Modern Warfare is ruining my life

21 days! More than 21 whole days. That’s over 504 hours of my life that not only will I never get back but have been wasted stalking around make believe ruins, wastelands, crash sites and tower blocks looking for people to murder in a cold blooded, premeditated, blood drunk rampage. I’m not in the military nor have I ever been yet I proclaim my sniper rifle skills are up there with the elite of her majesty’s special forces. I am of course talking about the phenomenon that is call duty modern warfare 2.

I've spent night after night staring through the thermal scope of my heavily camouflaged, German made, Walther WA 2000 rifle with the sole intention of firing a high velocity bullet into the face of my enemy. I’ve risen through the ranks from a lowly private, right through to a commander using everything from a suppressed special forces combat assault rifle to a Kriss Super Vector right though to the FGM-148 javelin anti tank missile. I have prestiged 4 times taking my worldwide score rank from in the millions right down to the hundred thousands.

Do I have anything to show for the mammoth amount of time, effort, patience and skill that has taken me this far? I have nothing, nothing but a worn down joy-pad and a broken headset.

Now, my normal working day consists of repeating the same information to a host of different people with almost no change in the script, simply the order in which I say it. I sit across from the most ignorant man I’ve ever worked along side who not only has complained about the way I talk, but also the volume of the radio, the smell of my food and a whole list of other things I care not to mention. To cut the point short, I hate my job.

The Pareto principle, known also as the 80-20 rule or the law of the vital few states that, for many events, approximately 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Meaning, most of the work is done in 20% of the time. If my job were to play call of duty this would not be the case. I put 100% of effort into every game and spend the 1-minute between games shuffling around my weapons and perks to try and gain the best advantage for the next run of the gauntlet.

I asked myself, why? Most importantly, why not? Why do I not spend even a fraction of the effort that I put into this meaningless game into getting a proper job, one that I not only enjoy but also pays very well?

I have all of the tools I need to get where I need to be with the exception of motivation. I can draw better than most if not anyone I know. I have a perfect instrument in my computer with a bounty of graphics software at my disposal to create logos, layouts, websites, animation and branding. Why I’m not sitting at this very computer with the same tenacity and drive that I put into killing strangers at long range I don’t know.

Is it time to hang up the joy-pad and take the tablet and pen in hand?

One more quick go wouldn’t hurt…