The Video Game Revue

Self-Help Through Gaming

It's no secret that video games aren't given as much credit as a form of artistic expression or a medium for conveying ideas as other kinds of media such as mainstream print and film media. In my experience, any respectable gamer understands that a large part of the experience of playing a good video game stems from achieving things and attaining a sense of accomplishment. This aspect of gaming is easily misunderstood or unrecognized by non-gamers who see little more to the practice of gaming than slouching in front of a screen and adopting a zoned-out demeanor. Never-mind that reading books and watching TV programs is equally sedentary, if not more-so. The social stigma yet persists that video games are a lower form of entertainment, although this view is quickly starting to erode.

Finding inspiration and the drive to succeed is not an easy thing in life. Some people are in the right situations or have the right personality type to be able to seize the day and achieve things, but human nature is to settle into a comfort zone and to need a lot of prodding to be willing to move from that spot. Self-help books and motivational "how to succeed" presentations are popular resources that some people turn to when one feels compelled to do more with one's life and does not know where to turn, but I often wonder just how much good this sort of passive learning really does, aside from manipulating one's emotions and providing a fleeting rush of ambition. It's one thing to read about forming a plan, setting goals, working steadily, and dealing with roadblocks. It's something else entirely to actually set out to do those things on a daily basis and affect a lasting change on one's own life.

In my opinion, people should turn to video games to teach them about ambition and motivation. A good quest game teaches one about exploring possibilities and searching for a way forward. A good RPG teaches one about making steady progress and investing in the future. A good action title teaches that practice makes perfect and diligence is key to success. And in each of these cases, the player is learning these lessons through active participation. For instance, a quest game doesn't merely preach that one should explore possibilities; rather, it makes one explore possibilities and rewards one for doing well at it. These lessons are implicit in that the player succeeds through applying their ambition and finding motivation within themselves rather than merely reciting rhetoric and going through the motions. Instead of merely reading about what it is like to be ambitious and successful, the player becomes ambitious and successful, if only on a small scale.

There is, of course, a large difference between achieving things in a video game and achieving things in real life. A common trap that gamers fall into is becoming hooked on thrill of achievement in video games and not having the same discipline towards their lives outside of electronic fantasy worlds. Some individuals may even crawl into the escapist world of video games in a destructive attempt to blot out reality altogether. But perhaps there is less of a gap between actively making achievements in a video game and doing so in reality than there is between merely reading (or hearing) about how to make achievements and actually making them. Modern video games have started to reach a point where the line is blurring between social connections, skills, and occasionally even material wealth acquired in a video game and those same things formed outside of a game.

Online friends can become real friends--provided that they are real people, of course, and not merely scripted characters. Computer savvy acquired through gaming often translates well into a marketable workplace ability. And, incredibly, a small but growing number of people are actually able to create real-world wealth by selling services in massively online game worlds. As video games have become more sophisticated, the lessons that they offer in how to succeed have come to more closely mirror the nature of real world society. It is already the case that remarkable success in a video game (not unlike a remarkable athletic achievement, perhaps, or some other impressive performance skill) is already recognized as a real-world achievement. As future generations come of age, this trend will take stronger root.

An important point to recognize is that not all video games are created equal. A common tactic employed by some publishers and producers in the video game industry is to make their games too easy (idiot-proof, in some cases) in order to provide players with a cheap sense of achievement that does not require true effort. In much the same way that if one is serious about self improvement through books, movies, or music then one must seek out those works that push boundaries and are challenging to appreciate, one cannot confine oneself to video games that are merely cheap thrills and expect to be moved by them. There are great video games out there which can be a source of personal growth for the player, just as there are great books and great movies which provide perspective-altering experiences for an alert audience.

My bias is obvious: not only am I a great lover of video games, but I enjoy reading, watching movies, and listening to music, and I feel that all of these activities can serve as routes to personal growth and self-improvement. For the purposes of my arguments above, I take this view to be a given, and scarcely even bother to argue that a moving piece of art can do more to motivate and inspire than mere advice on how to set goals and work towards them. In this sense, my argument is two-fold: for the art lovers, consider that much in the way that more traditional forms of media can be much more than mere escapism by contrasting the real world and providing new perspectives, video games have that same potency to convey messages and change how people think and feel. And for the self-help fans, consider video games as a potential source of exercise and a way to put principles of self-improvement into practice on a smaller scale as a stepping stone towards making real changes in one's life. Just make sure to do some research and try some of the true classics of gaming before giving up on the whole spectrum of what it has to offer.

posted by Parappa @ 11:51 AM