Are videogames more than just escapism?

[Ikagura]

Yeah, the best "moral lesson" games are thought provoking and open ended. The worst ones are dictatorial and forceful, lacking nuance and subtlety. Something modern games seem to do more and more. Provoking thought and reflection is the best way to open a closed mind, not by forcing your world view upon them.

I find it funny when a video game says "Corporations are bad" when said video game is in fact published by a big corporation.

Or the sempiternal "humans are the real monsters" in post-apocalyptic (especially zombie themed) game which is already overused as hell.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I find it funny when a video game says "Corporations are bad" when said video game is in fact published by a big corporation.

I don't find it that odd, considering the ones writing games work for large corporations. They would know the evils of corporate life the best. lol.

Or the sempiternal "humans are the real monsters" in post-apocalyptic (especially zombie themed) game which is already overused as hell.

It seems to be overdone quite a bit and it doesn't really strike me as a good message to put in a video game. Writers should be appealing to the good of humanity and try to uplift people, instead of casting humanity as inherently evil. There's space for those types of stories, but they are way too overdone.

 

[Ikagura]

I don't find it that odd, considering the ones writing games work for large corporations. They would know the evils of corporate life the best. lol.

While it may be true I would also say that it's how free economics work.

It seems to be overdone quite a bit and it doesn't really strike me as a good message to put in a video game. Writers should be appealing to the good of humanity and try to uplift people, instead of casting humanity as inherently evil. There's space for those types of stories, but they are way too overdone.

I used to think that "people are inherently evil" until I've noticed that this pessimism would be intellectually limiting and make people lazy to do efforts thinking that it would be useless.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

While it may be true I would also say that it's how free economics work.

Its a necessary evil to a certain extent, but anything in excess is bad. A corporate oligarchy is not a good system for society as a whole. We had that in the gilded age and it caused famine and suffering.

I used to think that "people are inherently evil" until I've noticed that this pessimism would be intellectually limiting and make people lazy to do efforts thinking that it would be useless.

I don't think people are inherently evil. I'm sure there are some mentally disturbed people who qualify as that, but the vast majority of people I've met in my life I qualify as having good intentions. People are often self-centered, due to the limitations of our monkey brains, and that causes us to make mistakes and be short sighted but that doesn't qualify as evil to me. The evils start coming out when people form into groups and start groupthinking/following leaders without thinking.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

I want to be told a good story, same reason i read a book, same reason i watch an anime. Sometimes its a story i narrate myself.

Never has been about escapism for me.

 

[Rovole]

I think that videogames can help broaden your imagination. The usual suspects like to blame fiction books for many of the same sins that they accuse videogames of.
The new medium always gets criticized unfairly, and we're just about at the tail-end of that phase for videogames.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I play games to escape and to have fun. Why do I wanna escape because real life is a bitch and humans are evil.

Wars and wars and more wars humans have become addicted to wars much to war they even started race and gender wars like the lunatics they are.

But sadly the real life wars is creeping in to videos games so my only escape from this fares of life leaves me with one option only just take a rope and go in to the forest and yeah you know.

Then we have recent pandemic, pollution till we can no longer live on the planet, People shooting up schools, Killing each other on a daily bases for stupid silly reason, People cheating on each other beuse love is just fake and the only thing people want is money and sex money and sex.

And we all speak about democracy which is just a disguise for the 1% to be dictators with out being called out for it. We have no say in anything. I mean if we did shit would not be so bad.

I play games so I can escpae all this stupidity and bullshit and I play to entertain my self to find some form of joy on this god forsaken planet.

I think you need to see ancient greek , Rome and china , today world sucks but that was always the case the internet allowed us to connect in ways never been possible before.

In span of moments I can know what the Canadian government thinks about X thing same for you wanting to know about the Syrian government thoughts on Y thing , you can know each and every conflict happening across the world back then humans would just stick with their society and just not connect with people across vast distances.

We have better medical care back then huge amounts of infants die early on due to sickness the science we made allowed far more humans to live.

Me you and everyone here can write and read something that was quite of high status even in the last century.

Look at the bright side the average person in most places around the world has better living standards compared to previous times.

Now each age has its troubles and problems its our nature we are flawed beings we will always make trouble either for us or someone else its nothing new.

Sure we may be suffering from obesity on a global scale and climate problems and what not but its not the ending of the world.

Once you realize that maybe you think too awfully about other humans and start thinking better of them maybe you see them less evil.

 

[MegaHiro91]

You guys are on the right path here I think. This is basically a slur and it comes from either old people or young people who live under the "boomer gaze". And I mean boomer in the proper sense here. Video games didn't exist in 1968 so they're evil. "Your high school English teacher would have given you a disapproving look if you spoke highly of a game. Don't you feel embarrassed?" Even a lot of gamers still think in these terms and try to defend the medium under this framework.
In reality though, "escapism" can apply to basically anything, especially any artistic medium with a fictional narrative.
As for me, I haven't regretted playing a good game in the same way that I haven't regretted watching a good movie.

Yeah plus the ongoing notion that "videogames are for kids". Many adults are like "I haven't played videogames for ages" and others are like "Are you STILL playing games?" and in retortion you are like "Are you STILL watching movies?" So it's one thing that games are looked down upon as escapism while movies and books aren't viewed in the same way, but also that there is apparently an age where openly playing videogames stops being socially acceptable.

 

[MegaHiro91]

I play games to escape and to have fun. Why do I wanna escape because real life is a bitch and humans are evil.

Wars and wars and more wars humans have become addicted to wars much to war they even started race and gender wars like the lunatics they are.

But sadly the real life wars is creeping in to videos games so my only escape from this fares of life leaves me with one option only just take a rope and go in to the forest and yeah you know.

Then we have recent pandemic, pollution till we can no longer live on the planet, People shooting up schools, Killing each other on a daily bases for stupid silly reason, People cheating on each other beuse love is just fake and the only thing people want is money and sex money and sex.

And we all speak about democracy which is just a disguise for the 1% to be dictators with out being called out for it. We have no say in anything. I mean if we did shit would not be so bad.

I play games so I can escpae all this stupidity and bullshit and I play to entertain my self to find some form of joy on this god forsaken planet.

Yeah one thing I have really tired of in my old days, is that we humans are so fixated on fantasies about harming each other. I mean, it ain't enough that killing and stealing is going on in the real world, we have to glorify it in movies and videogames too??? Meanwhile the moment we see something remotely sexually it is banned. What sense does that make??

 

[kanesha]

what so special about video games, people been playing all sorts of games since forever, don't even need no story... you goof around kicking a ball and everyone laughs at you, until some of you goof around so hard that they get the swollest legs and suddenly everyone respects you... nobody needs legs that swol for any practical purpose and they even look funny... or them chess players get whatever part of their brain it takes to play that boring game swol... they're all still stupid af and there is even neural nets now that beat them all definitively proving there is no intelligence involved in the game but it's still like prestige sport or something
sorry to disappoint but we are not getting any important life lessons or experience earth shattering stories or anything, you really don't need a game for that, you play the game to swollen up a specific part of you brain you like to exercise, cause in reality deep inside we're all jocks

 

[RunicOrangejuice]

Honestly if a video game isn't entertaining but a ted talk of a dev implying that we are bad people for not following their direction then I'd take that as arrogance.

Even the best books written teach us a lesson without being condescending nor accusative.

Certain society tries to ban books that don't follow their direction, either.

 

[Ian Naxieas]

Oh, they are way more than just escapism. Generally I use video games for pleasure over something like escapism. Not that you can't have both, of course. But furry bullshit is more what I use for escapism over video games. That's not always the case though. The occasional game does come around that is so immersive that I can't help but get lost in it and this is enhanced tremendously if the Devil's Lettuce is involved. Sadly, unless something is happening every second, it's easy for me to ruminate on other things while gaming.

Anyway, video games themselves are just another form of media and have limitless potential as a piece of art. I think most everything in media is a piece of art. Even a completely soulless movie might have artistry in aspects such as visuals or sound. The movie itself might have been written to be nothing more than a thoughtless moneymaker, but that doesn't mean there isn't good talent on the team. At the end of the day, a job is a job and you sure as hell aren't going to be working on Citizen Kane for most of your career. All that applies to video games. There are exceptions though. 100% asset flips are absolutely nothing, just as a movie composed of nothing but stock footage is nothing or AI generating a picture is nothing.

Thankfully, we have lots of excellent examples of video games as a work of art, though naturally some are more artistic than others. As much as I love movies, I feel like video games have the most potential if escapism is your goal. Having any sort of control, even in FMV games, is a different beast entirely. Giving the player agency to be part of or influence the world and story is something truly special.

 

[Weebicon]

I never understood the term escapism either. I play video games to play them, there's nothing more to it than I just love them, it's my hobby. I'm not playing games to escape the real world or whatever, I just like games. Sometimes it's really not that serious and the answer is just that simple. At least that's the case for me.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

So what are your takes? Is it purely escapism? Do YOU "just" play videogames to "take a break from reality"?

tbh, yeah
It's why I will play anything with little regard to the story. If it at least has decent gameplay and music then I'll play for fun

I do see the other side of the coin though. Games like Celeste have probably done a lot of good to the queer community, Mirror's Edge might feel empowering, and even if I hate playing it, Xenogears has a pretty deep story discussing topics seldom brought up to this day. And then of course there's Omori. Never got how people got the narrow minded view of "video games should ONLY be for escapism, not realism," but then again the people arguing that tend to not be...reasonable about what "realism" is. So I guess my take on it is whatever cause there's a lot of games out there to play, it's not like the goofy wacky games are going extinct anytime soon.

 

[abu2411]

Video games is such a cool medium to tell stories in. The interactivity between the player and the game can be used for interesting dynamics, as well as the ways in which the game trains the player to play in specific ways.

 

[Antilocal123]

Video games are art as music is art, and I don't see anything wrong with anyone viewing them as solely escapism.

If someone just wants to play video games for fun, why hate on that? I doubt the corporation gives a shit lol

I personally view them as much more.