Mind Games

The mind does not know the difference between imagination and reality. The body does.

A newspaper in Beijing reported a 13-year-old boy jumped out of his family's 24th floor apartment in Tianjin, after playing the World of Warcraft at an Internet cafe for 36 hours. The parents are suing the game's licensed Chinese distributor for 100,000 yuan ($12,500) for failure to warn players of the inherent dangers of Warcraft, a game produced by an American company, Blizzard Entertainment.

So what's the story behind the boy being in an Internet cafe for 36 hours? Family issues? Peer pressure? And now, they blame the game.

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Here comes Barbara St. Hilaire a.k.a. Old Grandma Hard Core, a 70-year-old grandmother from Cleveland who loves to play video games that MTV hired her as senior correspondent to review games for the channel. Gaming keeps her mind alert, improves her reflexes and helps her bond with her grandchildren. It's also a way for her to take out her frustrations.

When asked if graphic violence in these games bother her and if anything should be done to regulate these games, she answered "As far as regulation goes, I think governments should absolutely leave video games alone. It's up to the parents to 'regulate.'"

According to the Entertainment Software Association, 19% of all computer and console gamers are over the age of 50. They play a variety of games -- from laid-back, relaxing fare such as solitaire and mah-jongg, to first-person shooters (military-themed titles are hits).

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For over ten years, my dad played Battle City everyday. At first it seemed amusing to watch him play. He cracked his own codes and cheats. He would pause, go to work and continue until he fell asleep. He gets angry if I try to clean his control pad from the accumulated gunk. One time, I was running around with the dogs and tripped over the wires of his game. Boy, he blew a fuse! It came to a point where we tried to wean him out of playing his video game and spend time with his family. This led to chain-smoking and eventually, death.

This is a case of children trying to "regulate" the parent's gaming. It's understandable that gaming is a form of releasing stress but to play habitually and to sometimes get lost in the game for hours? I start to question if it's an act of withdrawal from society and cocoon oneself into a world of addiction.

For most people, it is easy to blame death on video games, cigarettes, or other intoxicating substances. Addiction is not bad as long as you are responsible for your return to physical reality in this dimension. You can lose yourself in a game of golf, making love, reading a book, working for achievement or simply watching your children play. Either way, it can be constructive or destructive addiction.

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Speaking of children and prison, the showing of the film, Bunso, raised issues on the city's image of cleaning up minor offenders. I believe that the film was created to tug the hearts and purse strings of people who support UNICEF. Pakiluoy lang, taga-i intawon mi. So what have they been showing to UNICEF to get funding that we Cebuanos haven't even seen? Now, they want to edit the film to suit the city administration's image and shield the viewers from the harsh truth?

The beauty of showing the film is for Cebuanos to be aware of our history and learn from the past. I understand the diligence of our local officials in making our city a better place to live by making sure their effort doesn't go to waste by censoring video material.

Instead of wallowing in those personal issues on who's responsible for beautifying the children's prison, let's just face reality. Our city doesn't have enough funds to support offenders, much less the minor ones. To raise funds, maybe they should create a sequel to the film and generate income from it. After all, don't we all love watching reality shows? I can see another PBB (Prison Big Brother) in the making.

Cebu boasts of entrepreneurs, filmmakers, local talents and a hard-to-please audience as critics. We have what it takes to make another blockbuster video. Let's use our imagination. It's all in the mind.

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