Potato is yum

I was talking in a discord VC a few weeks ago with some fellow writers and got asked this exact question. And it made me think. “Why?” I mean… for the past like 10 or so years of my life I’ve been playing FPS games. What is it that makes me just want to keep playing them?

After a little bit of thought I responded to the chat saying, “When I win in an FPS game I feel like I’m in some way superior to my opponent.” And that’s when I realized why I like gaming, why I like reading fantasy stories, why I love mythology, why I love almost all the media that I consume. It stirs up that feeling of being better than the enemy, better than the odds, better than the world.

I think there is something that makes everyone like this feeling of superiority. This is especially apparent by the rise of OPMC and isekai. From this, I was able to pretty easily figure out why I link RTS games and why I play counterstrike so much. Both of these games give you the feeling that you are in control and the results of the game is because of your own ability meaning that winning against an opponent proves you are in some way superior to that opponent.

The hilarious thing about this feeling of superiority is that much of the results of these video games I play are up to chance rather than actual ability. When me and another guy see each other in counterstrike it’s more of a 50% chance that me or the other guy wins. But the game is structured in such a way that my brain believes I am better if I win.

I think it is possible to use this concept in writing but I’m probably not good enough to make a coherent post about it. Maybe I’ll figure it out at some point. If I do I’ll say something about it.