Understanding Video Games And Why We Play Them

Well if your a gamer like me, I didn’t ever take a step back and ask myself why I like video games so much. I just knew I loved them and had began playing them before I could walk (according to my parents that is). But believe it or not gaming has actually positive beneficial characteristics that it provides us for finding everyday happiness. Everyone thinks that its just mindless killing, cursing, and violence. This is what your average parent or girlfriend who isn’t a gamer would say. But to dig deeper a whole new meaning to gaming surfaces.

There are 3 main reasons we enjoy gaming according to many outstanding individuals including Scott Rigsby, author of “Glued to Games.” He wrote a very interesting book that covers why we play these games. Also a man names Ben Reeves an author for Gameinformer wrote a 3 page article called “Why We Play” and it was remarkable what you get presented with.

I currently am employed with a local hometown bank and Gamestop Inc. Its quite rewarding knowing the information gathered from these wonderful writing pieces. Parents come in though both complaining I have to buy these games for my children that do nothing for them and so on. I am sure we all have heard it. But I can educate them not on the positive factors of gaming. The pieces cover just why we like to play and the book actually goes into a deeper meaning. One of these reasons is people feel a sense of completeness (complete a task, quest, mission) from games.

Lets say you wake up from a deep sleep to your little sister standing over you shaking you and trying to wake you up. You finally awake and it turns out her puppy had ran away and she wants you to go find it. So your mission begins, you sprint out the house following the little foot prints that were left on the dirt road leading to the woods. The moons luckily illuminating the prints just enough to be seen. Your following them and here a slight yelp in the distance, you begin sprinting faster than ever and eventually depleting your stamina bar. (essentially you have ran out of breath, can’t run anymore.)

Finally you arrive to the puppy but it has fallen into some type of pit that had a piece of meat dangling over it. It looked to be some sort of trap…Then snap, somethings in the woods rustling the bushes, mistakenly you have forgot a flashlight and must squint your eyes only to see a dark figure dart across your line of sight. A nearby thick stick looks like it can be of use because without it the dog and maybe yourself are about to become dinner. The creature which then shows itself leaps out pouncing on you like a tiger, you strafe to the left to evade the attack then draw the stick high and strike the creature on its back. It lets out a growl and flees the scene. The dog still whimpering and seeming to have hurt its hind leg from the fall. But the thing is the dog is now saved and your sister is happier than ever you have rescued her puppy. Having had the adrenaline rush along with a sense of overcoming fear and becoming courageous. You have prevailed and completed a task given to you and received the reward of 100 gold. Your actions have given you the opportunity to now purchase that sword you have always wanted from the shop in the city. That will have to wait till tomorrow though, its 3 in the morning and you work in about 5 hours. So now there is a sense of completeness and not only that but relatedness and a sense of feeling autonomous. relatedness would be helping your little sister get her puppy back, and the autonomy of it is you chose to do so. These 3 main factors are described in the writing and explain it more thoroughly.

These characteristics apply to our everyday life and its what helps satisfy us and find happiness in our life. These are rewarded through work, school, family but most of all video games provide these things constantly and much quicker than others.