Why play video games?
- Thread starter Goofonian
- Start date
Honestly, I can't define precisely why I play video games.
I started to at the age of three with our Calecovision, and then would play the NES. I liked to go outside and was always pretty active, I also loved drawing, and I simply loved television and reading as well. However, there was always something about games that I liked better. I cannot put my finger on it.
Whatever it was, it has stuck with me and then some. I love seeing the industry evolve, and I like seeing how there are still new ideas to be had. Best of all, a lot of the best ideas are beginning to hit video games. For the past decade it has seemed like Hollywood has run out of ideas, yet all of a sudden video games are getting tons of new IP's and then some. Just look at Assassin's Creed. It's insanely more interesting than anything coming out in theaters this holiday. Plus, where else can you get the same sort of entertainment as you get in Portal? Or what sci-fi war movie can compare to the rush you get when you are fighting alongside a buddy in Gears of War?
I guess it was games themselves that made me want to do game design or journalism, but I feel it is the part of me that wants to do design that gives me this desire to play as much as I can that my friends can't keep up with. Yet I love every bit of it.
I guess the best way to answer is that I play because video games are a part of who I am: they are my hobby, and hopefully they'll be my career one way or the other.
I started to at the age of three with our Calecovision, and then would play the NES. I liked to go outside and was always pretty active, I also loved drawing, and I simply loved television and reading as well. However, there was always something about games that I liked better. I cannot put my finger on it.
Whatever it was, it has stuck with me and then some. I love seeing the industry evolve, and I like seeing how there are still new ideas to be had. Best of all, a lot of the best ideas are beginning to hit video games. For the past decade it has seemed like Hollywood has run out of ideas, yet all of a sudden video games are getting tons of new IP's and then some. Just look at Assassin's Creed. It's insanely more interesting than anything coming out in theaters this holiday. Plus, where else can you get the same sort of entertainment as you get in Portal? Or what sci-fi war movie can compare to the rush you get when you are fighting alongside a buddy in Gears of War?
I guess it was games themselves that made me want to do game design or journalism, but I feel it is the part of me that wants to do design that gives me this desire to play as much as I can that my friends can't keep up with. Yet I love every bit of it.
I guess the best way to answer is that I play because video games are a part of who I am: they are my hobby, and hopefully they'll be my career one way or the other.
I don't really understand why people think that gaming is bad or some sort of escapism (in a bad sense). If you play a game that has a story to it, then it is much more involved than reading or watching TV/movies, and requires you to keep track of many different factors, while still playing (in other words, it's called multitasking). As long as it isn't something like Captain Bland's Monotonous Adventure, then I'm sure that it will have generally more merit than many other forms of 'entertainment,' like drunkeness... or being in a real gang, as opposed to a virtual one.
I suppose that that's all I have.
I suppose that that's all I have.
Reaction speed has saved my life on more than one occasion. Studies have also shown it increases memory capacity and recognition.
It's because some people are afraid of the answer. They think that the answer would be that violent video games leads to real world violence. I don't think so.LordOmnit said:
TV sucks, movies are expensive, and video games offer the best entertainment value for the buck. I've tried real sports, was ok for a little while but didn't hold my short attention span. Then I got into cars, built a big, bad ass Mustang and the time/money spent wasn't worth it anymore. It's a very interactive experience and great for those of us who like a good story and/or have quick reflexes and feel like "pwning newbs" for a few hours after work.
Like pretty much everyone else "for the fun" is the main reason, but there's a huge number of, as Redfeather put it, 'secondary reasons'. For me they definitely include jt2002tj's 'on a roll' and wow sorta moments but for me there's also the sense of achievement when you do something difficult. No-one else is going to care that you defeated the final boss on the hardest difficulty and 1000's of people have already beaten you to it and done it first but for me it's still there. Lol, maybe it's just me though, but I get the feeling that it's not. Microsoft's inclusion of Achievements and Gamerscore with the 360 supports this I believe. Now they tell you "Congratulations, you've done something to be proud of(or not)" and while those numbers are just tiny bytes of stored information and the message is just a few pixels arranged in a specific shape it still means something. It's what drove gamers to find every hidden item, unlock every character and visit all the locations, cause it meant that they'd done something.
...Wow, that's quite the ramble I have there
...Wow, that's quite the ramble I have there
Ha ha ha, it looks like I forgot to actually answer the question!
Well... I play video games for the challenge, the different experiences, the laughs I get at totally silly things like some of the big explosive moves in Nippon Ichi games, and last (but not least) the fun.
Well... I play video games for the challenge, the different experiences, the laughs I get at totally silly things like some of the big explosive moves in Nippon Ichi games, and last (but not least) the fun.
the purpose of gaming is for our robot overlords to slowly transfer us into the second matrix, which is like a matrix within the matrix, so that way we have a harder time escaping their human farms. they do this by convincing us that this is "fun" while they probe our brains. soon, agents will probably be here and they will probably erase me or something.
Immersion: I play games for experiences you'd never get IRL, like being Samus the bounty hunter whooping ass in realms of techno organic paradise, Or being mario the plumber saving the mushroom kingdom, or Raz, in psychic summer camp. Fun, also, is obviously the number 1 reason, hence why banking software and such do not similarly "immerse" me in their world.
This is also why I don't so much like the "uber-realistic" games or "kid friendly" games:
Both cut something out of the picture, as realistic games (can) cut out much of the sense of adventure, being as they are an experience I could probably have IRL(like playing basketball, or fighting in the US army)and better, while kid friendly too often equates to the totally unreal world of happiness and sunshine where everything is sickeningly sweet and life itself has no consequences whatsoever.
Then again, that could be a whole nother topic on creating surreal realistic fiction.
So I'll just shut up now and quit ranting.
This is also why I don't so much like the "uber-realistic" games or "kid friendly" games:
Both cut something out of the picture, as realistic games (can) cut out much of the sense of adventure, being as they are an experience I could probably have IRL(like playing basketball, or fighting in the US army)and better, while kid friendly too often equates to the totally unreal world of happiness and sunshine where everything is sickeningly sweet and life itself has no consequences whatsoever.
Then again, that could be a whole nother topic on creating surreal realistic fiction.
So I'll just shut up now and quit ranting.
Currently, I use videogames as a way to relieve stress when school is really dragging me down. For an hour or so, I can forget that there's a test tomorrow that I have no clue how to do or take my mind off advanced calculus problems that are trying to squeeze the life out of me. Also, my friends and I use videogames as "guy time", where we can just relax and be guys without having to worry about what the girls that hang around us think. Also, lans are a great way to hide from crazy asian girlfriends...personal experience.
I think the word "fun" doesn't really describe all the enjoyment. There are moments in games that are decidedly not fun in the pants-on-head pixie-stix-up-your-nose run-around-and-giggle sense but are instead "satisfying."
I find the word "satisfying" is a broader, but not too broad, term for why I like video games.
I find the word "satisfying" is a broader, but not too broad, term for why I like video games.
