Escapism

Since the age of 8, when I got my first gaming console - Sega Genesis, video games have been an integral part of my life. Some would say that I’m a video game addict, but I tend to disagree. The simple fact that I can hold a steady job, own a home and go to class on occasion means that I am definitely not spending enough time playing video games to be considered an addict. I like to think of myself as a video game fanatic; video games absorb only chunks of my life at a time, not the entire thing. As a self proclaimed video game fanatic, however, you should expect that this will not be the only post that I make regarding video games.

I think that, for me, video games offer a form of escapism. Like reading, video games provide me with an outlet to play out a fantasy that I otherwise would not be able to experience. No where in the video game industry is this truer than in the RPG genre, my favorite. I enjoy many of the usual RPG culprits including Final Fantasy, MegaTen, Xenosaga, Shining Force, .hack and Suikoden. While other video game genres offer an escape from the ordinary, RPGs offer the most pronounce departure. For the most part, RPGs contain many of the elements that exist in my favorite literary genres – fantasy and science fiction. While I really enjoy reading a good book, video games provide with a heightened sense of escapism that I can’t find in books or even movies for that matter.

For me, it is all about the interactivity of the video game medium. Like video games, movies and books present me with new worlds and worldviews to explore. Unlike video games, movies and books don’t allow me to explore these new worlds in a free flowing manner. RPGs allow you to explore the culture of the video game’s world; this almost participatory observation appeals to the anthropologist inside me. A good RPG can provide you with an incredible story while making you feel as if you are the one that has uncovered it. To me, this is something that neither books nor movies can do. I think that it is this level of engagement that is inherent in all video games that makes them such great tools of escapism. Ultimately, video games are my choice when I want to escape my life for an hour or fifty.