If you can feel your ears being bombarded with abuses at the rate of a thousand per minute, if you see a bunch of guys lost in a virtual world, laughing, yelling, if you find the staple food of a place to be cigarette and nicotine, you know that you are at a gaming café!
Gaming is gradually becoming an upcoming culture which is slowly expanding its horizons to include the whole of youth. Like rock was the new ‘trend‘ in the 1960‘s, gaming is the trend of the new millennium.
Gaming is a culture in which, people from various walks of life come together only for the passion it enfolds. They are so immersed into this new virtual world that they forget their real names, their real identities and literally address each other with their gaming nick names.
"How‘s life, ‘Death-seeker‘?"
When they are playing a game, they are transported to a different domain altogether and do not realize that they are cut off from reality. They do not hear their own yips and yells. And even after the game is over, they tend to live its hang-over and talk solely about the game, the various strategies they used and could have used and so on. Gaming does require a lot of brain-storming after all.
Some gamers opine that gaming binds. If you are playing a clan match against another clan, being interactive with each and every member of your group is mandatory. It‘s all team work. "That‘s exactly why whenever we have an argument or a fight, we all simply go and have a good game. That sidelines the trifles and all that we remember is the game and its fun!" says Adil ‘KnoT‘ Bhave, a Counter Strike player.
Gaming is not just a pass-time for these players. It‘s a way of life. It is far stretched from being a ‘just another leisure activity‘ to something that is inseparable from the gamers. "Gaming is my passion. It is what I live for," says Kaustubh ‘ J[A]cK‘ Donde, hardcore Counter-Strike player. They are emotionally connected to the games. Also, they seek to make a name for them, to attain recognition in the gaming genre and to elevate it to a much higher pedestal of perfection.
To illustrate, a group of six young boys in Mumbai formed an organization called ‘Live2oWn‘ in December 2006 to manage and organize gaming tournaments all over India. They are doing exceedingly well, all thanks to the passion they hold for gaming! Also, most of the gamers at Energy are professionals who are paid by top-notch companies to play.
Gaming is kind of a labyrinth. It has instilled an obsessive compulsive disorder into the gamers. They live on gaming. Banging the computer-tables, growling like wild animals, having sleepless nights, indulging in unavoidable break-each-other‘s-head arguments with their girlfriends, playing for long hours without getting tired (I wonder if they‘re on steroids!), become a pleasant inevitable part of their lives! For the gamers, gaming is pleasurable, a stress-buster and something that has struck an emotional chord with them, something they truly love. They love to live this virtual reality. Justifies the longevity of gaming, doesn‘t it? Make way for the new culture, people! The electronic sports are definitely here to stay. The passion lives on.
