My Life is Complete

My physically induced house arrest has naturally led to very little person-to-person interaction in my daily life. After moving from a job where you are constantly surrounded by people to the massively social b-school environment, my Thoreau style solitude has definitely been an interesting transition.

Luckily, Electronic Arts and the PS3 have resolved this dilemma for me. I've been a huge fan of the FIFA franchise on the gaming system, playing obsessively for the last three years. The recently released Fifa '10 has a new feature where you 'become' a virtual player in the game. After uploading a front and profile image of yourself, you enter a 'lab' online to create a 3D rendering of player based on yourself. The final output is both freaky and amazing at the same time.


The first draft that you edit

I've been playing FIFA against my friend Corey online for years now, and he instantly joined me in the excitement of creating a virtual player. We've since consistently been playing against each other (usually Roma vs. Liverpool) with both of our virtual players on the field. Corey and me played soccer regularly in New York, and now this is pretty much exactly the same. I find it no different than meeting up Sunday mornings in Brooklyn for pickup or playing in a league at Chelsea Piers.



From a "gamer's perspective" (and I gladly will wear the label 'gamer') having 'yourself' in the game adds an unreal level of experience. I'm pretty convinced that the future of video gaming will head in this direction. I will not deny that I hit a dangerous level of excitement when I scored my first goal and Fernando Torres ran across the field and jumped and hugged me. Yes, my life was finally now complete.