Video games have never fascinated me. Just a little, perhaps, “Pac-man” and “Donkey Kong”. At the dawn of the genre. Early eighties or so. I tried to get hooked on some sultry summer afternoon. Everyone did it, I didn’t want to be outdone. I remember that in the bars on the beach, where the shade in the scorching hours was worth more than anything, we would inevitably find ourselves in the presence of these gadgets that were taking place in place of pinball machines. I looked around. I tried. But it didn’t work. Since then I have always regarded video games with indifference and even a certain suspicion. I’ve always thought that it doesn’t make much sense to persistently play against “someone” who has been carefully programmed to predict, annihilate or pretend to magnify your every move. To then give you the illusion of being able to achieve something, advance a level, even win, when in reality you are just following a pattern that someone has planned in every detail. The result will also be very refined and credible. The variables will also be realistic and potentially infinite.
All hypnotic and compelling but, since you are inside a scheme that excludes you a priori from any real decision, what game is it? What does it mean? Perhaps, decades later, I should ask my neurons not to make too many fuss and to try to enjoy the joys of modern consoles without hesitation. However, if there is no curiosity and there is no stimulus … why go crazy? My neurons, hypocrites who are nothing else, still know very well that they have already fallen into similar, if not worse, traps. And they keep falling for it. Because, to say, every time I express appreciation on Instagram, that I place a virtual heart, that I receive other people’s appreciation and hearts, I am not perhaps part of a predicted and predictable pattern that a clever algorithm has prepared for me and for other boccaloni like myself? Doesn’t the algorithm want to give me the feeling of being part of a whole that is always listening and present, which in reality is mostly distracted and non-existent? Of course yes. And the worst is that I know and I don’t give a damn.
I continue to bask in the pattern that the algorithm has set up to claim me and make me reclaim the attention of others. To the sound of comments and hearts, smilies and thumbs up. And lukewarm considerations. I surrender every time, consciously. Cheerfully. And it suits me. Because it makes me feel good. Even if I do not win anything, I do not achieve anything and even less I level up. Rather.