Escapism

Two posts in one day, I know, what can I say. Dr. Jones called me out and made me feel officially like a slacker, but don't worry, I'll get caught back up. So, without further ado...

There's always talk about video games mimicking reality and the consequences of that. Video games get blamed for making kids violent and desensitizing them and maybe to an extent this is true, maybe there are people out there who honestly can't tell the difference, but I think for most of us, video games serve as an escapism. And the realer the game sometimes, the better.

Take first person shooters or any of the GTA games. We know we're not actually killing anyone for real, that's the point, but who, in all honesty hasn't been so frustrated at someone that, even though you weren't serious, you thought about killing that person? This sounds morbid, but it's normal. Hopefully you don't actually want that person dead, but you're so frustrated, you need the release. Video games provide this. You can kill enemy soldiers in Call of Duty or go on a rampage through the city in GTA 3, you're not actually committing these acts, but they offer some sort of output for you negative energy. It's a little bit easier than reading a book to accomplish this. There are times when I'm frustrated and want to be alone so I can just open a good text and read, but I can never remember wanting to read a book out of anger. Slamming buttons and squeezing the controller sometimes get the stress out better, then flipping pages as hard as I can.

It makes me wonder if the fantasy/escapism aspect is a reason why the Japanese are more involved with video games then other countries. I say this, not to sound racist, but I'm generally interested on a cultural level. Generally, as a culture, they're a very humble people, who put themselves are great physical discomfort to appease each other. They hold back much of how they feel for the sake of politeness. So, it's no surprise that some of their movies are so violent and sexually explicit, it's a release of all of the building tension. So, the countries proficiency with technology in general aside, is this synonymous with the escapism of video games? I haven't done much looking into it, but I would suspect that it is. I don't intend to create a label or channel the person preaching that video games are making our children violent when that same person hasn't ever played a game or done any study about them. I just want to do more of a general musing about escapism.

It's liberating to be able to "get away" for a while. To leave all of your thoughts, worries, and frustrations behind and just forget. I think that video games allow for this. I have no problem hitting a prostitute with my car while escaping from the police in GTA, but I'd never do that in real life. Legal problems aside, I find it morally wrong, so why would I do it for pretend? Because I know it's fake. I know I'm not actually killing someone. The experience doesn't even feel like I'm actually killing someone, I wouldn't want it to. I escape from my world and enter the world of GTA where the rules let me get away with something like that, because in the end, they're all just pixels. The problem obviously arises when someone can't tell the difference between them. It comes back to the age old problem of personal responsibility.