Videogames are what is known as an entertainment medium. It is the means by which entertainment is provided to the end user. Games are the newest of entertainment mediums, joining a list including books, movies, art/photography, and music. Each medium has advantages and disadvantages over the others, and videogames are no exception. My goal today is to focus on the advantages to this particular medium that you simply cannot find in quite the same way by reading a book or listening to music.
Interactivity
The primary benefit of videogames as a medium is the ability to interact with the medium itself. In fact, interactivity is so tied up with the term videogame that it is impossible to imagine a videogame that is not interactive. In addition, interactivity has little to no presence in any other entertainment medium (so far as consumption is concerned; creation is another matter altogether). The closest I've seen to an attempt to bring interactivity to another entertainment medium is the "Choose-your-own-adventure" books that were popular in the 80s and 90s.
So interactivity is inextricably a part of the videogame medium. But is that a good thing? I say it is.
Let us imagine a scenario:
Hank and Jim are fighting against an army of gigantic ants. (Strange, but bear with me). In the middle of the battle, Hank's partner Jim is overtaken, and Hank has to rescue him. Hank rescues him and pulls him out alive, and they finish the fight.
The above paragraph is like reading a story (because, well, it is). But allow me to alter it slightly:
You and Jim are fighting against an army of gigantic ants. In the middle of the battle, your partner Jim is overtaken, and you have to rescue him. You rescue him and pull him out alive, and you two finish the fight.
Do you see the difference? In the first story, you were merely an outsider, observing the action from afar. In the second story, you take on the role of one of the characters. You are not an outsider; rather you are an integral character in the fight. This brings with it a sense of urgency and engagement that is simply not found in the previous scenario.
Can this be done in movies or books? Yes, to an extent. In the above story, you were a character, but you had no say as to what occurs. You were his eyes, but not his hands or his feet.
In a videogame, you may have the choice to run straight in, or hold off and set mines to take out large numbers of ants. The point is that your decisions have weight in a videogame. It does not matter how loud you yell at someone in a horror movie not to go up the stairs. Their fate is sealed.
Multiplayer
Another major benefit of the videogame medium is ones ability to play with others. Two people reading together is fairly similar to reading alone; sure, there may be great conversation sparked after (or perhaps during) the reading, but functionally it is just about the same experience. Videogames are not usually like that. There are videogames without a multiplayer mode, to be sure, but most games these days are designed with the concept of playing with other people in mind. In fact, many games today put little or no effort in the single-player mode (or "campaign") in order to put supreme importance on its multiplayer offering. I am getting just such a game today (“Splatoon”).
So why care about multiplayer? For one thing, multiplayer shatters one major objection to videogames: this idea that gamers are "lost in their own little world". Oftentimes they are not lost in their "own little world", but rather playing against people from all over the world. One could say that the person not playing the game is in their own little world, for they are dealing with a smaller variety of people than the gamer! This isn't to say that one is wrong to not play games; that is absurd. But to leverage "isolation" to denounce games is also absurd.
One quick note about this. While many games are multiplayer, many games are not. Even with the multiplayer games, the threat certainly does exist that one can be so involved with a game that he or she ignores everyone else in the local world around them. This is a problem, and I by no means condone such behavior; however this will be dealt with in a later post.
Creativity
This is perhaps the greatest benefit videogames can offer. Ones creative powers can be tested, developed, and honed in a videogame that you just can't get anywhere else. Seriously, the things you can do in Minecraft are just astonishing. Perusing videos on YouTube, I found that somebody used Minecraft to make a full-sized replica of Solomon's Temple! There was even a full replica of the Second Temple, among other historical or fictional designs.
But this goes beyond just Minecraft. How you coordinate characters in many games requires a level of skill that is difficult to get elsewhere. Sure, little Johnny can play actual football instead of playing a football game; but are you willing to give him troops to command into battle? By no means! Unless he plays a game, he will have no real way to practice that skill of commanding, a skill that could bleed out positively in other arenas of life.
Variety of experience
Finally, the variety of experience is a great benefit of videogames, and also difficult if not impossible to find in entertainment outside of this genre. In order to explain "variety of experience", let me describe a recent* event.
Yesterday, we watched Frozen. If somebody else watched the same movie that day, at that same time, we could describe the film similarly. Though on different screens in different houses, our viewing experience was essentially the same. The same characters did the same thing the same way.
A few days ago, I found out that my friend and I both happened to be playing Batman: Arkham Origins at the same time, though not together. Our experiences were very different. For one thing, we were not at the same place in the game. But even if we were, he does not control Batman the same way that I do. There is, then, a "variety of experience" here. I can speak of Batman doing a Double Takedown that he never saw, and he can speak of an awesome Blade Dodge that I have never experienced. This conversation about the very experience of the game can be much more engaging, almost like comparing notes.
In sum, videogames, as an entertainment medium, present a number of benefits that are difficult, if not impossible, to emulate elsewhere.
Next week we'll move away from the benefits of videogames as an entertainment medium, and towards its limitations.
*Recent as in like a year ago. Same goes for the “A few days ago…” event mentioned shortly after.
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