I think there is something very special about games and the act of gaming. Games have an important if understated heritage spanning millennia and virtually every culture. The gaming mentality whether in sport or in gambling, from reflex gaming to strategy gaming, is to win. Yet even in losing the act of gaming is like a ritual, an affirmation that you, and your peers, can and do abide by rules that allow competition without reverting to savagery, violence or worse, cheating. Gaming reflects many of the decisions we make in real life, some games reflect conflict, some reflect accumulation of wealth and the risks involved while others are co-operative games where everyone is sharing the same goals. Games are sand boxes of reality, often accelerated, condensed and abstracted versions of real life.

It is nothing new for people to be completely wrapped up in the world of gaming and sport (to me the same thing). Since the dawn of culture sports have produced heroes and villains, reflecting the romances of literature and the realities of politics. Unlike a book, film or theater these gamers and sports people are famous for their dedication, courage and skill. These are not imaginary characters but real competitors even if the games they play are abstractions. Gaming is an essential gel in society reflecting the general will of humans to exist by a meritocratic system yet one that is entrenched in co-operation with the odd conflict thrown in for good measure. This gel is the ritual replaying of the ‘winner’ and ‘loser’ narrative, and more fundamentally the ever cyclic story of life and death.