on Games (three takes)

"The opposite of play isn't work - it's depression" I'm thinking about games lately - video games, dating games, money games. Two books and a trip to Vegas peppered my mind with ideas. I'm starting to think that choosing the right game to play is just as important as winning or losing.Video games were a big deal to me as a kid - for my 5th grade science fair project, when most kids were building little volcanoes or demonstrating light bulbs, I dreamt up an experiment that sought to prove that video games, from Mario to Mortal Kombat, weren't bad for people.In middle school, I ignored my homework to play GoldenEye on Nintendo 64;  in high school my nights would fly by with epic contests of Madden Football. In college, my roommate and I took a 2 hour road trip to the closest town with an available copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.Since I've started paying my own bills, most of my video games have been collecting dust. When I pick up a controller, I can only hold it for so long before feeling guilty that there's a more productive thing I could be doing. I miss the games, and the simple fun they created.In the book "Reality is Broken" by Jane McGonigal, the point is made that video games provide a real, quantifiable dose of positivity, productivity, and thoughtfulness. By the billions, people around the world are turning to games to achieve feelings of success that otherwise pass them by.Unlike watching TV, McGonigal points out that video games stimulate the mind while giving the player a necessary break from the demands of day-to-day life.  There are plenty of destructive ways to exit reality, but video games aren't one of them. They can build brain cells, sharpen visual acuity, foster strategic thinking; they unleash creativity and hone situational awareness.Making failure fun is a high achievement of gaming, and maybe the least noticeable. No player begins a game and immediately soars through every mission or level without repeatedly failing; each failure is usually followed by laughter and pressing 'continue.'The games train us to be optimistic, excited, and interested, even after we turn them off - as McGonigal writes, "as long as our failure is interesting, we will keep trying - and remain hopeful that we will succeed eventually."After absorbing the details of the book, I've decided to make a whole-hearted effort to get myself back into video games as quickly as possible. Whatever guilt I felt before about the lost time or burned opportunities to do 'real' work has been mitigated by the realization that sometimes, people just need to PLAY.For an entirely different take on "games" - and after seeing it on the shelves of several friends, I decided to pick up the book I'd been hearing about for a while - Neil Strauss' "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists."The world Strauss inhabits in the book is populated by sleazy men who spend their days creating absurd strategies to pick up women in bars.Strauss' fallacy, and the one perpetrated by the people who 'study' this book, is that the 'Game' they describe is not a game. Their 'game' manipulatively hacks together the four qualities that define what makes something a game  - a Goal, Rules, a Feedback System, and Voluntary Participation.For Strauss, the goal throughout most of the book is to get women into bed - until the conclusion, in which he finally, after a few hundred pages, realizes that the 'goal' he had been chasing wouldn't be reached with happiness or fulfillment, and that having - gasp - a girlfriend is the most worthy success.If a Game forces the player to completely reverse the definition of the goal on approach, it's not a game, it's simply a 'Problem.'The second defining characteristic of a game - that it has rules - is completely missing from Strauss' 'game.' In an attempt to charm the others who play along, the group of 'pickup artists' created so-called 'rules' for the game, but anyone who has ever actually been in love (or even just lust) knows that Rules do not exist - all is fair.The two other qualities of games - a feedback system and voluntary participation - are also missing from Strauss' game. The closest thing to a feedback system is a self-generated tally of women the author is able to manipulate and later regret; and the concept of voluntary participation is questionable by account of the apparent psychosis and mania of one the main characters.After reading both of these books, I also just returned from my first trip to Las Vegas.I enjoyed my visit, but I struggled with the card and table games because they lack the familiarity (to my generation) and intensity of console video games. Flipping a few cards over, whether on a felt table or a video screen, doesn't capture my imagination the same way that slaying an entire planet of aliens does, or the way that screeching past a finish line at 150MPH in a virtual car does, or even the way that simulating the construction of a metropolis does.Why doesn't Vegas update the antiquated games with what is already raking in billions of dollars around the world - video games? I would be more excited to lay chips down and challenge a 'champion' of HALO or Gran Turismo than I would be to try and figure out how to play Craps or Baccarat.Vegas games include the four necessities - goals, rules, feedback, and volunteering - but they twist the central idea of amusement - that a game is a "voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles." When money is on the table, the game is not played just for the sake of playing, it's played for earnings.Would Vegas be entertaining if the games were played without wagers? Would people enjoy large public spaces dedicated to gaming in cities, if an hour could be casually spent 'publicly playing' without worry of losing next month's rent money?I think what Vegas gets right is that games should be a shared experience, and enjoyed in public - one of the failings of playing video games at homes. Maybe what Vegas gets wrong is that gaming has to be so closely tied to vice.All things considered, I suppose all of these examples of games have some merit as an escape from work and momentary release of stress. Whether a game is played with an Xbox controller, a bar tab and pickup line, or a Royal Flush, each is some kind of attempt to find success in a place where it isn't necessary, to find novelty in a new experience.I think with careful attention, video games can be a positive force in society, a constructive outlet for the emotions that could otherwise drive people into less savory attempts at winning for it's own sake.