What was...and what will be...

I always planned on returning to this blog, but it seemed like every time I started to write a new post (including the explanation of why I wasn't able to, ironically) something would happen that caused my pain levels to go to extremes making trying to write practically impossible. However I never forgot about it and have considered trying to restart the blog a great many times, if for no other reason than I think the relationship between immersive media and pain could offer help to a lot of others in the future. I know by experience the body will only cope with increasing pain for so long before it shuts down, if even just temporally, but I genuinely believe (again from my own experiences) it doesn't need to be that way. By evoking our instinctive responses like flight or fight it is possible to essentially distract the brain and in turn reduce the agonizing sensations to a much more manageable level, which is possible through immersive videogames.

This technique of pain management can only become more effective as years go on because games are becoming less disjointed, connecting with the player like never before... for example the rise of modern VR and Microsoft's Hololens/illumiRoom. There is no doubt that games have evolved over the years becoming interactive movies in some cases, social hubs in others and being experienced by a larger percentage of the population than ever before. In fact the applications of Microsofts latest project Hololens, can and I have no doubt will go far beyond just bringing new gaming experiences to its users, aiding engineers, doctors and teachers becoming an exceptional learning tool if nothing else whilst connecting people in a way that has never seen before. Surely adding pain management to that list in the wider sense is not beyond the realms of possibility, in fact I know from playing games like Titanfall, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare and Mirrors Edge the building blocks are already there, its where we go from here that will be really interesting and potentially beneficial on a massive scale.

In a lot of ways this is a fresh start, one that will go beyond gaming and in to my day to day life, my goals and what it takes to achieve them... but above all, how video games will aid me every step of the way. I can not promise I will be able to post something every week, every other week or even every month but what I can say is I will make sure I do all I can to update this blog and the social media pages when possible. Part of the reason for this is I am constantly pushing my limitations, sometimes in small ways like trying to do more physically and in much larger ways... like going to Disneyland with my family which is literally just around the corner. This will, I have no doubt be one of the hardest things I have ever done, pushing my pain management and coping skills to a point never before attempted. You may be asking yourself why i am doing it then if that is the case, well the simple truth is I don't want to always be on the other end of a phone or computer screen while my daughter lives through the moments that will form very fond memories for her as the years go in. I realize for at least part of this holiday I will be housebound in the hotel but the bottom line is I will physically be there, even if it is just to allow my daughter to come back from the park and tell me in person what she experienced that day. That is not to say I will not do all I can to go with her at least once, I am nothing if not stubborn and determined, along with games and the support from my family, it is definitely what has got me this far. Given where I started, I have come a huge way... something I never lose sight of, but equally I can not lose sight of how far I still have to go. It is my hope that going on this holiday will give me some insight into just how far that light at the end of the tunnel actually is for myself, my daughter, my family and our future.

One thing I may not have mentioned is exactly how my back injury manifests itself, all I will say for the moment is my brain wrongly perceives everything my back experiences as trauma. I will not go into it much at this stage as I imagine it will form a large part of a future post, specifically when I can write about my experiences surrounding the Disneyland holiday. So what I will say for now is I am glad to be (finally) writing this blog again and if I do end up going quiet (again) for some time I promise I will post or upload a video as soon as I can.

Rosco Fraser
Pain and Game