It was a surprise present for the girls, who had no idea it was coming. Seriously, you should have seen their faces. L didn't know what the hell was going on. E jumped on me and grabbed my head so hard she nearly snapped my neck. Took half an hour and a whiskey to recover.
Yes, alright, it was kind-of sort-of for me too.
It looks like this guy is about to punch me in the face.
He's actually hanging very still in mid-air. It was weird.
The worry was this: the games would be too big a distraction and the writing would suffer. I've had enough problems getting the words down in the last few months as it is.
Perceived wisdom states that videogames stifle creativity, that it takes over the brain, that it turns people into inactive slobs, that it teaches people how to kill (this last idea is so mental I could laugh - and if it's true, then I will be an awful murderer, because I can't shoot for shit).
Every last one of those little pearls is wrong. You will be a slob if you want to be a slob. It's perfectly possible to enjoy games and still have an active life physically and mentally. Games really are like anything else - great in moderation. Too much of one thing will always end up being negative. Like Ritz crackers and Dairylea cheese - that's a very good thing, but it makes your belly surprisingly round (seriously, you should see it - like a bowling ball).
Same applies to the idea of killers, by the way. People end up in very dark places for a complex variety of reasons, not simply because of one trigger. The urge has to be there in the first place, and it's there for deep-seated reasons. You moral crusaders want to take away games, you leave movies. Take away movies, you leave music. Take away music, you leave books. Take away books, you're left with your own stupid ideas, and those of your stupid friends.
Here's the thing: this month I've written more than ever. Five or six pages a day has become normal. In October and November 2016, I had to drag five lines out of myself screaming, and even then they wouldn't sit on the page right, like they'd run off the second I looked away. I'm almost at the end of my latest novel, Two Doors Down (a title that is not going to stick). This is a novel I started on the way to Italy in July 2015, and has stopped and started ever since (in fairness to myself, I wrote 2 pages on a train then put the story away until the beginning of 2016). I've even started this blog up again. Whether that's a good thing or not isn't for me to judge.
This is me getting fired off into the stratosphere again.
Happens far more often than it should.
I think it's a combination of effects. The games themselves tell a story. I don't just mean the campaigns in single player. I mean the multiplayer stuff too. Running around with your team, taking on the enemy - great little stories full of mad little moments.
They're interactive as well, which can actually really liven up the brain. It's well documented that gaming is great for eye-to-hand coordination, but when you've got to spend a bit of time thinking on your feet for a prolonged period of time, making split-second decisions over and over again... Yeah, it's great. Even when an Ewok drops a rock on your head when you're trying to line up a shot.
Also, it's a fun hobby to have. Trust me, it's good to think about something other than writing. Too long spent dwelling on the story can kill the story. When you're stuck? Do something totally different. The down-time will most likely give your brain a chance to find a solution on its own.
Pretty much every single time I finish a game, I get straight into some more writing. Which is nice.
However, I really, really need some outdoor active hobbies. My excuse that it's January and that January sucks is probably a tad feeble.
So there you go. Xbox is good for you. Fact.
Or perhaps I wrote this whole thing just to keep my wonderful, beautiful partner on-side with the whole games console thing, so that she never ever considers removing the damn thing from the house. Who knows?
This kind of mess happens to me a lot in games.
I'm in there somewhere.
If you happen to see a MacPliers running around in odd circles in Star Wars Battlefront or Zombies in Spaceland, that'll be me.
Just remember, people. Moderation. Leave room in your life for everything.
Laters
