Identity in Play

I've decided to write a series of posts about video games, because I think that it is a topic that holds an undue negative connotation.

My first introduction to computer games (or "video games" in a more general sense) was Ultima VII, a fantasy RPG created by Origin Systems and designed by Richard Garriott. We bought it when it came out in 1992.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Fantasy settings usually involve magical medieval environments and RPG is short for Role-Playing Game, meaning the player pretends to be (one of) the main character(s). The player's job? You guessed it: save the world. Except that in the Ultima universe, you are the Avatar, a person summoned from your home world (our modern-day world) to the world of Britannia.

http://natu.txt-nifty.com/natsutan/img/ultima7.jpg

The game starts off as a murder mystery and takes the player once again through the world of Britannia as former friends join the party and the player must prevent evil forces from taking control of the world.

Identity

I consider gaming as a core part of my identity, much like an athlete would consider sports to be part of his or her identity. I realize that gaming does not substitute sports for physical activity, but it is a pastime for many people and provides a fictional outlet for stress, much like reading a novel. 

Unfortunately, video games have a very negative reputation in the United States and I believe that reputation is unfounded. Everyone experiences stress on a frequent basis and many of us try to reduce it through video games instead of TV, books or sports. Don't misunderstand me; reading and physical activity are healthy, but they don't reduce stress to the same level for everyone. For example, I feel a need to be actively engaged in an activity (which rules out TV) in a fictional setting in order to reduce the stress and frustrations of my day.

In addition, it is easy to lose a great part of oneself when parenting small children. Young children require a lot of time and care and their needs don't wait for commercials. I sometimes find it difficult not to resent losing my personal time to their constant demands. I love doing a lot of things in quiet on my own time, including learning and playing. I have lost a great deal of that time to raising children, but I find I am a happier mother and wife when I take some downtime on occasion to lose myself in a virtual world.

I don't know the origin, but this expresses part of my feelings regarding video gaming quite well:

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv18/deoxy_adi/tumblr_m8cq02uPla1qd900fo1_1280.jpg

Many occupational or recreational possibilities (such as traveling) are greatly reduced once children are born. Even without children, our lives are too short to enjoy every opportunity available to us. I cannot be a pilot, a doctor, an architect, a software programmer, a zookeeper, a multilinguist, and a mother all in my lifetime. I don't have time to go out, save the world and earn a Nobel Peace Prize because my children need me here, teaching them, feeding them, playing with them, and tucking them in at night. In video games I can satiate some of my superhero desires while still being able to shut it off in time to read bedtime stories.

While writing this post I thought about many tangents that I would like to address such as:

• The relation between video games and violence
• A rebuttal to the insult "You play video games and live in your mother's basement"
• Why I feel a need to personally handle my children's education

I will address these in future posts, but I know that if I try to talk about everything that comes to mind, I will never post again. That is why it has been a year since I last wrote a post.

For today, I will summarize by saying every person has his or her preferred method of reducing stress. For me, it involves video games.

Next up: MMORPGs