Hello game, good bye imagination

Justin Ramdewar
Contributor
A video game can possess its player in some very interesting ways.
Game publishers are not just making money off of our lost time and energy: they’re taking more from us than we might realize.
That’s because gamers play to win – well, at least they certainly don’t play to lose. If you’re interested, video games offer you a challenge, one in which the goals are attainable, and in which you cannot die.
The video game industry is currently making games more complex than we can imagine, and at a rate that is equally unimaginable. The industry that generates billions of dollars annually may be spoon-feeding us something we seem to naturally crave: accomplishment.
Moreover, they are profiting from our loss of ambition. When we’re focused on games, we fail to employ our energy in pursuing other activities to attain that same sense of accomplishment – they therefore keep us coming back for more.
In fact, in an article on Gamasutra, Microsoft game researcher John Hopson describes players much like mice in an experiment, constantly being rewarded and punished to feel like they’re accomplishing something and to keep them playing and spending money.
Sometimes, noticing just what video games have taken away from gamers is difficult. I think it’s because we’re almost tricked into believing that the thing we gain from video games is in fact the thing being taken away: our imagination.
Why read a fictional novel in which you can imagine yourself in a foreign land when you can actually put yourself in a foreign land, and even interact with it?
Better yet, why play soccer outside with friends or learn to work on a car when you can just play soccer with your friends online and drive the car you never could in real life?
Giving us a glimpse of living our dreams and pleasures is one thing, but I think video games are actually taking our dreams away from us.
Why would I even daydream if I can just go home and live in a dream, in the day and night? I can live there as long as I choose. I’m not judged; I don’t get punished.
Why do I need an imagination when I’m given a new way to spend my time every few months, that is, when I buy a new game? Technically, it’s more real than even my own imagination since I am engaged with it anyway.
Even my friends are there, so it must be real. World of Warcraft has over 12,000,000 subscribed players, who could potentially all play at one time, though that’s unlikely. I think these players don’t necessarily want to escape reality, but they’ve chosen to live even temporarily in another one to feel accomplished and exercise their imagination.
And the cycle goes on: leveling up rewards; next challenge unlocked; new high score; flawless victories – these are all things we like to hear.
Video games may seem harmless, or, in contrast, helpful to our lives. And I am not suggesting the opposite, that they rot our brains or nullify our emotions indefinitely necessarily.
However, I think we should spend more time going on adventures without our video game consoles. Games can be educational and even helpful but the aims, ends, options and goals are artificial and do not represent the world we should be spending more time in, not less.
Our lives should be as open to creativity as possible, not confined in any way. We do not know all of the rules of our world, and even if we think we do, they can be broken and new ones created. We do not know what the end is, nor if there is one.
We don’t know if we can win, or lose for that matter, so try something new. It can change at any given moment, so try not to slip on the ice outside. Most importantly, you choose the levels! Video games cannot teach this; furthermore, they impede our ability to even comprehend it.
There is nothing wrong with playing games, but I think we should acknowledge what effect they could have on us at the very least.