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Video Game Addiction — Why We Love Video Games

How we try to fulfil tribal urges through video games

MediaVSReality
13 min readApr 1, 2021
Freepik

The soldier sat quietly with the young boy, playing yet another game of chess. He ignored the guilt panging in the back of his mind as he hid underground from the clashing of metal and screams that echoed through the room from outside. His armour and shield leant up against the wall beside the door unused.

But the game relaxed his mind. It would allow him to improve his strategic abilities that could one day be used for war, he told himself. Nobody would find him here. He could stay here until the war was over.

The boy moved his rook two spaces forward. The soldier smirked as he moved his bishop 6 spaces diagonally across the board to take the boy’s rook. “Don’t worry boy”, the soldier remarked pridefully, “One day you’ll win every game of chess you ever play like I do”

The boy paused thoughtfully for several moments and then seemed to make up his mind. “I never want to be like you” the boy said innocently.

The soldier, accustom to receiving admiration from children was puzzled. “Why not?” he asked curiously.

The boy continued to look down at the chess board and spoke: “If I became as good as you at this game, I could never become a great soldier”.

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