Computer Games Crouching behind a twisted piece of metal, I waited for the mortar fire to die down. As soon as I could no longer hear the thunderous roar of the explosions, I emerged from my hiding place and ran along the beach. In the silence the whistle of a shell rang out and I looked where the gunner was hiding. The enemy jammed another round into the chamber and fired his scoped rifle. The bullet hit flesh and I fell to the ground. Just a few minutes earlier Willis and I were sitting on the couch listening to loud punk music. It was too hot outside to do anything, and the flies were out anyway. Inside it was cooler and more hospitable, but boredom had taken over. "The day of defeat?" Willis asked in a drawling voice. "Yes," I replied, and went up the stairs. Within a few minutes, Willis and I booted up his computer, connected to the Internet, and accessed the Day of Defeat clan server. Suddenly we were not in the cluttered upstairs of Willis' house, but on a virtual battlefield, inching toward an enemy camp on the beach. Within seconds I was killed by an enemy sniper, who was carefully protecting his team's base, Willis took command, choosing a more accurate rifle than the clunky machine gun I had chosen. Willis' computer desk was a pile of gaming equipment and records. On the shelf above the desk, a row of old-fashioned games were lined up with surgical precision. The old games were never used, so they were never out of order. Under the shelf, on the desk, was a stack of new games, with their packaging and cases, manuals and strategy guides. A PC Gamer magazine lay among the countless stacks of demo discs Willis had collected here and there. Emerging from the chaos was the brand new 19-inch Elements monitor, emitting a cool, bluish glow. The keyboard had a custom keycap, which turned the standard set of keys into the control panel of a complex helicopter, and the W, A, D, and S keys (the keys commonly used to control a character) were stained and worn compared to the rest of the new and clean keys. The brand new high-precision optical mouse glowed a dull reddish color and sat atop a feline-themed mousepad that Willis' father had bought.