PC Games and desires

 The 90’s kid closes his eyes, excited to sleep because the next day is another full eye-soaring, butt-numbing computer play day. Kids like us who nurtured an inordinate relationship with computer games, forgetting the concept of time in the process, have all sorts of stories to share of how you destroyed this or killed that. It was the in thing.

Now, 24 summers after, I look back and can’t help but marvel at how these seemingly hypnotic electricity-wasters contributed so much in how I view life and the things I am passionate about. I do not know if it merely unlocked an “innate” interest but surely it opened a whole new world for me.

The internet is full of literature about the effects of video games. In my case, I can attribute much of my interest and even the choices I make to the games I obsess about.

My first genuine addiction was Age of Empires which was my first ever PC game when I was in 3^rd grade or so.  This is a classic-empire building game that combines both strategy and ancient history. You get to command a small tribe. Extract and gather resources and build cities and armies. And the narrative is quite familiar with conquest on one hand and getting of rich on the other. What were also interesting about this game are the historical campaigns where you get to roughly reenact real historical events. It introduced me to Carthage and Hannibal’s elephants, the Battle of Actium and the fall of the Roman Republic. It also introduced me what and where the fertile crescent was and its role in civilization. Then, I cared less about the historical facts. All I wanted was to destroy the enemy. But this interest led me to want to understand why these “computer players” rose and fell.

Then came Sim city. This “missionless” game is well, endless. You are given a vast track of terrain and you practically build your city on it and once you’ve reached your dream city then it ends there. You can either build another one or destroy it. Sounds dull? But the game is powerful in sense that it gives you endless possibilities of how to design, visualize, and manage a simulated city. The value of this game, I guess, comes from its engaging complexity. There are many variables to consider such as road access, traffic, electricity, water, crime rates, unemployment, economic growth, laws, taxes, or land value much like in the real world. The level of density for example has something to do with the level of population of the whole region. The crime rate has something to do with the unemployment rate which is also connected to the tax rates and policies set. It is an intricate game to say the least. This practically introduced me to the idea of “urban development” and seeing the city as a living organism. These are seeds I believe in my later interest in development economics and public policy.

Just two games I play the most and it have, I believe, influenced me tremendously in my choices now. But I would like to look at these as not the main source of what led me to things I do today. Obviously they are not. They are I guess merely reminders or sign posts - letting me now what I inherently like to do for the rest of my life.