Every month, the Destructoid Monthly Musing topic gives community members the ability to have their work posted on the Dtoid front page. After a short break in May, Monthly Musings have returned and will be regularly featured going forward.

The beginning of June always brings a fresh bout of self-pity for me, because I'm reminded of the days back before I was a "real adult" when I got an entire three months to screw around without having to worry about school. Summer vacation was always a much-needed break, and provided a good chunk of temporary relief from homework, that one awful math teacher I had, and waking up at 7am.

Even during the school year, though, I still managed to find an escape from school stress -- video games. Almost every day, I would come home from school, plop down on the couch, and play Super Nintendo and Playstation into the night. Even now, the first thing I usually do when I get home from work is fire up a game because it usually relaxes me.

Your assignment for this month's Musing is to talk about gaming as an "escape" from the real world. It can be as broad or specific as you like -- you can discuss how one game helped you through one specific tough time, talk about a game you always come back to to relax or blow off steam, explain how gaming as a whole is cathartic for you, or even stray away from the personal side and compare gaming to different forms of escapism. You can write about pretty much whatever you want, as long as it's a discussion about gaming and escapism.

To participate, just click "Post A Blog" up there in the upper right of the screen, title your post "The Great Escape: WhateverYourTitleIs", make sure you pick the "Monthly Musing" from the tag list (this is important!), write it up, and set it live. If your article is particularly well-written or sparks interesting discussion, we'll stick it up on the front page.

Have fun!

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Tony Ponce

Hey! You're not Anthony!

Kraid

Awesome!

Excel-2011

I got Team Fortress 2 to avoid a family drama that really didn't have much to do with me. I could write a story about it, but it would be more about a family affair no one cares about than how a $20 game spared me a lot of anguish.

SWE3tMadness

I would write a blog for this, but it would pretty much just be a rehash of the one I did for Pokemon during the "Other Worlds" topic a while ago. :/

Elsa

Nice to see the Monthly Musings officially back!

Stevil

So, we're going to have twenty odd blogs about family issues and rough childhoods? Hm...I'm glad MM's are back, but I'm not feeling this one. Prove me wrong, kids.

Revariance

This is awesome. Viva la Monthly Musing!

Rammstein

What Stevil said.

mada7

Hmmmm I got a couple of ideas I'd consider for this one gonna try to stay away from the rough childhood and family issues stories for Stevil's sake though. Nice to see these return as well it's been one of my favorite parts of destructoid for some time now

Corduroy Turtle

I love this. Thanks for bringing it back!

Guncannon

Thanks for taking this feature over! I think a month was just long enough for us lunatics to have taken over the asylum.

Xzyliac

Ross, I love you.

Nic128

Thinking about it, I can't come up with something else than what Stevil said. Damn.

pocketbelt

I was wondering where this went!

Jonathan Ross

While there will probably be a lot of stories of tough times (which is fine, because this topic is going to be really personal for a lot of people), you have some other options. You can talk about something more lighthearted like just using games to decompress or relax, or go more into the escapism itself, without referencing an actual event.

How easily do you get lost/escape in games? What makes a game a good/effective escape tool? What are "good escapes" versus "bad escapes"? Why is it easier to "escape" in a video game than it is a TV show, or movie? Why/why don't you use video games as an escape over books? Why haven't you never been able to escape in the game.

It's a really broad topic. Mull it over for a bit and I think you'll be able to come up with something beyond family problems.

Jonathan Ross

I changed the main post a little to talk about other things you can do.

I'm not discouraging personal stories though. Really, write about whatever strikes you the most. If a personal approach is what you want to write, do it. It's your story, it's not going to be the same as anyone else. If you'd rather take a more academic/analytical approach, that's great too. The topic is broad on purpose.

I look forward to seeing a bunch of great stuff!

JDefined

When I was 12 while playing Spyro the Dragon, my dad came in the room and told me that my sister contracted hepatitis and was dying, before he left my room again. Instead of thinking about what I just heard, I continued playing until I beat the game. Only then did I acknowledge reality.

I'm saying that here so I won't write a C-blog about it. Like others above I'm sure there will be an endless wave of those kinds of entries this month. But I will totally write something this month.

(And if you are wondering, my sister made a full recovery and is still with us to this day.) Carry on.

Wexx

If I write about WoW, will it immediately be disregarded, Jro?

Trebz

I can actually probably maybe do this, I think.

etirflita

As long as they're not all blogs about this, I'll be happy. Last month's were great!

Enkido

MM's never stopped, and they never will. Good to see them officially back though.

Tubatic

Sure, I'm up for this one!

sprldr

draycott

Lotta people keep saying that there will be a lot of personal stories. Nothing wrong with that. It's a blog. People seem to forget the definition of the word.

As for the above mentioned WoW story? Christ I can write a blog on just that alone. Well, not WoW... I played Runescape.

That's right. Runecsape.

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The man that can cope with all your mood swings when its the time of the month(and that is an art form to perfect!) or just generally when nothing is wrong? The man that wears tight jean's and has skinnier legs than you do and can count he's ribs trough the see through t-shirt cos is just fashionable ,the picture perfect boyfriend that you can dress like a Barbie doll with the things you think he would look nice with ?
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Sir Legendhead

The Great Escape was the name of the comic book shop in Madison Tennessee where my mom bought me my first Batman comics. It's still open, by the way. Tell the guy with the long red hair at the counter that I, Sir Legendhead, sent you myself.

There. Blog done. Aren't you glad you got to read this?

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