Are video games too competitive?

The thoughts and ideas of this subject have been floating around in my mind for a few months now, mainly after finishing up on my console for the night in that 20-30 minutes of peace you get in bed before falling asleep.

Do we take gaming now too seriously? Has it got the point where we don’t play games now for the enjoyment but play because we want to be better than someone else?

My earliest memory I think is playing FIFA International Soccer on the Sega mega drive, Janco Tianno and Matt Webster banging them in for the EA all-stars against a lowly Qatar because you wanted to win 8-0. If I wind forward to 1998 when FIFA 99 was released, an old friend and I spent a whole day of our summer holidays using the instant replay function as we were adamant Bergkamp was struck by lightning.

Yey, synchronised goal celebration!

The point I want to make is that playing these games was great fun and I didn’t really care about the score when playing against a friend. We were far more amused by the fact that if you put in a horror tackle on FIFA International Soccer you could spend the next five minutes running away from the ref to avoid a yellow card. Win or lose we enjoyed it.

Fast forward 21 years to FIFA 14 and something has changed, yes I know I have grown up and it isn’t just about the taking part (sorry kids!), but do I get that same enjoyment? Probably not….unless I win. For example, playing online seasons I was on a really stinky 6 match losing streak (this is where I had my light bulb moment), Do I play again because I want to? Or because I want/need to win? The last thing I wanted to do was to play another 15 minutes and get endlessly frustrated and annoyed when I concede an 89^th minute goal, followed by opposing player spending the next ten minutes celebrating and watching the replay from every possible angle!

'Ssshhhh, If I am quiet no one will notice me at the back post'

Call of Duty is another fine example, I have recently stopped playing multiplayer because I just stopped having fun. I know what you’re thinking and yes I am your average Joe type of player, I have good games and bad games. Here is that light bulb moment again though, I started to worry about my K/D ratio rather than play and enjoy the game itself.

I am not trying to say let us all boycott multiplayer, not at all. I still die in the opening seconds in Team Death Match and still concede 90^th minute goals on FIFA. I just want you all to strip back all of the stats and trophies and remember why you put that game in your console in the first place. Enjoy!