After reading Yaris’ hard hitting Why We Game article I realized two things; number one, that after reading his, my article would seem silly, and two, the things that I worry about in life are often silly as well.  I do have things that are happening in my life such as a baby due in less than a month and a mortgage that keeps coming and doesn’t seem to care that my pay check has been sucking a little in the current economy, but in the end I am happy to have the baby on the way and happy to be able to pay for a house for him to live in.  I realize that my life is by many standards easy and by any standards blessed.  That, however, does not keep me from the most ancient of human traditions of worrying my ass off about every little fucking thing in the world.

Like almost anyone else I know, I spend an unnecessary amount of time stressing over what is often the most convoluted and impractical series of, “what ifs,” and, “I should haves,” and whatever else rests itself on the most paranoid corners of my mind at the moment.  I will worry about money, worry about life, worry about health, worry about other people, worry about…well, you get it.  Faith and logic should be, and often are, enough to give me the serenity I need to kick that shit out of my mind, but when something is front and center in my series of things to be concerned over, it will often just loom somewhere in my consciousness, like a dark cloud.  I will watch TV, listen to music, exercise, but it still lingers like a fucking turd that won’t flush.

There is, however, one activity that I find is the only thing that will clear my mind; that’s right, video games.  I’m not going to try to paint my video game playing time as some magic portal of relaxation where all of life’s stresses gently melt away.  On the contrary, video games are an intense interactive experience that often throw so much shit at you that you just don’t have time to think about anything else.  That’s why I say I play for the pause button, because it works both ways; while the game is on, the rest of the world is off.  When I’m getting killed and called a bitch by some 12 year old online, the reality of paying bills does not exist.  Or, when I’m on my 10th try to kill the final boss, the fact that it is two o’clock in the morning and I have to be at work at eight is miles away.  I’m obviously not saying that it is always good, but I am saying that it is a very real way to get your mind off of something, which, when you are irrationally fixated on it, is really all you need.

This “pause button” on life that video games give me is just the little bit of time away from worry and real life that I often need.  Because after being focused on anything else, even just a video game, I often gain that little bit of fresh perspective I need to realize that whatever stupid shit gripped my attention so tight just a couple of hours ago, really didn’t fucking matter.  Thank you, video games, for the pause.

[Why We Game is a weekly feature from Loot Ninja discussing the various reasons we each have for playing video games. If you have a reason you want to see covered, let us know.]