and acting as such, unable to assume responsibilities. Nothing is further from reality. I would swear that sometimes who get carried away by fear and hatred adopt the most typical attitude of children who continue to use child toys: from Lego blocks, trains models, Minecraft blocks or video games (under their point of view). Lego or Minecraft blocks help spatial representation, being useful for modeling spaces ... trains models require precision both in their assembly (electrotechnics) and in the artistic section (painting), and video games, beyond their Apparent violence, they develop many types of intelligence. Maybe in the past we were Peter Pan's followers, traveling to the country of never through the book or his films, but as lost children we grew up with a bit of that experience in us.

I usually stay with a bit of people who cross my life. As if it were composed of pieces of a puzzle, complex and at the same time simple. A little over six years ago I met a person of my age quite peculiar: joker and with child's character. He could be the Fred or George Weasley of real life. We always envy him the spirit of him as a child but today he is an engineer who enjoys drawing comics and playing video games. We only entrust one task: "Never change." Because he is a treasure that in such a competitive world we were in, he continued to keep that spirit combined with bold intelligence. He torments me that who imposes those beliefs about which or how our hobbies should be according to our age end up making a dent in that type of people. Where are lost children when there is never an ever? They persist, disguised as adults, playing to be, with a healthy mind, as hidden as the magicians hid from the muggles to the naked eye.

A second piece.Two years ago my maternal grandfather died, someone very serious, authoritarian, quiet, observer ... but affectionate in the background.I was able to have one of those conversations from you with him that I like so much.We sat in a bank and he told me frankly: "I'm older ... but I feel as if I're 30 years old."I saw him in his eyes and knew he was right.He did not like going to sit with his friends because he saw them older in certain things, most of his friends had died, he did not like to go to the daytime because they were only old ... He did not consider himself old with his 84 years.He had a more awake mind than none, he regretted not having a bond, not learning mathematics ... but he was able to make many calculations and bring his accounts of his family despite having studied.I could see that spirit as a young man despite his age.

A third piece of puzzle.I did not meet my paternal grandfather when he died (he was barely 5 years old) but everything I have been able to hear from him is that he was of great heart and very hardworking.A kind of globetrotters who played with me to take off his hat as if he were a magician.They all defined it as a big boy who had a certain fondness for trains and had been a boxer.No one from the past has inspired me as much intrigue like him, and I always dream about it with the gabardina and hat of him as if it were a spy who fell in love with my grandmother out of curiosity to be trapped.Cry things, yes, but they have made me a great esteem and be who I am today.

The spark that moves us is always there.It doesn't matter what times, who surrounds us, or how we can feel at a brief moment, if we are faithful to ourselves we will continue to buy video games and enjoy them as much as the first day.

It's never too late to discover new worlds

A case that filled me with pride was Skyrim's viral streamer, Shirley Curry, known as the "Skyrim grandmother."She started playing Skyrim for the first time at 82 and she already expressed a radiant curiosity in her questions, typical of who plays for the first time, immersing himself more and more in the Skyrim universe.As players of a lifetime, we give many things for done or "normal" in a video game.Shirley, with all her innocence, enjoyed every detail that immersive world.She starting with her comments on YouTube to her to create her own channel and narrate her own experience.Because in the end video games are not like a movie where you are seen once and each interpret it.The game is built with the player's own experience so it is lived many times and must be shared to reflect that experience or otherwise I could hardly know exactly how others felt.

I have always liked the video games narrated as stories and writing comes to mind the first time I played the Fable and wandered through the Heroes Academy. No one can snatch those feelings and that innate curiosity to travel every recesses and treasure it so much that when I close my eyes I can still hear the serious voice of the face on the wall, the flow of the nearby stream or imagine the distribution of the rooms of the rooms of the place. Ah, how to forget that career to counterreloj for being faster! And think that everything was a kind of tutorial. That experience uses it today when I meet a similar game, reviving in part that moment and creating new experiences. It seems that when we feel young or "as children" we had that dichotomy between the past and future, living between two times, believing that they are incompatible, in false truths ... as if Steampunk would not have taught us that the retro and the futuristic cool cool, and a lot.

That said, it is never too late for what one wants to propose. J.K.rowling achieved her success with Harry Potter with 31 years or Isak Dineen achieved her success of African memories with 50 years. Seen that, that includes not being a player and wanting to be at any age. Therefore, if any acquaintance or family would like to know more about video games, we must not be exclusive as "Gamer Community" and invite everyone to discover them. That was part of the success of the Wii, and we still have a long way ahead so that playing video games is the equivalent (alchemical) to watch series or movies in Netflix. That social momentum will be the best asset for the video game to be considered a culture of truth and so that over time there is a great industrial fabric around it at the moment, we will be as time travelers always sailing between two times: past and future, such Time that misfortune is like a curse of time, a constant that conditions our variables. The Lutece brothers already said in Bioshock Infinite: "constant and variable." Life is too short to be in that constant dilemma, better to have fun with what we are able to perceive, as if we were naughty children, wishing to open our own gifts and explore our maps. And whenever we open a map, do not forget to say: "I swear solemnly that my intentions are not good."

The enigmatic man with the video game under his arm observed the steamy sewer lid.Toxic dumping in the sewers of the city had begun to make a dent but the noisy mayor preferred to ignore what was happening in the underground.The man crossed the next street by turning his head to see the light beams fall on the futuristic cars while the neon lights on the facade of a new pub gave a cyberpunk character to the street.The man predicted that that soon would be filled with similar pubs for some years.He looked forward where there was a small wall covered with ivy and thought could be a good shortcut.

The small wall jumped to stop the dreary alley when he heard a metal repiqueteo.The low windows, which attached to the ground and gave the alley, vibrated with the repiqueteo.Illuminated with the light of the interior, they looked worn and covered with vaho as a result of the humidity of the semi -stanine.The replacement of machinery and gears followed: Crunch, Crunch, Crunch ... Apparently, video game makers had nothing easy.In an adult city where boredom was prohibited, it was even more fun without further ado and all maltrecha life in that gloomy neighborhood to the avid and illusory world of clandestine show.After all, the show must continue.