For about six months a couple of years back, I worked at Los Angeles International Airport as a taxi starter. A taxi starter's job consists of opening cab doors, loading luggage, and making sure that the cab is an official one, thereby preventing cabs from ripping people off. It is a simple job in principle. However, the customer service component is a real bitch, as people who have just gotten off an eight hour flight and all they want to do is go home, must deal with me as I wave a taxi cab over to them. The problem is that when a flight of 300 people want to take cabs home, and there are only five cabs in the queue, people can start to get testy.



I would notice people getting mad that taxis were not stopping for them, because they are oh so important. There would many timess that I would get into shouting matches with these fuckers, and blows were close to being exchanged. This time period in my working life really put alot of things in perspective.

So, after a hard day of work in which people yell at you, give you the stink eye, and where cab drivers talk shit to you for eight hours, what is a person to do to blow off some steam?

Alcohol? Videogames? Why not both I say?

A longwinded introduction later, my topic this time is about games as stress relievers. The escape from the humdrum soul wretching task that is a full time job.

The minute I got home, I would plop down on the couch with a six pack of newcastle and turn on Fight Night Round Two, one of the greatest games of all time. I would pick a heavyweight boxer, and my opponent would be a featherweight. The foregone conclusion would be a beatdown of the worst kind. All the day's frustrations would be channeled through my thumbs, onto the dual analog sticks, as the featherweight boxer got his face rearranged. I wouldn't even knock out my opponent right away. I would play with him, letting him get through the round and inflicting as much damage as possible. A glorious feeling would flow over me (I think it was the alcohol taking effect), and I would go to sleep doing a lot better. And so the cycle would continue the next day and forever after.



Later on, I discovered the joy of Dead Rising, and all the ways of zombie killin'. The zombies, of course, being a metaphor for mindless consumer. The showerheads, sledge hammers, and 2x4s, of course, a metaphor for showerheads, sledge hammers, and 2x4s.

Most recently, GTA4 and the mindless road rage I commit after a long day of customer service stress has helped me balance psychologically.

So my top three stress relievin' games are:
Fight Night
Dead Rising
GTA4

In conclusion, I thank you videogames, for all the help you have given me in preventing me from one day going bananas and shooting every moron that has it coming.