The Real Trouble with Video Games
The content of entertainment, and the moral quandaries it apparently presents, has been the source of much debate and discussion for decades. From the pulp magazines to comic books to movies to video games, certain kinds of content – especially sexual or violent – have caused many people to condemn the different forms of media as psychologically damaging or corruptive. This movement occurs in rises and falls, usually in some way corresponding to perceived increases in so-called aberrant behavior. The proliferation of violent or otherwise explicit video games, along with the more prominent cases of outlandish behavior – such as the Columbine high school incident – has made games the subject of much scrutiny and pending legislation.
My personal stance is that neither video games nor movies, nor any other form of entertainment can be so influential as to negate or override the effects of strong parenting. Many compelling arguments have been made from both sides, each stacked with all kinds of so-called evidence from psychological case studies or anecdotes. Since the literature on the topic is so robust, there is no need for me to beat a dead horse. Instead, in spite of being an avid video game player, and supporter of the medium in its many forms, I am going to iterate what I suspect is an overlooked and perhaps even more dangerous problem than violent or sexual content.
That problem is overstimulation. What that means is that video games sometimes create in the player’s mind an alternate version of reality, i.e. a fantasy, that engages them both intellectually and emotionally. Perhaps it takes them to distant and beautiful lands, populated by wildly diverse and often impossibly beautiful people. Perhaps it enables them to perform feats that are inconceivable for any number of reasons, such as slaying a horrific creature to save millions, or something simpler like rushing for 350 yards as a running back in the NFL. Or, perhaps, most dangerous of all, it instills within them a sense of purpose, which when fulfilled provides a powerful catharsis.
To people who do not play video games, these things may seem trivial, or even unlikely. But as I can attest from personal experience, the way video games engage a person’s mind – provided they have some ability to suspend disbelief – is unmatched by any form of media. The difference may lie exclusively in games’ interactive component. No longer merely the passive observer, as when reading a book or watching a movie, video games create for players the sense that they are doing things that are impossible in reality. This, in itself, should not be much of a problem, as engaging the imagination is a wonderful thing – for children and adults alike. It provides a supplement to the often mundane normalcy of daily life.
However, for people – like myself – who have played or continue to play video games for hours upon hours, or worse, spend the majority of their waking hours in front of one, the bleeding of fantasy into reality has very undesirable consequence. It is not that there is any trouble distinguishing between the two, as the sex and violence reactionaries complain, but that the fantasy diminishes the stimulation of reality. Imagine that you’ve just spent 60 hours (divided up over a several days) participating in an epic quest, where you’ve befriended or made enemies of all sorts of exotic characters, where you’ve witnessed sacrifice, experienced love or betrayal, and risked your life for some grand cause that – live or die – was totally worthwhile.
After that intellectual and emotional spike, you must then return to the tedium of daily work or school to sustain your livelihood. This is of course broken up by any number of activities meaningful or fun, but none quite to the scale of the adventure you just recently experienced. Imagine then, that you have not only played one of these games, but have made a habit of playing them, one that has endured for years. If in that time you failed to find an equal sense of enjoyment or fulfillment in reality, would you not become underwhelmed? The obligatory routine of life is accepted by most as a necessity, and for most of us, it is not too difficult to cope with it, as we supplement our lives with all sorts of great experiences and share them with others. But if you have spent an abundance of time engaging in fantasy, you may become overstimulated, making the comforts and pleasures of the real world pale by comparison.
I described my own personal experience with this phenomenon in another article, entitled The Death of Idealism:
“How could I not be touched and influenced by these stories of extraordinary people and circumstances? How could I return to the real world without bringing some part of it with me, some desire to experience at least a portion of what they did? How could I possibly accept a mundane life? My rational side understands that these stories are crafted to have just that effect, and that for the most part real people don’t live that way. But my romantic side demands to know why that has to be the case.”
Having played so many video games, and having devoted so many hours of my spare time (and time reserved for more important things that were then neglected) playing them, I have often found the real world lacking in its ability to stimulate me on the same level. The meaning of life, the question of purpose, these are common human conundrums, and not necessarily indicative of any dysfunction. But when there is little enjoyment to be found in the activities and interactions that buffer most people against the boredom of tedium and routine, you become even more reliant on video games (or other media), or you suffer from deep disenchantment.
This is no small problem. If one finds that there is nothing to sustain them against the inevitable disenchantment with the world we all feel at some point in our lives, then only further disenchantment and angst can follow. Conceivably, this is why the most “avid” (or “addicted” to put it another way) video game players are often “at odds” with the culture or society around them – or vice versa – why those who are at odds with their surroundings for other reasons are more likely to escape through video games or other media. Role-playing games (RPGs) and their players present the best cases for this phenomenon. The problem is further exacerbated in the genre’s newest manifestation – Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft or Everquest.
MMORPGs are potentially the most dangerous, as they only create a sort of promise of purpose without ever actually fulfilling it, in order to keep users subscribed to a monthly-pay service. These, you’ll find, often lack the intellectual or emotional stimulation of other games, keeping players busy with the most repetitive of tasks. There are several things that keep the players going instead. One is the community aspect – enabling them to interact with other people instead of computer-programmed characters. A person who for whatever reasons is already maladjusted or at odds with society, but who like anyone still needs human interaction, may find it here in this imaginary context.
If a fantasy world is fulfilling the very real needs of a person that their everyday lives are not, it only encourages them to continue playing. The other lure is the inherent status system present in many of these games, that is, rank and notoriety assigned on the basis of accomplishments achieved within the game. Reaching a certain “experience level”, acquiring rare items, being the leader of a large in-game clan, or winning a certain amount of battles – these are the kinds of things that can make an MMORPG player quite “popular” within the in-game community. This kind of “fake validation”, when balanced against how much and for what reasons a person is recognized by others in the real world, can create further disenchantment.
I have either implicitly or explicitly connected avid video game playing with social maladjustment. The evidence for this is everywhere out there, but also comes from my personal experience. I participated in the MMORPG scene briefly – my first and only game of choice being World of Warcraft. During that time in my life I was exceedingly depressed for several reasons, and the game – in its never-ending nature – offered a promise that, if I so chose, I did not have to ever go back to those things which troubled me. It was the perfect escape. However, for me, the game’s repetitive style of play, and sheer lack of a real point failed to sustain me. Ironically, it was another game that broke the World of Warcraft spell – a game that fulfilled that need for intellectual and emotional stimulation that has kept me coming back to video games for years. That I would need one video game to “save me” from the somewhat self-destructive habits revolving around another, may speak of an even greater problem.
In my choice of friends or companions, their interest in escapist entertainment was a criterion. Certainly it is natural enough to want to spend time with people with whom you can share the things you enjoy, but that is not likely the only reason that we choose our friends or companions. For me, especially in the case of companions, this has been overly important. It occurred to me that perhaps the need for this common interest in particular stems from the disenchantment that I often feel towards the real world and people in general. Perhaps people, simply as they are, have become insufficient in providing me with the kind of stimulation we come to expect from friends or companions. That, simply put, is terrifying.
Granted, many people simply are dull, or at least are able to live standard run-of-the-mill lives with no internal conflict, and it is not too strange to require more from one’s companions. Still, at the same time, there are people who do live lives rich with purpose, who do all kinds of exciting things, and who do have much to offer in terms of intellectual and emotional stimulation. Yet I have found that even some of these people I’ve met, who should by all rights be very interesting to me, simply are not – and for no reason that I can easily fathom. The only thing that comes to mind is that they are not the stuff of fantasy, that no matter how great or purposeful their lives are, they are still limited by the relatively “tame” circumstances of the real world.
This phenomenon, I suspect, is rare. Perhaps the overstimulation of video games has had a somewhat unique effect on me, as someone who may have otherwise (i.e. having never played a video game) required more out of life than the “average person”. That statement is not meant to imply any sort of qualitative difference between myself and any other person, but just to say that different people require different levels of intellectual and emotional stimulation. Indeed I envy those who can achieve satisfaction, happiness, or fulfillment with less difficulty.
As I have already said, here and in other articles, I adore video games as entertainment, and hold utmost respect for them as media. Yet, rare though it may be, the overstimulation of video games – or any other form of escapist entertainment for that matter – is certainly a problem that deserves further examination. At the very least, it can be said that people need to moderate their indulgement in fantasy, to balance out their sources for enchantment between fantasy and reality…