Let the Games Begin!

As technology keeps improving, humanity has created ever more stimulating ways of entertaining itself. In our modern era, we are all familiar with the entranced faces of children who sit hypnotized by video games. Even the most rambunctious and inattentive child can pay attention to a video game.

From the advent of the first gaming systems to today, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth. It has become a $10 billion industry rivaling motion pictures and is now the most profitable industry in the world.

In the 1970s, the first video game system was created: Atari. Anyone who was a child during those times remembers how amazing Atari was. No other toy was quite as attractive. By the time Nintendo was released in 1983, the imagination of the world was hooked and there was no going back to family board-game night.

Video games evolved along with the Internet. Soon, people were able to log on to their game systems and play against each other. Today, massively multi-player on-line, role playing games (mmorpg's) allow players to create a new persona and live in a fantasy virtual world. Players interact with each other in trade, combat and even romance. Games such as EverQuest or the World of Warcraft create worlds that are so real that many individuals value success in these games over success in real life.

The wisdom of Kabbalah helps us understand the popularity of these games. Even though each person in the world is unique, we all operate on the same principle. Everything we do is a determination of how to get the greatest amount of pleasure for the least amount of effort. Our uniqueness stems only from the fact that we all pursue different types of pleasures in different forms.

The virtual worlds of mmorpg's are able to fulfill almost every human desire except for food, including desires for family, sex, power, honor, fame, wealth, and knowledge. The ego is freed from the constraints of normal life and the player can become supernatural. The pleasures gained through a virtual system do not require the person to compete in the external world. All of these pleasures can be fed to the individual from the comfort of his computer chair with the click of a mouse.

When viewed in this light, video games provide an incredibly high payback in pleasure for almost no effort. But Kabbalah promises us something else: the pleasure derived from these games will eventually pale, just as the original Atari is no longer enticing to children of today. When that time comes, the video game players will be left searching for another pleasure to pursue. At that time, they will have a choice. They can either pursue another fantasy, or they can find the lasting fulfillment that can be gained through the method of Kabbalah.