Poll: Escapism or Wishfulfillment

[magicmonkeybars]

I wonder, why do people play, do you want to escape your life for a time playing as someone else or do you place yourself into a game with you being the main character ?

This is kind of inspired by the many "why do males play as female chartacters ?" threads that fil thius forum from time to time.

How many of you can't disconnect yourself from the actions you take in game as the character ?
Is being different off putting because it's harder to see yourself as the character you're playing when it is something other than who you are IRL ? (male/female/alien/machine)

I'm not judging, I'm just curious.

 

[TheIronRuler]

For me, a game is like an interactive book. It's a different sort of a medium, therefore I enjoy well crafted games immensley and dislike multiplayer games.

 

[butternut]

I don't think I've ever played as/will play as myself in a game.

I sit firmly on the "escapism" fence here, I like creating characters and their backstories etc, and they are usually as far removed from myself and reality as possible.

 

[Artina89]

I play games for escapism. I play games to give myself a bit of "me time" where I can just kick back and relax and just be by myself for a bit, away from my family and friends. I don't ever insert myself into these games, instead I play as a range of diverse characters, male and female. I don't really want to insert myself into these games, I like them to be separate entities to myself, if that makes any sense.

 

[Serving UpSmiles]

I have had moments where real life hits me on the head after being very detatched from it for so long, its a little like the opposite of insanity where instead of someone fearing reality, instead I embrace it.


Yeah you can hate on me now.

 

[Raso719]

Escapism for me. I hate real world politics and war. When I "go to war" in a game I don't want to go to some generic desert nation and shoot people with brown skin and turbans, even if it' never clearly stated I'm in Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan I want to forget all that crap.

This is why I prefer games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Dynasty Warriors, many JRPGs, Oblivion, Mech games and the like. I also prefer more colorful and light hearted games and can't stand dark and gritty. I want to escape the daily grind. I want to escape CNN's depressing head lines not live them, fight them and solve them in a fantasy setting, I just want to forget them for a while while I use my 9 foot long sword to lay waste to ancient china or my giant robot to wreck other giant robots.

There's probably a bit of wish fulfillment in there too, though. I can't shoot fireballs from my hands in real life, but I love games where I can shoot fire balls from my hands. I can't break dance while using 4 shotguns, 2 in hands and 2 on feet, to kill an army of angels, but I like games where I can do something like that. I can't summon Bahamut but I like games where I can summon him. If I'm gonna use a gun in a game I don't want to do some bland, iron sight stuff where I'm slowly trudging about with an M16 taking shots at other enemies from cover. No, I'd rather prefer to use the rockets on my back to slide along on my back from cover to cover then use a robot's junk as a speed bag then shoot some other robots with my awesome, outer space machine gun! But most of this is more what I'd consider escapism because I know those things will never be possible.

 

[Zhukov]

Eh, bit of both.

I have absolutely no problem with games that have me play a set character. For example, I really enjoyed playing as Jade in Beyond Good & Evil. Her being completely different to me wasn't an issue. Hell, it never even crossed my mind.

Games that make me create a character and make choices on their behalf are a different matter. I never try and make them look like me. (For example, my main Commander Shepard is female.) However, I do make choices more-or-less based on what I would do.

(Well, that is to say, based on what I would do if I was an interplanetary badass. Because if if real-life me ended up in the kind of situations that Shepard does, I would probably just point Wrex at the problem and then hide behind a rock until the screaming stopped. But you get the idea.)

 

[thenamelessloser]

I like games where I'm given story based choices and morality based choices. I prefer making choices in video games cause I can always reload an earlier save or restart than in real life. Heck, even with games with none of those type of choices I can still reload or restart if my character dies. I can pace back and forth in front people randomly. I can jump around. I feel more free in video games than I ever could in reality. I also like having super duper powers as well. I also have a tendency to keep making mistakes especially the same ones over and over again. Thus being able to reload until I somehow get it right kicks ass.

Depends on the game, but I guess most of the time I do not act like myself because I myself would be hiding underneath a rock instead of interacting with people. Because I can't pace, wander around, and just act freely without being paranoid unlike video games.

I also much prefer dialog trees and wheels to actually speaking with people. I want them in real life damn it!

Also, subtitles kick ass, I would love being able to read what people say in real life... so hard to concentrate on speech at times for me.