The War that was Really Just a Game

Bang-Bang-Bang! I hear in rapid succession, then: "Double kill." Then silence. Boom! "Dang! Was that a bulltrue?" Someone asks. "Yep."Is another's reply. I don't look to see who it is, I just keep on hunting. Playing a game I have finally gotten good at, after six or seven years of trying. My eyes are glued to my player on screen. I'm carrying an energy sword and a rocket launcher, two great weapons, while hunting for a target. I wander through the spartan base, passing trucks and fighter jets to my right, on the other side of a fence, glancing occasionally at my radar. Finally is spot someone out of the corner of my eye. I run towards them as fast as I can, and "beat them down" with my energy sword. Now I'm at fifteen points. It feels like a war, even though really it's just a game. A game I have finally gotten good at, after six or seven years of trying. My eyes are glued to my player on screen, fighting a war that is really just a game.

I don't even remember when we got Halo 3 for christmas - or tearing away the wrapping paper, or putting it in the console for the first time. All I remember is playing it - playing and losing every single time I played with my brothers on multiplayer. We played "Slayer" which is a multiplayer game where there are two to four players, all fighting against each other. There are a series of futuristic maps, a variety of futuristic weapons, and a large set of futuristic vehicles. I know each map by heart, the positives and negatives of each weapon and how to expertly use them, i.e., what range you should be, how long it takes to kill someone with it, what inflicts the most damage, etc. The players of the game kill each other multiple times, each time responding with pre-determined weapons, just to kill each other again. Alex was a master, and for the longest time, he always just killed me and Daniel over and over, until he won each game. Just like most other things we did. He would quiz us on things we obviously didn't know just to be better at yet something else, or make competitions he would always win. I hated never being able to beat him at anything - and it made me feel incompetent and stupid; especially when he lorded it over us, jeering and teasing.

Over break we took out Halo 3 once more, for old time's sake. We selected multiplayer, chose weapons, chose a map, and began to play. But this time, it was different. By now I knew all the secrets of the map. I knew all the little tricks he used on us - and I knew how to fight him. Once the massacre commenced, I knew the game was different; I was able to kill Alex's player. The points began stacking up, and his points dwindled. I began feeling great, like I might be able to beat him. Each kill was a new combination of skills; using grenades and picking up weapons as I went. Dodging his blows, and slowly taking down his health. Eventually I had thirty or forty kills, while he was left in the dust in the high teens. He grew quiet - none of the usual jeering and teasing. Before I even reached the score limit to win which was fifty, he gave up. He kind of tried to say he was bored, but me and Daniel saw right through him. He would rather give up than lose to his younger brother. I finally won. I finally won the war. I finally won the war that was really just a game.