Growing up, I missed out on the multiplayer shooter craze in video games. I never really spent too much time on Call of Duty or Counter Strike. My parents were one of those freaks that only let you play for 30 minutes a day. Despite being Korean, my parents viewed video games as little more than a toy, believing that 30 minutes seemed sufficient. Of course, the rest of us know that in the grand scheme of things, that is the equivalent of giving a constipated person 30 seconds to take a shit. It really isn’t enough time to do anything.
This same mentality meant that my parents weren’t going to pay for a yearly service to play online multiplayer so missed out on the golden age of Halo. Even when I eventually got a PS3 (which had free online), I didn’t use the microphone to talk to my teammates. The television was in the living room, where my entire family spent the majority of their time, regardless of what they were doing. At the time, my parents also didn’t like anything considered foul language so I thought it was best to mute the angry screams of gamers. That meant that during my brief Call of Duty phase, I was a silent combatant, ignorant to the pleas of my allies and the curses of my enemies.
These things inadvertently led to my video game habits as an adult. I prefer single player stories and Role-playing Games. I like games that tell a story and I don’t want the hassle of trying to find other people to play with, let alone strangers. It has made me a non-competitive and anti-social gamer, for better or worse.
It wasn’t until recently that I started using voice chat in video games for the first time. I had decided to get into virtual reality and bought an Oculus Quest 2. While I still spend most of my time playing single player games, one game that grabbed my attention was Pavlov. A Counter Strike clone of sorts, it is the most arcade-like VR shooter with a modern military theme.
I think that a big part of the appeal for me is how much the game just feels like laser tag. As a kid, this was one of my favorite ways to spend a weekend or a birthday party. Really, VR is the perfect platform for shooters. If you can get used to moving around with the control stick without getting nauseous, you have a laser tag like experience with any sort of genre flavour, not just science fiction. In fact, I think many people into airsoft and milsim might be interested, especially since the cost of entry is lower than those hobbies, and we don’t have to worry about dirty cheaters who won’t call their hits.
However, one thing I wasn’t expecting was how many kids would be playing. Perhaps my perception is distorted by my early memories of playing Call of Duty. I remember a lot of my friends complaining that there were always annoying kids playing online with their mics. I always dismissed this because at the time, we were also kids. Teenagers, sure but still essentially kids. It felt pretty hypocritical.
Overtime, I imagined that the demographic of people playing military shooters would be inline with people my age while younger kids would be into something else. After all, aren’t kids today playing Robloks and Fortnite? Colorful shooters with a larger than life imagination. Of course, I was wrong and ignorant. If video games have taught humans anything, it is that guns are nothing more than toys, no matter the paint job.
When I play Pavlov, I feel like the Dad or the weird Uncle who is tagging along at his kid’s laser tag birthday party…except that none of these kids are mine. I would argue that some of these kids could use supervision. Many of them often scream and yell in obscenities. Along with being annoying, I do wonder if I am interacting with proto Incels.
Of course, not all of them are bad. Mostly, they are silly in ways that only kids can be. Some of the new players ask me questions and I try my best to help them out. Although sometimes, this does end up revealing the generation gap even further.
“How do you get weapons?” someone asked me once.
“You click the analog stick and get a weapon wheel, like Counter Strike.”
“Like what?”
Exactly.
Along this spectrum of harmless and concerning, I have had interactions that lie in the middle, a strange morbid absurdity. I have had several kids come up to me and say,
“Look what I can do!” Then, point a pistol at their heads and blow red chunks of virtual brian matter from their skulls. This is followed by a high pitched giggle presumably from their virtual ghost.
I can’t help but let out a single chuckle out of shock. “That’s great kid,” I’d say.
Even when I make sure my tone isn’t overly enthusiastic(if anything, I sound uninterested), kids need very little encouragement to do anything they want.
I have had at least ten of these miniature nihilists come up to me while playing the game, with some variation of “look what I can do” before commiting virtual suicide. My favorite variation of this line was “this is what my stomach looks like after Taco Bell.”
Of course, they respawn in a few minutes, laughing their asses off before doing it again to someone else. I imagine that some people, especially their parents, would find this somewhat horrific and disturbing. That said, they aren’t my kids, so I can’t help but be stunned at the absurdity.
They can be pretty creative in thinking up new ways to kill themselves. One time, a player came up to me and asked,
“Permission to release grenades, sir.” He had his hand up to his hand in a salute.
“Uh…permission granted.”
“Thank you, sir.” He plucked a grenade off his chest, pulled the pin, and dropped it in front of him. He gave me one last salute before his limbs burst from the explosion into several directions. Again, this was followed by a spectral laugh.
I sometimes wonder, if we as a species have gone too far. Maybe our children, with too much access to technology and knowledge have gained a nihilistic perspective on the world. A dissociation between virtual and physical spaces have given our youth a fearlessness regarding the reverence for life.
Maybe even more disturbing is the fact that I am not concerned. Then, again, these aren’t my kids. My anthropologic curiosity and more morbid sense of humor tell me not to be boomer and embrace the absurdity as virtual child soldiers laugh at their own suicide.
Danger Wonka 