There are several, much more important, factors in my decision to abstain from the visual gaming medium until early April. The number one cause of my desire, perhaps need, to cease and desist the playing of games is the play-time counter in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which on my account now reads some 2 days and 18 hours. A stunning number, when one stops to think about it, as it begs the question of just what I could have accomplished if, in the two months I've owned a copy of the game, I spent 2.75 days accomplishing something else. I could have finished most of the term papers I need to hand in for this semester, none of which I have actually done or even started and all of which now need to be handed in within a month. I could have had approximately 33 2-hour workout sessions at the gym, getting healthy exercise and improving my overall physique. I could have contributed more regularly to the under-appreciated Toilet Bowl section of the gameaddicts website, recorded and edited about 10 or 11 podcasts, or finally got around to updating that website I made oh-so-many moons ago. I could have worked for minimum wage ($9.25/hour where I live) and made $610, or I could have spent a good 60 hours looking for a job for the summer that paid better than minimum wage. I also could have spent that time having fun, being entertained, with friends, having real life experiences and making memories. Hell, I could have spent a good 60 hours dealing with the day-to-day problems that occur in real life, paying attention to my finances, future plans, and getting organized, instead of putting them on the backburner, not thinking about them, and then having to rush very important things at the last second. I could get to sleep at a reasonable time each night, and actually take time in the morning to wake up. I could have made many areas of my life improve over the last two months, but instead I improved the life of my MW2 character, who exists only from the time a match starts to when it ends. After that, I have to live my real life, and so I really wanted to make that proposition a little more appealing.

My life is not in shambles, and unlike what certain videos may have you believe I don't actually consider videogames to be a waste of time. In fact, I spend a good deal of my time arguing the opposite, and I firmly believe that for better or worse videogames play a more important role in our culture than do books, movies, or music. I also believe the potential for videogames to expand the breadth of experiences they provide to an individual is greater than it is in any other medium, and furthermore I believe that within the very near future the umbrella term "videogame" will need to be revised if it continues to claim categorical similarities between this "videogame " and this one. To ignore the virtual landscape that now dominates North American culture would be a mistake, but to succumb to its detriments in pursuit of its virtues is potentially worse. Unlike user movie creator "Zebrah" I'm not on the cusp of a midlife crisis, looking back on my game playing days with regret. What I am doing is looking back on the last two months of my gaming habits and really wondering what it is about videogames that has so utterly captivated me? Why is it so easy for me to make time for videogames and so hard for me to make time for other hobbies, interests, and demands? Why, from time to time, do I feel conflicted about the amount of time I do spend playing videogames? And why are literally tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people in the same position as me?

Over the next four and a half weeks I aim to take a step back from videogames and attempt to understand just what it is about them that fascinates me so. I find it incredibly ironic (as do most of you readers, I'm sure) that during a time when I'm purposefully not playing videogames I am purposefully thinking directly about them. Such is the inner-conflict I feel towards, and about, videogames, and this is precisely what I'll be investigating over the next month and a week. I will also be cataloguing a life without videogames, and I will attempt to accurately relay the pros and cons I experience of a life without games to you, the reader, so that in the end you may call into question many of the conclusions I draw. I invite you to join me through until April 4th, either as a fellow participant in this experiment or simply as a commentor, as I experience Life in RL.