Some of my passions are most classic, even stereotypical for many people with autism.
Nerd stuff, you might call it.
Since the days of my childhood I had a fascination for computers and for movies (and series, too) and games, almost in general.
First, computer games and such
Aside of the frantic acquisition of digital goods, when those were scarce and still precious, and the browsing through the files of games and the operating system, my interest in all the underlying elements of the digital world would always be of a special nature, next to the obvious offerings of fun and leisure.
As much as video games are designed to be fun, so much the question as to why some people are so content in playing them daily, all day long for days?
Sure, it is appealing to the whole happiness apparatus, but isn’t ’the world outside’, too?
Or is the world outside more confusing and disorderly, whereas a computer game has a clear set of rules, mechanics, goals and even hacks?
With a computer program, you can be sure of the design (aside bugs and less well-conceived works) and where it is aimed.
A computer game, or even a board game for that matter, starts by painting a goal, stating the rules and explaining every aspect of the particular world in the time the player would need it.
So you always can be sure that you have a chance, and at times a proper challenge if you so wish, to succeed at a game and inside the world of it.
There is always (because computers work in 1s and 0s) logic to be expected.
A soothing thought, indeed, at least for me.
Numbers. Go. Up!
Success is a prickly tree to climb.
Now, why would you climb some prickly tree as high as you can? Well, the others can climb so so high, look at them! You wouldn’t want to be one of the lower losers, would you?
That is what makes a society strive towards progress, that’s why we build higher towers and faster cars and are happy about a raise.
But is it a good thing? Depends on your personal goals. Only those can be hard to distinguish from the ones our society likes to state as a given.
And there is no denying that some successes allow for certain comforts in life.
While in the ’real world’ numbers decide only some parts of our fate, in computer games numbers are the predominant measure of success: Levels, Speed, Damage, Handling, even Money and other denominations.
Outside of games, those numbers might exist as well, but all the hidden and less obvious factors make them far less tangible than inside a game.
Inside the game, you can always trust the numbers and the rules, it is easy, as complex as games often might appear.
If the right number goes up, you are on the right path.
Hardware – an intermezzo
But that is not the only way numbers can go up. Because the computer itself has quite many of those as well, with all the necessary parts of it.
And the whole thing about choosing, configuring and maintaining your hardware and seeing how it works gives great excitement in itself.
Just recently I have upgraded my technical base to a new standard.
So, the numbers went…up!
7700X, 32GB DDR5, 4080, 2TB PCIe® 4.0 NVMe™ SSD, >100 FPS in BL3 4K on Badass
Who ever understands those, now knows. 😀
Throwback: The first ’gaming upgrade’ back in the day looked like this, next to my current model:
Film
Movies are entertainment, as well as series. They convey all the things about life, fictional or not, which appeal to humans.
Made by humans, for humans.
Of course, there is the art factor. Ever evolving and arguably subject to taste.
But my stand on that is less one of usual taste, but far more one of the intention of a motion picture.
What did the creators want to achieve and how much did they manage to pull it off?
Aside from the subject and entertaining value of a filmic work, my fascination seems to exceed even that layer. And ever since I analyse myself, I found that movies are more of a pleasure to watch than I thought would be obvious.
Because any of the most complex human emotions and even worse, intentions, are carefully laid out in a way humans should be able to understand. Moreover, you can be sure (given the pull-it-off thing of the creators) that all the elements seemingly important to humans are to be found somewhere inside the movie or series.
That makes it a nice puzzle, sometimes harder, sometimes easier, to find out the following: Which human emotion is met with which reaction? What do humans want and how does it make them act?
At times I felt as if I have learned many rules of society and human interaction from movies, although always conscious and careful about how much that applies to ‘the real life’.
But there are still countless moments where I am hopelessly lost and have to ’see how it turns out’ later in the movie, because I can’t grasp the intentions of yet another evil cooperation’s master plan.
The only thing keeping the experience going then is the trust in the filmmakers, who must have thought it all out wisely. Also, there is some action to it as well, most of the time.
But the fact that all social interaction is well thought out to make sense in the end, is what makes movies so understandable, comfortable and trustworthy for me.
Cinema – another intermezzo
Not only the content of a movie is usually a well-structured, the technical presentation has conventions, too.
From aspect ratios to resolution to surround sound to the language, the calibration and its whole making.
The way a movie is to be watched is always close to the cinematic experience, which almost all filmmakers celebrate.
And with 7.2.4 and HDR10 and OLED, 24-bit and 192kHz and HDMI 2.1 and 2160p I have not only numbers to marvel at and to aspire to, but also an assurance: The closer I am to the intended experience, the more I can be sure to understand every audio-visual detail the work of art wants to convey next to its story.
So, why computer games and movies?
Because they work like me: Always (though it can take a while) able to deduce what makes them act in the way they do, what drives them and what things they take and don’t take into consideration.
It is easy to follow and to sympathize with structure, order and rules and reason, my autism confirms.
