“Don’t you have something else better to do? Surely these four hours can be put into something more useful,” I tell myself while staring at the bright screen with mouse in one hand and keyboard in the other.
To those who say that a video game’s only purpose is to serve as a medium of entertainment, I humbly disagree.
On Feb. 9, while browsing through Reddit I had discovered this post from Twitch streamer Angela (who chose to omit her last name for anonymity), known online as "lucent_beam," which struck a chord in me.
Within the online game called “Destiny,” the game strongly urges players to form teams in order to acquire the best equipment possible for your character. However, some people—like me—are in the minority where they want to play solo. Unless you have a group of friends, finding random players that are cooperative can be difficult.
What Angela, the Reddit poster, does is different from the typical get together with friends. She decides to take on what she calls ‘The Tower Challenge,’ a game she created where she picks low-level Destiny players and helps them progress through the game.
In gaming, when multiple players join together, the group is called a “party.”
“Most of the time, people don’t even respond to a random message, but when they do they are really excited. What’s wild is that for some people, it would be their first time in a party. So it’d always blow my mind that there would be people who seem to play so much but have played solo the whole time and have missed out on the fun of a team.” said Angela. Luckily, in this case, she was successful.
The player that Angela met revealed he had more than 600 hours logged into the game and had three characters, none of which had completed any of the end game content. Angela states that the player is “quite different than you'd think for someone with 600-plus hours.”
The player, while he almost entirely played solo, does not use any outside resources to learn or stay up to date with the game. Additionally, the player had solved “Destiny’s” big “Sleeper Simulant” riddle by “working on it a couple of hours a day for a few days, just randomly entering the code via process of elimination until it worked.”
While waiting for an event to start within the game, the man started sharing his story with Angela.
“This game actually kinda saved my life,” he said. “My wife actually passed away Christmas 2014 and I’m raising my 11 year old granddaughter. All my family is already passed away. My son passed away nine months ago. This game keeps my mind—I’m retired, so—this game keeps my mind pretty sharp. I feel like I live here. I have lucid dreams about living here. And those are really exciting. It’s so exciting, the most exciting time of my life, being in here.”
In the moment, I realized that not only Destiny, but games in general bring out the best in some people. There will always be a negative side to any gaming community but those parts are outshined by these memorable moments.
I’ve been playing Destiny ever since it launched back in September 2014. It has been truly an amazing sight to see the community continue to grow.
“I just know I've had fun playing with groups and I wanted to share that experience with random people who may not know what they were missing out on,” said Angela. “I think a lot of people either forget or don’t think about the huge audience Destiny has and I felt awestruck thinking of how much this guy played and loved the game without using any outside resources and arguably, has been missing out on a lot.”
Because of how the online game was built, solo players aren’t getting the complete experience. Some players might only play for the storyline but without other players, they will not be able to acquire the higher level end game content Destiny offers.
The hardest but arguably most compelling missions Destiny features are the cooperative missions known as Raids and Nightfalls. At this point, the endgame relies more on having a team than ever before. The game requires you to have a prearranged group because automatic matchmaking is not offered in the two mission types.
Raids and Nightfalls are also the fastest way for your character to progress because of the rewards you gain from completing the mission. The rewards yield the best equipment you can acquire including armor and weapons.
Video games are not just for entertainment. In this grandfather’s case, it had brought hope back into his life.
Academics have commonly been associated with video games and how a student’s grades are at risk through playing video games. But a study done in 2014 conducted by Aaron Drummond of Flinders University and James D. Sauer of the University of Portsmouth found that there is no correlation between videogames and how it hinders a student’s academic performance.
In a sense, when we think about the effects of video games on people, it’s a double edged sword. There are some very poor uses of video games. But when consumed in reasonable doses, video games aren’t as bad as what some people make it out to be.
