Just about everyone growing up has either been addicted to video games or knows somebody that was. To parents a game was just that, a GAME. It had no value whatsoever outside of pure entertainment. They would get angry at their kids for being glued to the television for hours at a time. Nowadays games have become just as popular as hit movies or in some cases even bigger.

With the advancement of Internet technology, playing multi-player games with everyone around the world is as easy as clicking a button. Instantly you can be hooked up with 5 other people involved in a heated game of Quake 2 or Starcraft. You can join or create teams (usually called clans) and battle others, chat for hours with them, have a ranking system, just like real life teams that play sports. Only in this case it's all on a computer screen.

One of the things that serious teams do is create a webpage. This way when they recruit new members they can just send them to the URL and they can be informed in minutes what the team is all about. It's a very interesting and exciting experience being a part of a team and making your way up the ranks to leader. The better game player you are the more respect you will earn among fellow players. You can become so well known in fact that people won't leave you alone because you are so 'powerful'. It's a perfect reflection of real life just that it's all a game and you don't have to get off your chair except to use the washroom.

Some of the best players in the world compete professionally in tournaments that usually have large cash prizes. They can get sponsored to endorsed games and they can get paid to travel the world just to compete. Software companies will even send you early and free versions of up and coming games for you to test out! All this just for being a good video game player. Now if you can just explain this to everyone that is telling you to get a life!

--Lestat