Are games important to adults?
The young of most mammals, including humans, likes to play. Scientists claim that with lions, for example, play fighting prepares the cubs for their future life as a hunter and killer. The question is whether games teach humans about life. Many people believe that games accustom the player to life-skills such as perseverance and competitiveness.
However, I disagree with the title statement because I consider games to be mainly for children. In childhood, we do not have responsibility for the world. The child is always eager to grow up – to become a year older or to reach the legal age of an adult. Children find happiness in games by pretending to be an adult in the real world. The problem is that games are optional; they contain too much happiness and too little hardship to ever be real. An adult, by contrast, finds meaning in his life by accepting that there are greater things in the world than his own happiness.
One of the dangers of games is that some people attempt to translate the rules of a game onto reality. The modern example of this problem is television and computer games. People in the West are now growing concerns that children and teenagers occasionally imitate violence that they see on the screen. Death is fun on a computer game; and unstable teenagers who kill people in computer games can forget the value of life. American films are often accused of making violence glamorous.
This is not to say that games did not deceive people before the invention of television and the microchip. Success as a sports-star can lead a player to self-importance. If a football player is made captain of his team and receives praise from the local press, he might be tempted to assume that he is the boss in other areas of his life, such as within friendships. Also, he might be surprised to find that sport is simply not important.
Finally, gambling should also be mentioned as a dangerous game. Although gambling and the acceptance of luck are acceptable features of many cultures, a selfish gambler can neglect his financial duties towards his family. Eventually, gambling can become a drug that destroys life.
To an extent, life for most people is precarious enough to include some degree of winning and losing, and of adventure. Also, an unexpected opportunity or lucky find is one of the joys of life. But sooner or later we have to settle down and face the grind of adult life.
