Games are the product of someone’s imagination, but they put you in the reality of the game character itself rather than the people who made the game. Nevertheless, this is a different reality than your own. Your identity can be shaped through the actions you take in a game by a sort of conditioning. Take World of Warcraft, for example. When you’re in town and not doing anything, it’s sort of like real life. There are other real people walking around (taking the form of their avatar). There are shops where you can buy stuff from NPCs and an auction house where you can buy stuff from other people. You can trade with other people personally too. You would never think of stealing (not that you could anyway, in this case) from another person for fear of “legal action” (being banned rather than sued or thrown in jail). In a raid or dungeon, if you’re a decent person you’d never think of taking the other person’s loot if you team up with them to kill a boss or high level enemy, because your reputation would be ruined. This is like real life, and your personality in real life affects how you play in-game. I like to think that it works the other way around as well. I’ve learned how to work together with people, I’ve learned time management, and other important real life skills through World of Warcraft, and I think those skills affect how both other people see me as well as how I see myself.
I think it depends on the game, whether you get the feeling of being in control or not. There are some games, like MMOs or sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto, where the game lets you do whatever you want. You can go to different cities and go shopping, hang out with friends (MMOs), or go against the law (Grand Theft Auto). When you’re in school, you’re trained to follow directions, stay quiet, and push through a repetitive daily routine to get ready for work, which is just another repetitive daily routine (most of the time). I think that’s the appeal of video games. You’re not being controlled like that, you can do anything you want. If that game doesn’t let you do something, you can find a game that will let you do it. If I want to fight in a war, I can do it. If I want to steal an ice cream truck and run over hookers, I can do it. When you really can do anything, satisfying the need for control is fairly obvious. When it’s tricking you though, it’s a little more complicated. You might think you can do anything you want in a storyline, when in fact it’s rather linear. Either way, you’re getting the feeling that you’re in control, and I think that’s the appeal of video games to a lot of people.
Again, I think it depends on the person whether playing a game is an escape from or a help for coping with the material reality in which we live. Honestly, I had a good life growing up. I had everything I wanted, I had great friends and straight A’s all through school. I played games though because I was missing excitement in my life. I would go to school, talk to friends, come home and practice the piano, but that was all boring to me at the time (not so much anymore). I would come home and after homework, I would play games to get that excitement. Now, I enjoy playing the piano more, I enjoy hanging out with friends and going to class. I don’t play games anywhere near as much as I used to, and I think that’s why. What used to be 6 hours or more a day of video games has turned into maybe an hour or two at the most. It’s not that I don’t have any time for it (I don’t have as much as I used to, but I do still have the time), I just don’t feel that need for excitement anymore.
Leave a Reply