They're Fun, But Are They Beneficial?

If you had asked me to assess the societal value of video games last year, I would have probably told you that the world would be better without them.

I can no longer so confidently say that. 

Granted, if video games suddenly disappeared tomorrow, I am sure that the sun would keep shining and the world would keep spinning.  Video games are not a necessary means of survival.  They are, rather, an adaptation.

However, I am struggling to pinpoint exactly how I feel about the benefits and necessity of video games.  Now, I may be a little biased.  While I am having fun with WoW, I just do not enjoy gaming.  Overall, it bores me.  I just cannot bring myself to care about it.

That said, I cannot say that video games are pointless.  I particularly appreciate McGonigal's discussion of value and meaning.  Our texts and class discussions have helped me transfer this meaning from video games to the "real world" outside of virtual worlds.  I had really struggled to understand how something that is virtual, and thus "unreal," could have any meaning in the real world.  According to my previous self, because video games are not real, they are not important.  I have since learned to respect these virtual spaces.

I think last week's discussion became an either/or debate.  The family can choose the camping trip or the video games.  Several people mentioned the need for moderation.  I would argue that the greater need is balance.  (And video games are not the only problem here.)  We spend so much time watching TV, browsing the Internet, and just sitting around doing nothing.  We need to go camp together (or shop together or bake together or fish together), but that does not mean that we can't also game together.  We just need to add diversity to our routines.  This may be an extreme use of this term, but in order to have a full and meaningful life experience, we need to engage in multiple literacies of fun and adventure.

I do worry about the immersive growth of these virtual spaces, though.  They are still separate from reality.  These virtual spaces are human constructions while reality exists beyond us.  We can control our avatars and many features in our gaming worlds that we cannot control in reality.  For example: death.  Is it possible to get so immersed in the virtual world that we neglect the real world?

This can be broken down further, though.  I have a very black-and-white understanding of reality.  However, another lens could argue that even my conception of reality is just representation of reality.  Thus, my reality is not any more real than the virtual world (though I would continue to argue right on back...).  Shannon touched on this in class, referencing the migrations to virtual worlds and wondering if our beliefs about reality will change.

Any thoughts?

Fighting the Rage Quit

My Indy game is impossible.

I have probably completed the 20 required hours just through trying to get it set up.  None of the PS2 memory cards are saving; before that, the different versions that various people installed on my laptop have not worked.  Everybody that I approach for help has a different solution that does not work in the end.

I am frustrated.

I want to quit.

I have been thinking about McGonigal's claims that gamers like to fail.  I did not agree with her at all, at first.  I have never enjoyed failing anything.  When I do fail something, I redo it not because I enjoyed failing it or because I am optimistic about getting it right this time, but because I want to get it right and out of the way.

However, McGonigal quotes some interesting research.  "It's only fun to fail if the game is fair – and you had every chance of success" (67).

Well, Final Fantasy has not given me a fair chance to fail.  Everything that is keeping me from success with the game is completely out of my control.  I can't make the memory cards work or deal with any of the technical things because I just do not know how.

Failure is really only ever overwhelming when you cannot control what is going on.  So, when I die time and time and time . . . and time again in WoW, it's alright because I just have to endure the usually brief inconvenience of having to run to my body before I am back in control, slaying left and right with my righteous vengeance.

Granted, I guess it is not Final Fantasy's fault.

But it is my scapegoat because I am tired of playing the same beginning over and over again with new memory cards, hoping that they work.

I haven't thrown anything yet (and I don't plan on it) but I am already feeling sorry for the Gamestop guy who is going to have to figure this out for me.