For me, video games occupy a space somewhere between total downtime and work.
Since starting to blog about games I have found myself analyzing them with a thoroughness I used to keep for English literature class.
Gender politics, social implications, reflections of the current zeitgeist…
Games are a significant media if a frequently downplayed one.
And yet, as this week’s Round Table points out:
There is a commonly held belief that videogames are not equal to literature and film.
One conservative acquaintance of mine on Facebook doesn’t even consider them on par with “public speech and music.”
On the other hand, we have anti-video game activists claiming that video games have the power to train children to be emotionless assassins.
Even within the video game community I’ve often heard the reaction, “they’re just video games.”
Well, I am here to say that video games can teach us, make us feel, make us cry, make us laugh.
That they are easily the equal of film and books (as are music and public speech on occasion – I have a dream, anyone?)
It’s easy to point to how they teach us explicit lessons.
There’s a number of AFK games where you redeem codes here, purport to teach you how to play, how to cook, how to design clothes, how to get fit, how to remember things better, how to be a better player in general, or just how to think more efficiently.
But what about the other lessons?
The unconscious ones, the ones that slowly shape our world view, the ones that affect how we interact and talk and think and live?
As babies, we come into the world with a muddle of DNA and a wide-open mind.
Over time, our parents, our friends, and our teachers fill us full of …
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