This article is a study about how digital games are a means of escapism for many people. It discusses how many people find solace in entering a virtual reality set completely apart from their own reality, where they are able to do as they please and spend much of their time.
This entire study very much relates to the uses and gratifications theory of communication technology. With an active audience that is fully engaged in each game that they play, the player basically is able to control what he or she sees, hears, or even the emotions that they can experience. The article states, “Games are seen as being escapist because they make it so easy to lose track of time,
This entire study very much relates to the uses and gratifications theory of communication technology. With an active audience that is fully engaged in each game that they play, the player basically is able to control what he or she sees, hears, or even the emotions that they can experience. The article states, “Games are seen as being escapist because they make it so easy to lose track of time,
so easy to ignore other things that could be done or should be done instead.” As a gamer myself, I find this to be almost entirely true. Games are engaging to me personally because I am able to forget things that are troubling or stressful in my life. I am able to put those things aside and become immersed in an entirely different and sometimes ever-changing world far different from our own. I can create an avatar that is completely different from how I am in real life. I can say things I would not normally say, and do things I would not normally do if these things at all appealed to me at the time.
Some games are great mood management as well, another gratification of game play. If a person cannot seem to gain control of their own lives, they are able to play a game such as the Sims or Second Life and enter a virtual reality, where they have almost complete control of “someone else’s world,” therefore possibly gaining the satisfaction they could not achieve in their own real lives.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are games that have high amounts of social immersion with the fact that a player is able to communicate and team up with other real life players, rather than computer generated characters. This allows for higher competitiveness and even makes game play more challenging. It makes each player try a little harder to win, which can often involve strategizing and learning outside of the virtual world.
Calleja, G. (2010). Digital games & escapism. Games & Culture, 5(4), 335-353. Retrieved from http://journals.ohiolink.edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Calleja_Gordon.pdf?issn=15554120&issue=v05i0004&article=335_dgae
Some games are great mood management as well, another gratification of game play. If a person cannot seem to gain control of their own lives, they are able to play a game such as the Sims or Second Life and enter a virtual reality, where they have almost complete control of “someone else’s world,” therefore possibly gaining the satisfaction they could not achieve in their own real lives.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are games that have high amounts of social immersion with the fact that a player is able to communicate and team up with other real life players, rather than computer generated characters. This allows for higher competitiveness and even makes game play more challenging. It makes each player try a little harder to win, which can often involve strategizing and learning outside of the virtual world.
Calleja, G. (2010). Digital games & escapism. Games & Culture, 5(4), 335-353. Retrieved from http://journals.ohiolink.edu.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Calleja_Gordon.pdf?issn=15554120&issue=v05i0004&article=335_dgae
