Over
the last few decades, video games have come a long way. It used to be that only a small set of people
played them, whether it be on their computer or in arcades, but video games have
now become a huge part of our culture.
It is rare to find a person who has never played a video game before, and
most families with children have at least one console in their house.
When
my dad was growing up, he read a lot of comic books to pass the time. His dad grew up before comic books were
really popular, so the thing he liked to do was play with model trains. My generation had video games, but unlike the
two previous forms of entertainment, I think that video games will remain
popular for a very long time – they are here to stay. Video games, comic books, and model trains
are all forms of escapism. We use our imagination
to get caught up in these worlds, complete with stories and imagery. Of these three mediums, video games are the
strongest form of escapism. You can
create a world with model trains and get lost in it, but that world will never
reciprocate interaction. Comic books
present their own world and stories, complete with artistic drawings and great
characters, but it too lacks interaction.
When you are playing a video game, you feel like you have an effect on
the world around you – characters and objects respond to your actions, and if
it is a good game, you will be able to get lost in a world for hours at a time.
In
terms of escapism, video games are currently the most powerful entertainment
medium out there right now – it’s just so easy
to get caught up in a good game. They
could certainly improve – common criticisms about most video games being
tailored to young, adolescent males with a penchant for violence are valid. Of
course not all games are like that, but a very large proportion are. This can also be explained by the escapist
nature of video games – young, adolescent males have always been a large consumer
of escapist entertainment, from model trains to comic books to action
figures. However, we are already seeing
games that are trying to break this mold, and I think this will continue to
happen – many people are interested in a video game that does not rely too
heavily on action or violence in order to tell the story.
As
time goes on, I think that our desires for better escapist experiences will
lead virtual reality to become much more popular. So far, we see the oculus rift leading the
way, and it looks extremely promising.
It further increases the escapist experience by trying to immerse the
player even deeper into the video game world.
My prediction is that in a few decades, most kids will grow up with some
sort of virtual reality console like this, using that as their primary means of
escapism. The possibilities for it are
endless – a driving or plane simulator that is good on a current generation
console would be awesome in virtual reality. This begs the question that many
science fiction writers have been asking for a while now – will we eventually
become so happy with our ability to escape that we will prefer it over real
life? In the near future, I do not see
that happening. Even flying a plane in
an oculus rift is no substitute for actually flying a plane – same goes for
driving a car. It will be interesting to
see what happens.
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