Motivated geeks

So I play Zombies, Run! I believe I've mentioned it before. It's a phone app that is also a game of some sort. When you run, it plays you clips of a story between songs to make it seem like you're a runner for a post-apocalyptic township, dodging zombies and finding supplies. It's GPS, so it keeps track of your speed and distance and time and you can use the supplies to upgrade your township and you can get achievements and so on.

What can I say, I'm a gamer.

I mentioned once to somebody that I didn't think I could run without it being a game and they replied, "That's sad."

That's sad?

I didn't start running because it was a game. I used a phone app for the intervals for the Couch to 5k program so I didn't have to run with a watch, but that wasn't a game and it didn't track anything.

But I kept running, partially because I knew I'd lose all my gains if I didn't, and partially because I'm playing Zombies, Run! What? Why is that so bad that I found something that motivates me, that works for me because it happens to be a computer game? I honestly don't think I could keep going if all I had to look forward to with running was a half hour of the same streets I run over several times a week and trying to find music I liked and hadn't already heard or gotten bored of. I found something that gives me a new story, gives me motivation to keep going outside. I can put the story off, so I still run because I want/need to run, run because it's good for me, but as an added bonus I hear a story, one that I feel like I'm directly involved in, and I get supplies to build my base, and I earn achievements. It's a game that's good for me.

I thought we'd mostly gotten over the part of society that judges people for liking computer games. Don't get me wrong, there is always a place where that can get unhealthy and where you can spend way too much time and money on computer games, but the same is true of pretty much any obsession.

In college once, I was talking to a guy I knew from one of my classes and I told him I played World of Warcraft. He told me that made him think less of me.

It wasn't unhealthy. I got all my homework done. I had a part-time job. I went to most of my classes. I had friends (several of whom played with me). Why is it that computer games are considered a lesser form of entertainment that somehow corrupts?

Granted, I suppose I think less of people who watch reality TV, so fair enough.