A Second Life

A Second Life

When some people start to play something for fun, it can change their life. Rogelio, a 24 years old male who was born in Mexico, started to play computer games at the age of 12 years. He told me a little about his computer life. Everything began when his father bought a computer for him in 2002. His father bought it to improve his studies. Certainly it could help Rogelio a lot in school, but it did not happen. He started to play games offline, some games from PlayStation or Xbox. His father thought that it was normal, every boy at 12 years wants to play games. In school Rogelio’s grades was going down. Then, his father thought about selling his computer. Rogelio wanted to play more games so, he promised his father to get high grades. He became one of the best students in class. He made everything to keep his computer. His father was very happy with his scores. Everything changed after the internet. He started to play differents games online, and turned it into his life. His grades became low and he stopped going to school at the age of 18 years old. His father tried to take away his computer and the internet, but he bought new computers and was using a friend’s internet by Wi-Fi.

After two years without going to school, Rogelio came to his father and said that he wants to go to university. His father was happy, he thought that Rogelio wanted to stop playing games and start a new life. Poor father! Rogelio started online university and the university was about games. He really believes that playing game is the best thing in the world. It can improve his life. Also, he can win a lot of money and get a good job playing games. It is what he thinks about games. Games are the new way to make a better life. Today, he plays a lot of different games online and gets some money playing it. He explained to me, when he plays a MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) like Tibia, he can get almost $300 per month just playing. Also, he plays other games like World of Warcraft, Diablo3, Ultima Online, Wyd, and other role-playing games. He likes to play another game when he has “free time”. He played more than one hundred games online, but he does not play video-game anymore.

Rogelio can play more than one game at the same time. Now, he has three computers in his room, he can play on the three computers at the same time. He uses illegal programs called bot or macro to do it. Then he can play 24 hours per day. Usually, he play manually for 15 hours to 18 hours per day. He creates a second life in these games. Now, he has a girlfriend online from Poland. He has been with her since 2010. They are planning to meet in “real life”. First, she said that he needs to cure his addiction. However, he does not think that he is on addict. He thinks that he can stop when he wants. Also, to prove it to his parents and his girlfriend, he did not play any games for a “long” one week. Anyway, his parents suggested to him to start a treatment but he did not accept it. I do not know if it is good or not, only the future will tell us.

Rogelio’s dream job is testing games on Blizzard Entertainment. In September of 2012, he sent an application to Blizzard and he is on the waiting list. He has good skills. When he is playing games like Tibia, you cannot see his hands, because he is very fast. Also, he can play a lot of hours and does not get tired. Today, there are some rarely any opportunities in this field. There is no opportunity in Mexico. He wants to live in the U.S so he can have more opportunities. He has a major in this field. I hope that he gets all he wants. He really is a good person and deserves it. Probably, it will not be easy, but he is “working” very hard.

I am no one to say what he does is right or wrong. I cannot play games for more than 15 hours per day. I do not have patience to do it. I think that he has his life and lives how he wants. If he thinks that the best way for his future is playing games, I wish him luck. I think that everyone has self-determination to choose their future. Addict or not, he will still be my good and old friend Rogelio.

Example of Rogelio's life.

Work cited

Losira, Legend. “APM Legend Losira (aka. KangHo) - the fastest hands in ESports!?” Youtube February 17th, 2014. Web. 6th April. 2014.  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WHcl6Cs1FAM>

Gustavo Goncalves