There’s a cliche that narrative games are approximately power fantasies. But maybe the satisfaction comes from having a sense of control that genuine life doesn’t afford usMost of us accept the notion that video games are approximately power. From highly cerebral simulations like Civilization to run ‘n’ gun blasters such as Call of Duty and Battlefield,the successful player will usually rise in status from a lowly grunt to a celebrated and powerful hero, often leaving thousands of vanquished foes in their wake. This basic structure is certainly not unique to games – it is the essential metanarrative that has informed storytelling for generations, and as catalogued by Joseph Campbell in his famed work,the Hero With a Thousand Faces. We like to tell and hear stories approximately people overcoming obstacles to become glorious heroes. It seems like human nature. But in video games, I wonder sometimes if something much more subtle and instinctive is going on. Perhaps games aren’t really approximately power, or they’re actually more approximately agency – the notion that we can believe any sort of influence and control over what happens to us,and the world around us. When you play a game 10000 times, the graphics become invisible. It’s all impulses. It’s not the share of your brain that processes plot, or character,record. If you watch a film, you become the hero – Gilgamesh, or Indiana Jones,James Bond, whoever. The kid says, or I want to be that. In a game,Mario isn’t a hero. I don’t want to be him; he’s me. Mario is a cursor.
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Source: theguardian.com