Everybody needs to hold onto a dream in order to function. That dream could be anything from being a rock star to becoming a mother or father; a published author, the owner of a small business, a surgeon, an actor or actress, a politician, a sports star. Sometimes, it’s the possibility – however large or small – of realising that dream that drives you. At other times, merely seeing the dream is enough to comfort; a reminder that there are things in life worth having and worth working for.
This idea is, sometimes subconsciously, behind the creation and popularity of a massive chunk of existing fiction and art. A song or poem might grab your attention because, for example, it hooks into your feelings of despair – or hope. A book or film might start with a ‘what if’ concept you once considered yourself, and take it places you would never have thought of. Any form of entertainment is able to present you with an existence you would love to explore. Videogames are able to do so with one crucial advantage over all others. They encourage – in fact, actively require – you to step into this existence and take part.
Huzaifa from eXputer: "2008 was home to the likes of Call of Duty: World at War, Dead Space, GTA 4, Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, and many other hits, which is outright remarkable."
Times are changing, and these games would have never been made in today's climate.
Every single time someone uses this phrase whether it's music, movies, books, comics, video games, etc it's always the same claim.
The ubiquitous "they" won't allow it to be made. And every decade these claims are made the claimant completely ignores all the "offensive" material that is published when the claim is made.
In ten years, you can write a new article about how you can't make games like Helldivers 2, Resident Evil VIII, Mortal Kombat I, Dragon's Dogma 2, Alan Wake 2 etc etc etc any more.
Dead Island: "The early PC version of the zombie game swapped the playable character Purna’s Gender Wars skill with a prototype name, which shouldn’t be mentioned directly. The skill name made fun of both Purna as a character and feminists."
"Feminist Whore" lmao
ill add one more to the list.
drakengard 1.
its ridiculous tho, especially since they'd still be able to find their place in alot of places in the world. except america of course ha. and maybe Australia.
ppl are so sensitive these days. ha. but it is what it is.
They're not offensive.
And we need another Fat Princess. Fantastic little game!
Some people just have no sense of humour if this sort of thing offends them. They need to lighten up and stop taking themselves so seriously.
YouTuber Potomy has revealed new details about the new Bloodborne mod and that it is now in a playable state for Minecraft.
I don't agree with this. Video games are addictive and are used to escape reality. We feel better during the game, but when the game is over the realisation that you have wasted hours of your life living out your dreams in a virtual world instead of real life kicks in. It just exacerbates depression.
@lewis - I can't point to any tests but you could find them and they are not inconclusive. The games are deliberately designed to tap into the human psychology, especially MMORPGs. Trophies and achievements are addictive for that same reason. Multiplayer gaming again for that very same reason. I can't remember what the psychological addiction is but if you google it you'll find it.
I thought that was a really well written article and raised some very interesting points. I know that I, personally speaking, gain a lot of pleasure from video games through escapism and the freedom that games like GTA present.
I've only recently started playing Red Dead Redemption and just being allowed to explore that world and do as I please is empowering. I've spent hours in-game just riding around on my horse for the shear fun of it, although I'm not likely to ever ride a horse in the real world. It's not complete immersion as no game offers a completely life-like world just yet, but it's rather relaxing. I think games like this are one of the reasons why video games can actually help stop violence in the real world as we can act out our fantasies there.
Interesting piece and some good ideas. I think there's a lot more to think about with mental health issues than just empowerment, though - although certainly it's an area to be considered.
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I used videogames as a defense against boredom, that's for sure.
Besides, the games I played are fun too.
i use games to escape the depression i have as well as the stress, works really well too thank you very much