Here are five things that computer games teach us; but the main point of this article is to try to understand why some people have such a negative opinion of gaming. The five things that computer games teach us are actually contrary to what those who oppose gaming claim they teach us.
All computer games take life for granted!
That is one of the many attacks that aging senators make when they want a little publicity for their next campaign. The idea is, of course, ludicrous unless you are somehow tapped into the Pentagon when you play your war game, and you are actually controlling squadrons of real troops.
Gaming does not take life for granted because there is nothing real about gaming. Even the games that emulate life, such as GTA, are emulating a fantasy version of reality, where a person commits crime for no other reason than to do it.
In real life, such a person would commit crime to feed a drug habit, or to feed his starving family. In real life, such a person would have spent 8 hours in front of the TV because he does not have a job, and would be scared to open the curtains for fear of being recognized by a person he ripped off.
Here are five points that detail what video games teach us, as opposed to what naysayer’s claim they teach us.
1. Life is precious, and what we do to the Earth affects our future
(Final Fantasy 7)
A lot of Square Enix’s work is based on the Gia hypothesis, which claims that the earth responds to the conditions we subject it to. They show it in a very physical way because it makes for a better game, but the fact remains that the game is teaching us that life is precious.
Final Fantasy does this through showing what people are doing to the Earth when you take its natural resources (see any parallels with real life), and how the world is a better place if you live with it and not just on it (that is for those who made it past the end credits).
It also shows how precious life is in a very personal way–when Aeris dies in Cloud’s arms. At the time, having a character die without return was a new idea. Imagine Luigi or Tails from Mario and Sonic suddenly dying half way through the game without being able to bring them back.
2. The most popular games have not even had death in them
(Wii Sports Mario, FIFA 13, Tetris)
If computer games are all about death and the lack of respect for human life, then why do the most popular games on the planet exclude death? If death and destruction are such a big draws, then surely the Halo 2 game would beat a game about a plumber, or a game where you play sports.
A respected UK essay made this point when it collected numbers on the most popular games of all time. In popularity terms, the most popular game is one where you put shaped boxes into slots.
Wii Sports sold the most copies of any game when it sold 82.98 million copies. Super Mario Bros, for the older version of the Nintendo, sold 40.24 million copies. Tetris for the Gameboy sold 35 million copies, Super Mario World sold 20.60 million copies, and FIFA 13 sold 24 million copies. If you include the paid download of games on mobile phones, then Tetris sold over 100 million downloads. Doesn’t this teach us that gaming is more than just an excuse to see a little gore?
3. Control that leads to death still count as murder
(Resident Evil 4)
It was Resident Evil 4 that taught us this. Normally, we are attacking the living dead, but in this episode we are forced to attack people who are alive, but being controlled. Their death is in the hands of those who control them, which draws frightening parallels with modern military life. The villagers you slaughter could have led their life normally if a power-hungry tyrant had simply left them alone.
4. Life is for the living
(Sims)
One shocking revelation in the gaming world was how popular the Sims and Sims 2 became. The idea that people will happily play a game where they sit around living another person’s life seems silly, and yet so many people did it. They could even make their character sit at a computer and play computer games. Life truly is for the living, even if we fantasize about living a “perfect” life. Many esteemed UK essays and journal entries have shown proven cases of people entering mourning for the loss of their Sim, which is second only to the number of cases that arose when Cyber Pets became popular.
5. We hold the key to our own survival and own destruction
(Metal Gear Solid)
For those of you who did not click through the speaking parts in the Metal Gear Solid game, you would have discovered a fantastic story. It is multifaceted with some very good character building and acting. The script alone would make a great UK best essay. It shows how life and death have meaning, and how humans are cable of ending all life on Earth, which is a reminder we all need.
Conclusion
Gaming is about living a fantasy for a while, but that is all it is. The popularity of horror, violence and gore games is no different from the popularity of similar movies. They are a brief vacation away from the real world and do not teach us to take life for granted.
Many of them have better lessons on morality and human life than society is willing to teach us, and if you doubt that point then ask yourself why Snookie and Paris Hilton earn more money in a year than people with master’s degrees.
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