Immersion and the need for speeeeeeeed.

My brother started playing Need for Speed at the age of about 5... not long after this and his need for more speed started growing. I do need to mention though that he got his first go-cart at the age of 2. A simple peddle one , BMW to be exact and this was his treasure. A year later once he (and his terrible older sisters) had trashed this treasure, dad bought him a red Porsche. At 4 he got his first jumbo Aeroplane (operates with batteries) and soon enough , every birthday he had started collecting battery operated helicopters ; more aeroplanes ; more little go-carts till he was 11 and got a real petrol engine operational go-cart and the need for speed truly did start.

I cant quite remember all the other names of the games he played but I do know he excelled at all the Needs for Speeds and he even learnt the cheats to be able to do all sorts of cool things... Today my young brother flies as a bush pilot and has a racing bike and road bike which he actually drives like a 'Fast and the Furious' driver and what makes it more worrying is that he came to visit a few weeks ago showing off his new Samsung Galaxy and played me his favourite tune which he happens to play whilst going through corners on his bike... this sent my heart racing because I could not help but think of the uneven long roads we have here in NZ , the 'other' dangerous drivers on the road and more importantly the cops who are waiting at the next turn only to successfully pull him over... what would happen then he asks? At this point I make it clear his licence would be taken since he is 30-50km over the speed limit AND what about his job? Surely a pilot and soon to be Air NZ pilot would not be allowed to fly if your road licence had been taken away?

In short , my brother still speaks of how Need for Speed changed his life as a 5 year old and most certainly ignited something within him inspiring him to become a driver of everything... So surely this new term 'Immersion' would refer to him because he got so 'immersed' in this game that he forgot where he was and somehow started believing he really was inside this car racing and racing and racing.... this became short fixed realities to this young boy....

So today he has his private plane licence ; commerical pilots licence ; skippers licence ; oversized ferry / boating licence ; truck licence ; motorbike licence ; motor vehicle licence and he actually pointed out at Christmas that the only two licences he is missing and ought to go and get 'just for fun' would be a train licence and taxi licence!

Immersed in the Need for Speed much?!