Just as reading fiction once considered as a favorite pastime entertainment for people of the past, a gateway to another world, a source of inspirations, and also a way to enriched their knowledge. Today’s generation, are fortunate enough to have another platform other than reading to do those things, which is through playing video games.
Now, hold your horses, I know, that video games are infamous. Claimed to be the causes of increasing youth’s violence, an addiction, a bad influence, particularly those games with a strong language and suggestive plots. But we need to understand, games and books, are similar this way. They are both a medium to share information, that if not handle properly, can both influenced societies’ in a bad way.
That is to say, just as a good book can change a readers perspective in a positive way, video games also have the same power. Sadly right now, most games in the market, placed more importance on monetary value, with their downloadable contents or in app purchases.
Some of the more popular games, emphasized more on competitive spirits. While this may not be all that bad as it give rises to e-sports, and shown video games in a better light to parents that worried about their children’s career. I think game developers should also placed more importance on intellectual wisdom that players may gained while playing.
There are many games that already have wisdom in it of course, but one of the recent example will be Nier:Automata. A normal player, may just run through it, and awed by it beautiful graphic and perhaps put off by its cryptic plot. Well the cryptic plot, sure doesn’t make a dent on the game’s demand though seeing how it manage to reached 4 million sales in 2 years.
As the player which probably have no philosophical knowledge in the first place, engaged on the internet about the game with other users, they will found out that the game theme are revolved around philosophical heroes. Asking question on existentialism issue, an issue actually exist within all of us. And this is not a one question, the whole of the game is packed with this theme.
In conclusion, other than being addictive and fun and eye candy, video games also have the power to make players stop and think about a particular theme. I always enjoyed Youtube channel that explained the lore and wisdom hidden or blatantly introduced in a game. Rather than painting a picture of video games as a tool of hedonism and blind escapism, I really appreciate the efforts that some game writers make to have video games as a way to gain knowledge.
And that’s all for today’s post, sorry for the long hiatus, life had been very hectic for me, loses a lot things, but gained many blessings too. Opinions expressed are solely my own and no one are under obligation to take it. And yes, I would like to do some analysis of old games, that might packed with this kind of wisdom more, but that would be a story for next posts.
Thank you for reading, may God bless all of you. 😀
RPGSyapika 