When I was a boy, I loved pretending to be somewhere else or someone else. My picnic table took turns being the Millennium Falcon, an aircraft carrier, and many other props within a childhood world of pretend playing. As I got older and learned to read, I looked forward to new paperbacks so that I could dabble in the minds of people like Timothy Zahn and Steve Perry. When I got older and started getting a more regular paycheck, I discovered video games and got to play in the work of other people’s imaginations as well as my own. Some people go home and watch sit-coms or movies, but I prefer to sit down to a video game.
I suppose that newer mediums attract the best talent. While movies aren’t going out of production, video games have become a bigger money maker than movies in the U.S. and many European countries. The last time I drove by the marquee to my local theater, every movie playing was a sequel to an older movie. I enjoy seeing a movie if it is new and creative but I rarely ever see a movie that is new and different that isn’t based on a play, or a movie, or even a game. Perhaps that is why games get ridiculed so much. Whether a person likes video games or not, I think that it is fair to say that Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto are creative and different ways of enjoying fictional settings and situations. I’m amazed sometime at how movie makers will gush about how innovative and ahead of the curve they are with one technology or another, like virtual sets, even if the technology was used years before hand to better effect, like Wing Commander.
I enjoy escaping to another world, or another version of the world. Television and games should not be reality based. I could turn on the television and watch people learn how to color coordinate their wardrobe with the new paint on their walls, or I could cruise the streets of San Andreas, or even frag aliens that look like giant cats, or even take down a star destroyer. I still think that reading a good book is the most engaging medium for my imagination, but the video game is probably second.
I think everybody growing up, must find ways to expand their thought process, so their mind will mature and develop. I like the way you illustrated this in your writing. I can remember my first video game and how mush fun I had playing it. I didn’t realize until my adulthood, how games, and playing with a sense of imagination can help a person deal with stress on a daily basis. Escaping from reality, by imagination, can bring the dreams that will be the foundation of a person’s success, later on in life.
Comment by bthomas1150 — July 8, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
I think games are a great way to escape. No matter if it is a complex game that takes a lot of strategies or just a simple word game on the computer. Before my daughter was born, if I wasn’t watching TV, I was playing video games. It got to a point where I took over my son’s Xbox. He wasn’t happy about that. Sometime we play the Rock Band and Guitar Hero together. When my little girl gets older, I plan on resuming my gaming career.
Keith
Comment by kbizz73 — July 9, 2009 @ 8:55 pm