One of my identities is that I am a gamer. I like to play computer-games, of different kinds. The first one that I obsessed over a lot was Valhalla, a DIKU II MUD.
Wow, that was a memory lane (see process video). Anyway, the point was/is situational awareness in gaming. I just had a session of CS:GO. During that session, there was a ton of situations where I did bad. Where I rushed too fast, and did not aim well. Where I did not do a good job. Oh well.

Other games I have played is WoW – World of Warcraft. I did that a lot after it’s launch, and during the first and second expansions as well.

Today, I play two games mostly:

1. CS:GO
2. Eve Online

The two games are very different. But I work with awareness in both of them. Especially CS:GO (which will become CS2 this year) is good for me, for keeping me sharp. I guess I will still be playing a game like that in 25 years, just like I played the original Beta for Counter-Strike back in 1999 or 2000 – not sure which it was.

Anyway. The point is: Using games like this to sharpen my real-time senses, and my operational situational awareness. I use that in many other situations as well; some consciously and some on an unconscious level.

(Process)

I started playing Counter-Strike not far after the beta launched in 1999. I had already played Half-Life for a bit.

I liked CS. It was quick, it required muscle memory, and I liked to hang out with other students etc at the local internet cafe in Bergen, named “Dataport”. In 2000, I also started working at that internet cafe. I liked it there. Open 24/7.

Anyway. It is now 2023, and I started playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive again a few months ago, after I bought a new gaming pc.

My skills are still quite bad. And when I remember XeQtR who also was playing at Dataport now and then back before the new millennium, I remember just how quick he was. And I remembered his laser focus during the play.

Here is a CS:GO session tonight. I did ok during the round. There is no audio commentary there, you just see the game from my perspective.

I stopped playing CS not long after it went into “retail” in 2000; I became busy with other things. Gaming-wise I started playing WoW in 2005, not after the release of the game. I enjoyed that game, for other reasons than CS. But that is another story.

[Video of process ; 11m57s / 86MB]