Food, like water and air, is one of the basic necessities of life.  In fact, they make up 3 of the 7 objects from the first level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  While I think that we can all agree the food is important - nay, necessary - it is food's involvement in gaming that I would like to talk about today.

I suppose that I should first ask, “Do you even eat while you’re gaming?”  In this context what I mean by eating is ingestion.  I know that at first, the mere thought of putting down the controller for even the briefest moment may seem like sacrilege, but come on; you know we all do it.  I went out to the web and visited many gaming forums to see what the consensus was about eating while gaming.  I found out that there are roughly four different major opinions on “eating while gaming”.

There is one school of thought that says, “Absolutely not!” These are the no holds barred kind of gamers who are so focused on the game that they are oblivious to the world around them. I will admit to being this type of gamer once in a while: I will get so engrossed into what I am playing that the rest of the world just melts away.  You will recognize this gamer by his gaming station, everything is neat and in its place, there is no ring on the desk from countless cans of soda and no crumbs in the keyboard.

Then, there is the “Liquid-Only” gamer.  This is the gamer that will sit by their computer and consume countless containers filled with their favorite beverage.  I have to tell you that I find this gamer style very interesting because of one small, but consistent feature of the choice beverages: every one of them contains large amounts of caffeine and odd names like Game Fuel, Red Bull, Amp’d, Coke, and Monster?  I think that the goal of these drinks is to keep the gamers awake, but is it because the games they are playing are so boring or some other reason?

The next group makes up the largest of the four groups, it is the “I think I will have a snack while I game” group.  These are the everyday folks who will make a sandwich, grab a soda, sit down, and spend some real quality time with their gaming system.  They may also have a small bowl of chips or a piece of fruit as well.

The last group is probably my favorite because, well let’s face it, most of us have done it. There are three half consumed cans of soda and an open bag with chips escaping across the desk of this kind of gamer.  Every food type is fair game: brownies, hot dogs, cake with ice cream.  These are my true gaming heroes. They believe that like eating, gaming is a necessity of life and as such they are just being efficient and bringing two of their basic needs together.

So whatever your eating and gaming style is,  from the “No food allowed” style to the “Sure I can eat that and game” style, it is important to remember one thing: if you are going to eat and game, bring plenty of wet naps because no one likes a sticky controller. 

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