There have been a select few video games that I’ve played during my adult life. As a kid, I played Nintendo games constantly. Before the Nintendo came out, I loved my Atari. Maybe I burnt myself out on games during my childhood; as an adult I haven’t been as interested. There are exceptions, though. For almost a year, I was completely hooked on World of Warcraft. I also played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic from start to finish in a week or two. But of all the characters in all the video games I’ve ever played, my absolute favorite was my mage on Warcraft.
Maybe I identified with her more than say, Pac-Man or Super Mario, because I named her after myself. I got to choose her general features when I created her. Perhaps that’s another difference, as well. Being able to say, “I created her,” isn’t something I could’ve said about Luigi or Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde. (If you don’t remember, those were the names of the ghosts on Pac-Man.)
As Avengela, I also developed abilities that I’ll likely never have in reality. I’ll probably, for example, never actually be able to turn people into sheep, turkeys or pigs. That’s unfortunate, really, since it’s a skill that would come in handy. I can think of a few people I’d love to polymorph. I’m also unlikely to ever be able to teleport or create portals to allow others to do the same. Again, in life those skills would be useful– during rush hour or for cutting down on airfare expenses. No TSA searches required.
There were many things my mage could do that I wish I could do myself. I liked being able to conjure food and create time warps. Having mastery over these types of imaginary abilities would change everything. It would significantly cut down on grocery bills. Mistakes I made could easily be corrected by just manipulating time.
My favorite video game character seems to reflect the idea that I became more attached to a character that fulfilled unrealistic fantasies. Before playing that game, I didn’t know how much I’d really like to have certain “super abilities.” I’d have never considered how funny it would be to turn an arrogant person into a sheep, or a greedy one into a pig. But thanks to Warcraft, and more specifically, my mage, now I know more about those darker aspects of my own psyche.