I work testing video games. The difference between movies and games is that in games you are in control, which is awesome. They’re also endlessly forgiving, even the hardest ones: when you make a mistake, there’s always the option of trying again. With save datas or by literally starting the game again, if you keep going you reach the goal and beat all challenges. In the end you’re the hero that never lost, because every time you did lose, you simply went back in time and tried again.
What’s attractive about it is that our actual lives are not like that. In real life, the mistakes we committed yesterday, the ways in which we are hurt or we hurt others, the words we say and decisions we make, have no “return to checkpoint” option. There is only consequence. Healing is painful and it leaves scars.
Then there is death, game over. Continue reading Scars and New Beginnings
