It was a hot summer day when my then girlfriend and myself got into my car and drove off to Best Buy. The purchase that was going to be made was a brand new Xbox system. By the time I was buying this square black box the system had already been out for some time but was still new enough that there was a hype and buzz about it. A few hours after later my girl and I were in front of the television playing Halo and mindlessly letting the hours slip away just like many other twenty somethings at the time.
This was the first system that I had actually gotten into since my brother had recieved as a present the super Nintendo some years back. Video games had significantly changed from the Super Nintendo to the Xbox but I changed also. Rather than ride the wave of the future, video games disappeared from my hobbies for many years until I was turned onto the Xbox by a friend and my cousin. But there was another game "system" that did preoccupy my time, sometimes more often than not. That "system" was the war-game.
The war-game is not like a board-game, but it can have a board. The war-game surpasses leisure and becomes a boot camp for the brain and an analytical labyrinth. The war-game finely sharpens the competitive edges of the soul and enhances the depths of history. But the war-game is also an outsider and those who dare enter its' realm have to face the repercussions of being a part of it.
The relationship with the war-game has always been a tricky one. There is a sense that playing any type of war-game is hanging onto the past and living in a hyperbole of history. In fact many people that I know who are younger than me dare even touch the box of a war-game. And for those curious enough to browse through a games contents, the realization that you actually have to know rules to play the game properly is a complete turn off. It is so easy to turn on a video game and just start playing. Convenience has replaced the war-game, and the luster of technology replacing the imagination of cardboard.
But now there is the Xbox 360 and the ability to game with people via the internet. For those who have done this I'm sure you know of the gamut of gamers who exist. Those who's competitive edge is win at all cost and there are those who's failure to accept loss brews hatred and spite. The Xbox 360 is fun to play but there are those times, and they are very few, when friends and family get together and sit down to play a war-game. The hours pass unknowingly but camaraderie is built, character formed and an appreciation for each other is gained. When failure comes, sure we can say the dice beat us and when the unexpected is achieved we try to believe that was what was planned all along. Long live the war-game.
