Electronic Entertainment Eradication

Practice days

We are playing "The Game" online the next day in our own homes. 'Noob git gud. Ggezwp,' I send as message. I know we have voice chat, but I wanted to do this for some reason. Then he says in voice chat:'I know I'm not a pro. I heard there'll be a tournament in a town nearby next week. You should practice there. And also, my keyboards are full of cheetos. Isn't your keyboard?' 'No, mine are full of Doritos,' I reply in voice chat this time,'I wish those holographic keyboards didn't have so much input lag.' Then he tells me: 'It's only six frames more lag'. 'I know,' I reply, 'but it's 7 frames too much and... I got killed, shit!' Just a few more rounds and then I can play online with others instead of this noob. Why is he even a noob. He is a programmer who should've understood game mechanics and yet he loses everytime I'm his opponent.

And then I go online, but those noobs aren't much better. They have almost no skill. My rank should be maximum, but when you almost get there, the enemy team has immense power suddenly and all RNG is against you. People told me to blame yourself, but I have the feeling the company is trying to make you play the game forever by this system. Many people have the same feeling, which I read about on the internet.

It's the last day before the local tournament in the town nearby, but my mother told me to get the groceries, so here I am at the supermarket. I don't know where the ice tea is, so I'll just pick up my phone and use the app to find it. Suddenly I find out my phone was on silent mode the whole time and I see a weird text. I swear I've seen that number before, but I think remembering numbers is unnecessary, because the phone remembers it for you. 'I'm close to where u r,' it says. I feel uncomfortable right now, but I still get the ice tea. All the groceries are collected. I am walking to the cash desk where I can scan and pin everything and then leave. I love it how there are no people working at the desks anymore. The less people, the less bullshit, the more fun. But then I encounter a familiar-looking person and he says he wants to speak to me. Fuck, social interaction! I left the house with the knowledge that social interaction was not required, but it was false and I hate it. Hector is right now my only friend, because he has an almost identical view of social interactions. Wait, I know him. It's Mark. The guy who we met at high school. He said he would have a strip club when he was out of high school, because he loves that kind of business. It earns him money and chicks, which is all a human needs. At least, that's what he told everyone back in high school. He also said his parents and the law were the only reasons he still was in high school. He now says to me:'So, it's nice seeing an old friend again, Darren.' I then say:'Dude, you sent me that weird text? D'you have a strip club right now as you told you'd have by now?' 'Of course I did send it and no, I was a stupid fuck with hormones who wanted to sound tough. Now I know what life's all about. You first get the money and then the chicks will follow. That's why I do economics now. I am the CEO of the WEED company. I think the name speaks for itself. Right now I am considering selling to this supermarket chain. I just wanted to check the quality of the nearest one, so here it is,' he replies. Then I mention that the owners of "The Game" might be worth dealing with, because they have players who smoke it and he replies:'Just call it Tactical AI Combat, ok. I don't like how people refer to it like "The Game". It ruined the other great games and I don't deal with those earning more money than I do. It also destroyed our contact.' 'I wanted no social interaction anyway, except with Hector. I'm gonna win the world championships and nope the fuck out of here,' I say. 'You still live with your mother? I own a luxury plane I can't sell, so if you win the championships, you can buy it with the price money. You really need to rely on more than yo mama,' he then says. I then say that I'll think about it. It sounds awesome, but I want good internet and my pc to be able to expand when I want to. I doubt that plane can offer the space for it and I don't want to pay the whole price money even if it's capable of all I want. I do have sponsorship money, but it's not worth it for a plane. I can avoid people in all sorts of ways and a plane in the middle of nowhere is just one of them. Come to think of it, will I have good internet there? I then say goodbye to Mark and hope he'll get profit again. I return home hoping the next social interaction will be from my mother.

I thought I turned the wifi off, but I think I accidentally turned the sound off, so the wifi's still on. It connects to the home router and my phone shows six notifications of videochats. Fuck! One of my sponsors wanted to speak to me today. And it's the Instagram company. Oh no. I feel so anxious right now. My palms are sweaty and knees are weak. My arm now feels too heavy to hold the phone, so I put it away in my pocket right on time. I get relieved by the smell of mom's spaghetti, which she probably vomited on her sweater already, because she even dislikes her own cooking. I pick up my phone again and call the CEO of Instagram. 'I'm so sorry I couldn't answer, I needed to do groceries and I forgot all about the conversation,' I start with. He replies:'I tried to call you six times with videochat and we both know you have 8G mobile data. You should've turned that on. You're lucky we still want to invest in you. All I wanted to say was that I've heard it's mandatory to use the Logitech motion controller model 2.5.1 in the championships, which means the controls will be a bit different from what you're used to. I hope you can work with that. But if you don't answer the next call, I will break the contract.' He hangs up. Motion controls, they make me move, well shit. Those are the worst controllers ever. I fact-check it and he's right. They'll probably use it in the local tournament tomorrow as well. And I even have to move to get to the car to the train station and then walk to the local tournament. I'll just use my mini segway for the last part. They used to be called hoverboards, but why? They don't hover.

I did the conversation outside to reply a bit more quickly. The CEO said nothing about me being outside luckily. I just go inside with the groceries, put them away and then I eat the spaghetti. My mother is opposite of me and shouts:'You've been spoilt almost your whole life! Why did I do this? You still live with me while you're 24! You still refuse to move a muscle and you really need to move out!' I then say:'Listen, if I win the International Championships, I'm using that money to move out and...' 'But what if you lose,' she replies,'then you just gonna spend the money you have now on a new graphics card or new controller?' I say:'I will need to move my muscle more often nowadays, because they will use motion controllers in the world championships. Fortunately, it's also the ones we already have. I'll be going to a local tournament tomorrow as I've already told and if they don't use motion controls there, than that's the last day I won't move a muscle until at least the world championships. I'll go check to see if they'll use motion controllers tomorrow. I need to practice with it right now.' She then tells me:'Good luck with practice.' I check to see whether they use it in the local tournament and they do. Hopefully I won't fail that miserably.