MMOs as a force for good!

I’m an avid yoga practitioner. I love it; I learn a little bit about myself each day through the daily practice of feeling peace and clearing my mind. I’ve often thought about the daily ‘practice’ of playing an MMO — if an MMO could help you feel heroic and accomplished, a little bit each day, how would that translate over time into a new kind of muscle memory? What could you be in your everyday life if you felt heroic rather than defeated and hopeless? And if you felt heroic and acted as such, how would that then spread to your friends? (There’s a great NYTimes article about how such things as happiness and outlook are contagious amongst friends.)

A quote from Ogyen Trinley Dorje –the only senior Buddhist leader recognized by China, Tibet, and India:

Well, I view video games as something of an emotional therapy, a mundane level of emotional therapy for me. We all have emotions whether we’re Buddhist practitioners or not, all of us have emotions, happy emotions, sad emotions, displeased emotions and we need to figure out a way to deal with them when they arise.

So, for me sometimes it can be a relief, a kind of decompression to just play some video games. If I’m having some negative thoughts or negative feelings, video games are one way in which I can release that energy in the context of the illusion of the game. I feel better afterwards.

The aggression that comes out in the video game satiates whatever desire I might have to express that feeling. For me, that’s very skilful because when I do that I don’t have to go and hit anyone over the head.

Thanks to @daveofdoom for the link.