Travelling Without Moving: Escapism and Wanderlust in Gaming

One of the main tenets of the James Bond movies, especially of those earlier ones of the 70s, was the notion of presenting the viewer with exotic locales, faraway places the audience might only know from travel brochures. Bond, the planet hopping secret agent of Her Majesty, thereby became a sort of avatar for the audience, not only in the adolescent male power fantasy he embodied, but also in the places his missions took him.

Watching a Bond movie was akin to having an hour and a half of a great vacation. From yourself, but also from your surroundings, being taken to Carribean islands, to the beaches of Thailand, skiing in the alps, and whatnot. Of course, the Bond movies were by far not the only ones doing this, but for the purpose of this article, they sure are the most prominent ones.

So a Bond movie was a sort of cheap substitute for an exotic vacation. And that’s a thing that games have picked up doing since a few years as well now. Games clearly have the upper hand here, since they can deliver much more intricate, immersive experiences. Of course, a game is significantly more expensive than a movie ticket, but then again, most games offer significantly more time to get lost in whatever escapist fantasy.

I’d like to argue that games - certain games anyway - are the modern version of that Bond-movie-style escapism. The more fully realized the environments become, the more immersive the experiences, the better, the deeper the escapism. Take the Assassin’s Creed series for example. Want to romp across the Italian countryside? Visit the Eternal City of Rome? And while you’re at it, I don’t know, kill the pope and do other all around badass things? There you go. Play Assassin’s Creed games. How about a trip to a tropical island? What’s more up your alley, deadly mutants or scary zombies? Far Cry or Dead Island? Mountain hiking? Sure. Play some Uncharted 2. There is something for everybody there.

Assassin’s Creed even goes so far as to provide the player with a sort of in-game travel guide, giving information on the bigger sights to be seen and explored within the game world.

Assassin’s Creed even goes so far as to provide the player with a sort of in-game travel guide, giving information on the bigger sights to be seen and explored within the game world. Be it the Colosseum, the Campanile of Florence’s cathedral or the Hagia Sophia. Assassin’s Creed readily supplies information on the game’s destinations’ highlights.

Games now offer a kind of vacation like escapism that movies could never fully deliver. Of course there is a discussion due on how those experiences differ due to interactivity. But still, the travel experience a fully realized game world provides the player with easily beats any non-interactive medium.

One of the problems here is of course authenticity. There are very few games that deliver a truly authentic experience or representation of any foreign country or exotic locale. However, for the sake of escapism, that isn’t necessarily a requirement. Just as a lot of package tour vacations don’t necessarily give their participants ‘authentic’ experiences that go beyond the perimeter of the hotel grounds. And don’t get me started on the supposed authenticity of the representations of foreign countries and cultures in popcultural movies like Bond. Games fall for similar pitfalls in that regard.

Of course then there is that whole other thing where games do things that no real world vacation could ever provide. Visiting alien planets. Other times, dimensions, and whatnot. But I would actually argue that those instances, while being escapism in its purest sense, don’t actually play in the same league those more ‘real world vacation’ like settings play in. Sure the locales in purely fantasy or sci-fi games are the most exotic, however since they’re all fantasy they don’t really substitute a trip to a place the player could - in theory - actually visit in real life.

If we move out of the realm of strictly AAA games, there’s even more to be had. There are games that simulate specific vacation activities, like scuba diving for instance. Or Sony’s Afrika photo safari ‘game’. Games can indeed provide virtual vacations in a way nothing else can, and this is a trend that will grow ever stronger with ever more realistic renderings of foreign locale possible as graphical prowess increases. Of course, no game will truly ever replace actually being there. At least not yet.