Halo: Reach came out today. I haven’t picked up my reservation yet, but when I do, I can assure you, productivity will go down.

Friends, family, loved ones, co-workers and all forms of obligations involving school and work are officially obstacles preventing me from helping the members of Noble Team fight for their besieged planet.

OK, I admit. I am exaggerating here. I am not the type of person who forsakes valuable person-to-person time in exchange for pixilated bliss.

But I do feel a sense of satisfaction in playing video games like Halo: Reach. Some of you may snort and call me a Halo fanboy, but substitute that for Madden NFL 11 or Call of Duty: Black Ops or Super Mario Galaxy 2, and now I have reached you.

I have always loved video games, ever since I picked up the original Super Mario Bros. for the original Nintendo. And it’s quite amazing to see the evolution of this entertainment genre. It’s gone from 8-bit systems to showing story lines and characters that beat out most movies.

Take The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Generally recognized as a good movie overall (it was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), I thought it was good, but I did not really empathize with the characters. The fact that Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) and Daisy Fuller (Cate Blanchett) could never live together forever in love did not sadden me.

By contrast, the death of Fenix in StarCraft: Brood War had a much bigger, even sadder impact on me. Even now, I dread playing that particular campaign arc, because I do not want to kill him. He’s a good guy, and I’m playing for a backstabbing wench. How can I?

And then there are the moments with friends. There are very moments as enjoyable as sneaking up on your friends and stabbing them in the back in the split-screen multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2. Or that time you scored the winning goal in an incredibly close game of NHL 10, finally proving once and for all that the Detroit Red Wings are better than the Rockford IceHogs.

I think many of my peers can understand where I am coming from. Video games are not solely relegated to the nerds who devote their lives to World of WarCraft; they are a full-fledged entertainment force with some of the best storytelling, characters and action sequences comparable to the likes of Stephen King, William Shakespeare and Michael Bay, respectively.

But what really irks my ire are those who will snort at this column, and my compatriots are enjoying some Halo goodness these next couple of weeks. You laugh at how angry we get when someone gets in a cheap kill, or that the enemy AI is so difficult/bad, that we feel like putting our collective feet through the TV screen.

Yes, we’re well aware that it’s not real. And it might be a little over the top to scream into the mic, “I will find you and kill your whole family!”

It’s called being emotionally invested, and everyone seems to do it. There are just some inanimate objects that, for some reason, really tug at our heartstrings. It can be an old toy, a really good book/movie, a sports franchise, and yes, even a video game.

So while you may laugh or snort at me desperately trying to save Reach from the evil Covenant forces, just know that we just might belittle your feelings too the next time you eagerly watch a movie about an attractive woman who is torn between two handsome men, or when your fantasy sports team is ruined.