Imagine this, its 2013 and you just got home from school. You put in the BO2 disc and as it’s loading up you join the party with all your friends. Life is good. Video games are something that some of us hold close to us, they bring back a lot of good memories and help make new ones every time we play with friends or even alone. 

To some, video games may seem like a waste of time, energy and money, but that could be said about every hobby. Kids today love to play video games because of the competitiveness and the excitement and adrenaline it can bring. Everyone plays different types of video games, some play shooter games like Call of Duty or Fortnite and some play sports games like Madden or 2K and a lot of people grew up playing Minecraft and still love it like junior Brandon Scaife, 

“When I play, it will most likely be Minecraft or Fortnite,” said Scaife. 

Not everyone started on Minecraft though, senior Hyun Tae Joo started a very different game at a young age, 

“The videogame that I’ve played most is Counterstrike. I started playing when I was six because a lot of the older guys at church got me into it,” said Joo

Six is a very young age to start playing video games, some kids didn’t start until much later,

“I started when i was around 10.” said junior Cameron Meyer.

Like many hobbies, video games are great distractions, a thing someone can do to get away from stress or to just have some fun. They can help you keep your mind off things and just be a safe thing to escape to. Seniors Ryan Finley and Adam Booker explain why they are important, 

“It’s always been easy for me and my friends and family to connect and have fun and get away from stressful situations,” said Finley. 

“Video games are an escape from reality and allow you to take your mind off of things that are stressing you out or what makes life hard,” said Booker.

Video games continue to get better and better each year with new games and consoles coming out consistently. People go nuts just to be the first to try a new game and some go crazier to get a new console, something that only happens every few years, but usually, both are super expensive. 

“I’m excited about the new Star Wars game and the newest Xbox console, but I’m not sure I will actually go out and buy them,” said Scaife.

  Video games mean a lot to us as high schoolers, they bring back feelings of nostalgia and times of fun and excitement. We get those feelings every time we play a new game for the first time, or hop on the sticks to play with our buddies at 1 am on the weekends. Video games may be stupid to some, but to a lot of us, they’re mean much more than others realize.