Realism or Escapism: What type of game are you in the mood for?

[W_L]

Games like stories can be based on realistic aspects of life or escapists aspects of fantasy.

 

The question for the gamer like the reader is what do you feel like playing.

 

And to tie this back to GA, Do you prefer the same type of things in your video as you would in the stories you read?

 

I just got this idea today about the movement towards more social interactions in games recently. However, sometimes I want play games that are more fantasy based on Dragon Age without being tied in with anyone else.

[lilansui]

Do you prefer the same type of things in your video as you would in the stories you read?

 

Not really, I love shooting Zombies with games like Resident Evil, but I can't bring myself to read an actual Zombie story.

[Fishwings]

I am honestly JUST doing a paper on the narrative aspects of video games hahah. It depends! I like both. For realism type games I like Dead Space, but for more escapist types I really enjoyed Twilight Princess (which is arguably the most realist out of the series). 

 

Story is a big factor in video games for me so yes, I do in that sense prefer games that are more similar to novels and movies in that regard (but that does not mean I like games that are made from movies and novels.......... I avoid those like the plague), ones which have more of a three act structure as opposed to sandbox-like or God game genres.

[Circle]

An interesting concept!

 

I think for me, the act of reading a story and the act of playing video games are so wildly different that I can't draw any correlations between the two. When someone reads a story, and essentially an author's personal expression, they derive from it their own meanings and their takes on the story - in essence the story acts as a mirror and reflects what the reader already has inside him. Video games however, usually is an entertainment without the ultimate goal of trying to stimulate their targets in an intellectual way. Therefore, because the two are so different (at least for me), even the 'escapism' and 'realism' in both are different and not usually interchangeable.

 

Personally I like realism in stories - in essence, stories that feel real. Stories of course are artificial and not real in general, but if it convinces me as something that could have happened and the characters feel real, then I'm going to be drawn to it. Vampires, Zombies and Black Jewels Trilogy didn't do much for me as a result.

 

However I also like Dragon Age Origins... I like the story. I liked Kotor 1 + 2. Those are fantasy-based. Another fantasy-based game but slightly more realistic is probably Sims 3, which I also play. In it, I can repeatedly click a button to flirt with guys and then click 'WooHoo!' and then get Lifetime happiness points.

 

To make it worse, I also play World of Tanks - which is not fantasy-based at all - and enjoy immensely the act of destroying other people's tanks, and my crew shouting 'Penetration'!

 

So in conclusion, if I feel like being nice, I'd go on The Sims 3, grab a guy and make-out with him. If I feel like being mean, I'd go on Tanks and blow up other people's tanks with my big gun (Or penetrate, whichever you prefer) and have other guys curse 'F*** you!' at me :P :D.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Circle

[lilansui]

The act of reading a story and the act of playing video games are so wildly different that I can't draw any correlations between the two. When someone reads a story, and essentially an author's personal expression, they derive from it their own meanings and their takes on the story - in essence the story acts as a mirror and reflects what the reader already has inside him. Video games however, usually is an entertainment without the ultimate goal of trying to stimulate their targets in an intellectual way. Therefore, because the two are so different (at least for me), even the 'escapism' and 'realism' in both are different and not usually interchangeable.

 

I've always taken video games as a few hours of keeping my mind as blank as it possibly can be....concentrating on getting to the next level and nothing else.  Is it true that I will get drawn into agame all night ..yes, but hey, at the end of it, none of the stuff that was bugging me when I started playing in the first place will matter.  The escapism here is very addictive and different from when I read a novel all night, so I agree with the fact that it's hard to interchange this two worlds. 

 

So in conclusion, if I feel like being nice, I'd go on The Sims 3, grab a guy and make-out with him. If I feel like being mean, I'd go on Tanks and blow up other people's tanks with my big gun (Or penetrate, whichever you prefer) and have other guys curse 'F*** you!' at me

 

I'd call this having a good time no strings attached...

[Celethiel]

I like an rpg or whatever with a good story attached to it...

A world and storyline that I can get into.

one reason I like Elderscrolls, and DragonAge

[Traveller_23]

I tend not to think in those terms...though I get the gist of what you're saying.

 

Thing is for me - even if it is a realistic game I'm playing (whether in terms of game setting, character relationships etc.) I'm always playing for entertainment...which is a form of escapism right? And I look for the same in the stories I read generally, unless I'm reading book for a specific reason like ideology, history etc.

 

But then again occasionally I play games that are purely escapist like Modnations, Soul Calibur etc