Video Games vs. Real Life

So... The other day I had a weird thought while walking home from the train station after work. There was this guy just standing there half a block away from a bus stop, just... waiting. And my immediate thought was, "What the heck is he doing there? Should I ask him what he's up to? It's none of my business, but he's weirding me out." That just seems to be where my mind goes. He must be up to something.

But then I started wondering why I have that reaction... The world is such an untrusting place nowadays. What happened to the old days of smiling and saying hi to random strangers? I'm a friendly person, but I think I'm afraid to talk to strangers for fear of what they might say or do back.

It's funny, though, 'cause it got me started thinking about video games. I'll preface this by saying I've been playing a lot (A LOT) of Pokémon Y since it came out a week and a half ago. In all of the Pokémon games, and most role playing games in general, in order to progress through the game, you need to speak to all of the NPCs (non-playable characters) to get information. Sometimes they even have special items for you. So there's motivation to talk to everyone you run into.

So if talking to everyone you meet is encouraged in video games, why not real life? Maybe I should just walk around and talk to every person I meet. Maybe they'll have something interesting to tell me. Who knows? Maybe I'd learn some valuable life skills and knowledge!

Then there's the other side of that... Can you imagine if I just started going around to everyone I meet like, "Hi! What do you have to tell me?" Or better yet, "Hey! Do you have anything for me??" I think I'd start to get some really strange looks and reactions. But I almost wanna try it out, just to see what people would do.

Anyway, this was just a random string of thoughts that went through my head. Hopefully it won't be so long before I blog again. No promises.