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"A topic by Grix Thraves"

Is there nothing more demeaning and pathetic than being seventeen years old, and being stuck inside a house, doing little but pretending that you're not really there? Hoping and wishing that you can be somewhere, someone else? Can we honestly compare ourselves to people who go outside and garden all day, spend their lives looking after animals and treating the sick?

A man with a job still makes him a man, and beyond that, still puts him in the same position as us. Everything, yes, everything, is escapism. Be it watching a film, doing work, going down the shops... just to look around.

For what can we achieve in our lives that would matter one single bit to anyone when we die? For some generation to come along and look at us, wonder how wonderful we were and where we got our ideas from, perhaps take inspiration in what we've done...

But they die too. In the end, all we may do by letting ourselves live on is to help more people escape. Utterly devoid of sense as we all go to work, come home, discuss more methods of escaping from whatever we are possibly trying to escape from and into, and then go to bed, not a worry in the world, as we spend another day doing nothing and being no more than humans stuck somewhere where we can do little but try to express our emotions, as I do now.

So how on earth can we judge people by what future they have? Yeah, we can have a laugh, and escape for that brief moment... but those without grand jobs and making hundreds of thousands a year can have fun too. We spend far too much of our life worrying about what the rest of it will be like, and we waste so much of it trying to stay within the parametres of those set out to try and regain normality in a world that seems less and less sane the longer you stare at it.

So, what difference is there to playing a game to finding your dream job? What possible distinction is there between falling in love and getting a high score? It's all the same thing in the end, utter nonsense escapism. Simple emotions to try and keep us all happy until the one day that we all snuff it.

I'm not saying I don't want to find a dream job, and fall in love...

And here's the point...

Why on earth are gamers made out to be geeks? What possible harm to anyone including ourselves are we doing by playing games?

What? Instead of our larger leg muscles wasting away after playing football all our lives, our masculine finger muscles will now waste away, obviously making that so awful?

Exactly the same reason why some drugs are banned, and why some films are being censored to "protect" us. It can all be catagorised under the same heading, so why do so many people have a problem with things that aren't normal?

I have no real want or need to dance down a street naked, but why can't I if I want to? Would I harm anyone?

Not at all. But the fact is that we are so closly bound by what we've been bought up to believe that it's so difficult to see past our noses and realise that we're not so different after all.

And on that I end this topic. I don't pose any questions, I don't ask you to reply. It's just something I felt like saying at the time.

Is there nothing more demeaning and pathetic than being seventeen years old, and being stuck inside a house, doing little but pretending that you're not really there? Hoping and wishing that you can be somewhere, someone else? Can we honestly compare ourselves to people who go outside and garden all day, spend their lives looking after animals and treating the sick?

A man with a job still makes him a man, and beyond that, still puts him in the same position as us. Everything, yes, everything, is escapism. Be it watching a film, doing work, going down the shops... just to look around.

For what can we achieve in our lives that would matter one single bit to anyone when we die? For some generation to come along and look at us, wonder how wonderful we were and where we got our ideas from, perhaps take inspiration in what we've done...

But they die too. In the end, all we may do by letting ourselves live on is to help more people escape. Utterly devoid of sense as we all go to work, come home, discuss more methods of escaping from whatever we are possibly trying to escape from and into, and then go to bed, not a worry in the world, as we spend another day doing nothing and being no more than humans stuck somewhere where we can do little but try to express our emotions, as I do now.

So how on earth can we judge people by what future they have? Yeah, we can have a laugh, and escape for that brief moment... but those without grand jobs and making hundreds of thousands a year can have fun too. We spend far too much of our life worrying about what the rest of it will be like, and we waste so much of it trying to stay within the parametres of those set out to try and regain normality in a world that seems less and less sane the longer you stare at it.

So, what difference is there to playing a game to finding your dream job? What possible distinction is there between falling in love and getting a high score? It's all the same thing in the end, utter nonsense escapism. Simple emotions to try and keep us all happy until the one day that we all snuff it.

I'm not saying I don't want to find a dream job, and fall in love...

And here's the point...

Why on earth are gamers made out to be geeks? What possible harm to anyone including ourselves are we doing by playing games?

What? Instead of our larger leg muscles wasting away after playing football all our lives, our masculine finger muscles will now waste away, obviously making that so awful?

Exactly the same reason why some drugs are banned, and why some films are being censored to "protect" us. It can all be catagorised under the same heading, so why do so many people have a problem with things that aren't normal?

I have no real want or need to dance down a street naked, but why can't I if I want to? Would I harm anyone?

Not at all. But the fact is that we are so closly bound by what we've been bought up to believe that it's so difficult to see past our noses and realise that we're not so different after all.

And on that I end this topic. I don't pose any questions, I don't ask you to reply. It's just something I felt like saying at the time.

Grix Thraves wrote:

And on that I end this topic. I don't pose any questions, I don't ask you to reply. It's just something I felt like saying at the time.

Ok then.

*Walks out the room*

I see what you mean now, we look to the future rather then what is important now. We only get one chance and we have to made the most of it while we can, whether it be fulfilling a dream or curing the sick we must act today and not for tomorrow.

Nicely wrote and worth a GAD without a doubt. Keep them coming and don't suppose you'll unblock me from MSN?

I have a choice to block you or not, and I've made my choice, thank you very much.

Mr Nice Guy wrote:
"I see what you mean now, we look to the future rather then what is important now. We only get one chance and we have to made the most of it while we can, whether it be fulfilling a dream or curing the sick we must act today and not for tomorrow."


Nicely said, but nothing to do with my topic.

There is so much in this topic that you can't actually reply without giving an essay. It seems in this age it is thick to be clever, like you say gamers are made out to be nerds. It is always the fools that are the popular ones and the nerds are always made out to be loners. It's an image and even shows like 'The Simpsons' show this.

Grix Thraves wrote:
> Is there nothing more demeaning and pathetic than being seventeen years old,

Yes, being 16, not a child, no car, not old enough to go to clubs and drink legally- 16 is the most boring time!:(

Then you get to 19, and you can drive, you can go to clubs and you can vote, and then it suddenly hits you. For the past few years all you did was moan about not being able to do anything, but when you can do anything, it;s not all that interesting anyway. Sure you can go out with your mates and have a laugh, but unless you have a dream to fulfil, life is boring. So decide what it is you want to be and try to achieve it, it may take years it may take mere days, but your life will be better if you have a goal you can actively seek.

Before anyone complains that they are at scholl and therefore restricted, remember that school is the first step of many, and if the first step is strong, then you always have that to fall back to, if it is weak, then it wint mean anything to you in the future.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter what age I am, I won't be able to legally run nude through a street. Things like driving, drinking, drugs whatever, yeah, those could end up with me ending someone elses life. But I'll find it very hard to kill someone by parading in my birthday suit.

And this has NOTHING to do with waiting until you can be at a responsible age. I will always feel as responsible as I do now, that won't change too much. This HAS however got a lot to do with how we perceive the actions of others, and the fact that normality has driven us into a race of people that are unable to openly admit what we feel.

I suppose that if you're deeply into anything that's anti social then people might call you a geek.

Escapism comes in plenty of forms.
People escape in a variety of ways.
Some prefer some ways better than others.

The general idea of escapism is to test and occupy your brain in order to take your mind of boredom, depression, or any other unwanted emotions you find lying around your brain.

Some people escape into their own projects and dreams so much that they often leave behind the world and start to live in a world of their own.
The more they do this, the more of a social barrier they build around themself.
They begin to form opinions and ideas more on their own ideas rather than allow outside opinions and ideas help influence them.
If they go too far then a huge barrier is built between them and the rest of the world.

They begin to lose understanding of other people, other people begin to lose understanding of them.
They become isolated away from most except for the few people who also think like them.

Say for example:

The stereotyped characteristics for a geek:

They're heavily into space/science/computing/something along those lines.
They tend not to care for an outside appearance.
They are normally so deep into their subject that they know little of the real world and their knowledge is so concentrated around a certain area, it's often way out of most peoples reach - people can no longer understand what they mean most of the time.

These are people who are socially isolated and are more into their dreams or project and forget the real world.

Ofcourse, as with any word, it gets use and used less strictly until you get to the point where people may be called geeks if they're not 100% "cool", or if they don't look perfect or if they take in interest in intelectual studies.

Everyone needs to escape and like to use a variety of escape routes whether it be sport, TV or computing or whatever.

However, if you use one excape route all the time, one which others rarely use, then you might find that you end up escaping into a barren world where you're isolated from other people.

This is pretty extreme as even the most hardcore "geeks" tend to use mainstream escape routes like watching TV programmes and they might also have a job.
The more escape routes you use, the more people, who also use these escape routes, you can relate to.

The more balanced you are, the more you can get on with the world.


So why do people have problems with things that aren't normal?

Often because they see things a different way.
They might not understand the way you think.
They might be scared of things they don't understand.

Remember the Monty Pythons sketch from "Now for something completely different".

The one about the joke phrase book.

A man would think he was asking to go to the train station but the one he asked would hear a request to "let me feel your buttocks!"

Isolation and weirdness all comes down to a lack of communication.
If all people used the same escape routes, then there would be no problems like this.

Most of us here prefer gaming as our main escape route - something we can easily talk about with each other.

Non-gamers would find our level of discussion baffling and would leave the site thinking "this lot are a bunch of geeks..."

Using mainstream escape routes as well as your favoured ones allows you to communicate with a wider range of people, avoiding isolation.

And THAT is why a social life is important.