Video Games Aren’t Going To Kill You
Video games have been a societal scapegoat since Atari bounced that first white pixel across the lines of a cathode-ray tube television. Politicians, parents, and other partisans have been singing the same tune since the 70s: video games are bad. A couple of their greatest hits are laziness, aggression, and violence; but there are just as many studies proving that video games lead to increased creativity and productivity, better problem solving skills, and that they help people connect to each other.
I have played video games basically my entire life, and like any relationship it has evolved over time. My gaming obsession peaked in high school. I was the kid that would finish his homework during class only to come home and play video games until it was time to go to bed. I logged thousands of hours playing video games in those 4 years. And this was before eSports were considered actual sports by some schools. Mind you, I had a different high school experience than most. The only full year of high school I attended was freshman year, beyond that, I was in and out of class going to a number of doctors appointments and ultimately getting neurosurgery. But this isn’t about me, it’s about video games.
Americans spent a record breaking $10.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic). Video games are having a bit of a moment during the pandemic. Gary Whitta, famous for writing the story to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Book of Eli, as well as being the former editor-in-chief of PC Gamer, is hosting a late-night talk show. But this isn’t the same late-night show that the Jimmys, Seth, Stephen, and the rest of the traditional late-night television are trying to cobble together at home. Whitta’s show, /Animal Talking/, is hosted entirely in Nintendo’s latest hot-title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and that means his show isn’t bound by the new norms of social-distancing. Whitta has set-up a late-night talkshow studio on his island and has interviewed the likes of Danny Trejo, Elijah Wood, and many more in his virtual world. Needless to say, Whitta is taking the lemons we’ve all been served and making a big batch of lemonade.
Many people believe that you are either innately creative or you’re not creative at all, but that isn’t the case. Creativity is like a muscle — the more you push and challenge it the better off you’ll be. There are a number of ways to push your creative boundaries like getting outside and walking or doing something you love, but there are also studies showing that playing video games makes you more creative and productive. Every game presents its own new set of challenges and systems to be figured out in order to excel. One researcher, Jane McGonigal, uses video games to prime herself for hard work. She’ll beat a difficult level or boss in a video game and then use that dopamine hit to propel her into doing the hard work. Increased creativity and productivity don’t sound like bad side effects to me.
Video games have been maligned as mindless, but that could not be farther from the truth. In reality, they are designed to present you with challenges that are difficult to over come — they are designed to push your ability to absorb and solve problems. Video games operate on different rules than reality — chiefly, you’re given the ability to restart and reload. The ability to repeatedly try different tactics and strategies lets you continually try and fail with little repercussion. Basically, video games can increase your ability to flexibly solve problems instead of falling prey to cognitive tunneling.
Video games are art, dare I say, they are one of the most powerful forms of art. They transport you to other worlds and worlds — and even better, they let you interact with and live in them. Humans learn how to be better humans through empathy and storytelling, and video games allow you to fully immerse yourself in a world and experience it as someone that is very much not yourself. I’m still a sucker for story-driven games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I can’t wait for the delayed The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima. Beyond the idea of increased empathy through they are experiential entertainment though, there’s the practical component of video games being incredibly social. Video games are social spaces.
There’s the obvious social component with voice and text chat with friends, but there’s also the latest trend. Fortnite is beginning to position itself as more than the battle royal king and is evolving into an event space as well. Travis Scott went on tour in Fortnite last month and over 28 million people attended the concert over 5 shows. We may not be able to spend time with each other in person for awhile, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop sharing experiences. This social space is where I do most of my gaming these days. I play a lot of Fortnite with my brother and some friends because it gives us a way to catch up while we do something we all love.
People aren’t suddenly going to start understanding video games because they’re breaking records and hosting events. I don’t expect them to suddenly realize that they’re missing out. I may not play video games the way I used to, but I will always play them. Plus, the future of video games looks too good to miss.
