The catalyst for this thought post is the podcast "StarTalk Radio: With Neil Degrasse Tyson." They recently (on July 29th 2012) released an episode called "Advancing to the Next Level: The Science of Video Games (Part 1)"
They talked about the impact that video games have on the people who play them, the appearance they have to the people that don't, and the benefits that they can have on the player. This is all good and I agree with it all, I was nodding my head along with all of this.
My issue appears when the reasons appear.
Disclaimer: I have not heard the second part of the podcast yet. And I LOVE this podcast and all of its hosts and guests.
Here's my issue: This podcast said that the reason gamers game is to escape. This was not their actual topic, but they do talk about it and the idea bugged me.
I don't play to escape– I play for entertainment. I play for control.
Adults, (as you may know,) have the stresses and tensions of responsibility, from which to escape, but I, as a teenager, do not. This is a very classic argument, the things that adults don’t want, give them the things that teens want without regard for the parts that adults so complain about.
I have
I am using the definition of power as this:
Power: Control over one's environment.
Environment: Every thing, person or animal that has any effect on you or the things that have an effect on you.
Just to clarify.
Well defined objectives, purpose and meaning imbued actions are the real pull for most gamers, I think, all of which give us power over our in-game environments. If a game made you play without a HUD, without knowledge of how much health an enemy had, without clearly defined enemies, you would have much less of a sense of power and control, and it wouldn't be as fun.
There is much more I could say, but honestly, I feel that I have written too much already, so, I will just learn from my mistake and be more succinct next time.
Bye.
