I hope you all gorged yourselves silly on pancakes last week, because now is the period of Lent - a religious time for fast. However, I would like to add to your quandary of what to ‘give up.’ You see, I discovered last week that it’s not all about the fast - it is about PFA: Prayer, Fast and Alms giving… Or Professional Football Association, as the priest so jovially insinuated.

Anyway, as gamers there are many ways to join in with this lead up to Easter. I know you may not all be catholic or even religious, but a bit of soul cleansing is always nice and the idea of PFA is fairly universal. I think we can adapt it to make that Easter chocolate seem all the sweeter - as we earned it after all!

So how will we do it?

I have devised a simple plan to get us through this time, feeling like we have joined in with the spirit of things and really tried our best. I call it the Lent Guide for Gamers.

Prayer:

Grant me the wisdom to solve every puzzle,
Allow me the time to complete every game,
Give me patience to get through each level,
Bestow upon me quick reaction times,
And give on to me all the L33T skillz

For with these gifts I will remove anguish from the lives of others,
I will no longer scream and yell,
I will not curse the n00bs,
I shall throw no controllers,
And peace will be among us.

Fast:

I’d like to put a positive note on fasting. I do not believe in starving yourself or not treating yourself for 40 days - that’s just too hard for the weak-willed food lovers like me. So I propose that as gamers we should give up something much more difficult, but also more fulfilling…. Give up being pedantic!

The next time someone says something really silly, we should just let them think that they are right. I was told just the other day that Devil May Cry 4 was a PS3 exclusive, but did I run that person into the ground as I wanted to? No, I did not. I started my fast well.

Alms giving:

Now this one is going to be controversial. I think that just for this time we should be allowed to give gamer points, so your little cousin who is never going to catch up with you might have a chance. Since we can’t do this, I feel that those of you who are rich in gamer points need to stop achieving, to allow those who are poor some time to catch up. Or maybe you could just have a clear out of all your old games and pass them to a wanting friend or family member. But that is not as fun!

So there you have it, it’s a bit bare in the bones at the moment, but I think with a little work we could have all gamers on board for Lent next year! So add your insights to the forum, and let’s see if we can embrace these 40 days and flood out that nasty idea of ‘what have you given up,’ because we know it doesn’t work.