[Venting] Games, Hurts, and Growing Up: I’m 27 Now

If I am in a game with 10 people and 7 of them are my friends, it’s better to just say "vote me out." Otherwise, someone is going to get pissed off at you for voting them out. And I get it—when a friend votes you out, it’s upsetting. I’ve been playing these types of games for 17 years, when I was 10 years old. For God's sake, how many times have friends voted me out, or how many times have I felt betrayed by them? Did the friendship end? Well, when I was an immature 13 or 14-year-old child, yes. But then we grew up. We are 27 now. Now, you actually stop, regulate your emotions, analyze the situation, and decide to have a conversation with that person outside of the game to solve the issue—whether there was a communication error or you didn't like the way a comment was made. That’s what friendship is all about. You will fight, and you will vote each other out in games sometimes. The betrayal can hurt—I’ve been there several times, actually. Shout-out to: Colapsaje, Enio, RoberTaquito, Fairplay, Liebre, Erick... and the list goes on. Out of all of those people, only three are no longer my friends. We talked about it, and even though we didn't come to a full resolution—or even if we said our apologies and expressed our hurt—the dynamic of the friendship changed. We are not best friends anymore, but there’s still a loving and caring feeling there, just not the same trust in games or trust in general. That’s what is so complex about these games: you create real bonds and real relationships, and it’s complicated to manage all of it at the same time. So, if I lost a friend today, I’m sorry about it. If you want to talk about it, let’s do it; if you don’t want to, you have every right not to. But I am 27 years old now—not a kid anymore to be fighting and ending things without at least having a conversation. I have no time to mourn the loss of a friendship over a game when it wasn't a personal attack. And this isn't just about one person; this is a desabafo, as we say in Portuguese. In general, I miss some of my friends, but that’s life—that’s how it goes. It’s not the first time, and it won't be the last.