When Technology Cheats

Daily Prompt: Forgive and Forget?.

Have you come across a person who cannot even run in a straight line or someone who has never taken a catch or someone whose kick misses the ball? Well, hello there. I am the one who has failed every sport that exists on this planet. Sports day used to be a very dismal day for me, my otherwise splendid school life turned lugubrious in the face of sports . Can you make a guess, what could beat my performance in sports? My performance in video games. I could never understand the rules of Baseball, got stuck on some level in Mario, was always the last to finish in Need for Speed, never found my way through the city in Grand Theft Auto and the list of distasteful defeats simply goes on. The only game I managed to finish was Wolfenstein and that too before my brother. The problem with elder brothers is that they will always hog your glory, even if it is about a computer game, even if it about the only game you have succeeded and even when they do exceedingly well in every game that they play. I led him to the 9th level, a fact that he has completely erased from his memory and has chosen to believe the contrary. 

So yes, given my misfortunes with real and virtual sports, I had quit them entirely until Kinect ventured into my life. Kinect is a console which when connected to Xbox enables one to play a sport through natural gestures. Fascinated by motion sensor gaming, I decided to give up on my abstinence. We started off with Table Tennis and in the second match I defeated my brother. Now when you have an elder brother, even a small victory can be inexplicably exhilarating, it endows you with a number of opportunities to tease him. Besides your parameter of good performance is more or less being better than him. One look at his disappointed demeanor and I instantly fell in love with Kinect. For a very long time, I had enjoyed playing different games, games that I cannot dream of playing in reality; technology helps those who cannot help themselves.

However that my frequency of playing has decelerated, I can see my prowess at Kinect Sports corrode. A part of me suspects that it has colluded with my brother. The catch with gadgets is that they have shifting loyalties. I know my brother owns it but who has been committed towards the arduous task of it’s maintenance? I have been, yet the I am the one being betrayed. I lose in the smallest of games, even when I finish Skiing 10 seconds before my brother it penalizes me for missing gates (fictitious gates that I never see appear) and throws me at the losing end. Until yesterday, I was taking every defeat in good spirit because I had American Football as a saving grace. I had picked on it quicker, I was exceptional at long throws and I was invincible at American Football. But yesterday, I lost. The sensor did not spot my movements, either my pass landed in a different direction or I was pushed off before making the pass or I could not run any longer than seven yards. Kinect cheated, it screwed up my winning streak and I have decided that I will never ever look back in Kinect’s direction.

The catch with being hooked to a video game is that you can never give up on them, not when you lost the last time you played. So even if American Football has been my best game so far, even if it has been 24 hours since Kinect has pulled the treachery on me, I think that it is time that fire it up again.

P.S. Not in the mood for anything serious writing today!