You get the best of both worlds

I play video games. I play lots. It's one true and only past time. I play them all; from World of Warcraft to Grand Theft Auto, to Halo. When I was telling my mom that the release date of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 comes out on November 10th, she asked me how I knew a fact like that. It was hard to explain to her, but video games are my life. I am in the 'gamer world'. The gamer world is a state of mind, because I just am always interested in something that allows me to control with my fingers and will put me in a virtual world of my own.
I am sure an outsider of my world would think that this 'gamer world' is actually only a computer or a xbox in a basement, but it is much more then that. It is distant lands where I can gather other forces in order to slay a giant dragon 200 times my size. Something like this requires a group of these 'gamers'. Common morals lye between these warriors, we understand it cannot be done alone. 'In real life' the only place we can see cooperation like this is on the news. It is always being done on these 'fake lives'.
'Fake lives' is a wrong term to consider these lives. It is not just some computer chips that you control, it is a three dimensional reality. I would not even go as far to say it is a fake reality, but a second reality.
Many times I have been asked the question, "Why do you waste your life on that game?" It's rather simple really, I choose to partake in a second life. "What do you gain from playing that?" This ones a little tougher to answer. I gain nothing really, but let me tell you what a DO gain. My character becomes more skilled, stronger, a more prestigious warrior of his city. "Why don't you just learn something like an instrument?" I could, but my swat team is counting on me to help them disarm the bomb the terrorists planted.
Living these two realities is not always easy. A balance must be formed between the two. While I must attend school, I feel an obligation to help those other 39 warriors slay that dragon. The most obvious way a nongamer would think is that, homework should come first, the dragon can wait. That is not the case sometimes, because when the infestation zombie survivors are not going to survive until the helicopter comes, it appears that homework can wait until after. That is where the balance comes in, and yes, it is sometimes hard to do. I mostly figure out when I am not doing one, I am forced to focus on the other. It tends to work for me.
I think I am lucky to live the lives I do. I know the amount of days I've spent on my second life, and I don't think I've wasted any of them not being in my first life.
Oh you were at football practice? While you were doing that the Titans who created the world I live in sent an observer down to judge whether or not the world was worth having life on, and I was forced to destroy him to save all mankind.