History of Games: Video games 221

Video Games
So I will be investigating video games, both in my life and in general. I will be looking at all the various perspectives around video games, ones that I have had, and popular ones shared by many. I will look at the positive and negative. The topic is an important topic to investigate especially with entire generations of children having grown up with video games, which includes myself.

So what is a video game? Well.. it is a game. But it involves electronics, essentially to create the game. Games include board games, card games, sports etc... What makes video games distinct is that they involve electronics, such as tvs, to simulate moving pictures, and sounds to create, an interactive story, where a person is needed to play it for it to progress. For me I notice memorable video games evoking emotions, like any memorable book, music, or movie. Like other mediums, video games are acts of creation, meaning they are created. They have the potential for eduction as well as entertainment.

So practically speaking, and looking at the physical components, video games are not more or less impressive than movies, books, board games, music or any such mediums. They are just there own kind, involving computers. Computers is what have made video games possible.

So what is the current relationship to video games? It can be used to avoid problems, similar to alcoholism where you can enter into an alternative reality placed in a video game. Video games can also offer a way to develop skills in reasoning and logic. Video games can make stories come alive, that is unique, because it offers interactivity, in a way books or movies can't.

What are some of the concerns about video games? That like tv, they trap our attention and dumb us down. However, I see it that a person is only dumb when they do not fully develop themselves as a person, and so all of their abilities and skills. While it may be true a person may play video games for excessive hours, would that really be the cause of a lack of time spent in developing one's own ability? That would be an excuse, wouldn't it? And what about violence, can performing/acting violence in video games lead to violent behaviors? Obviously one acts in violence when one is motivated by their emotions. So really the question is, what anger is existent and why? And have people been shown how to face their anger? Playing violent video games are not the solution, but they are certainly not creating the problem. While it may be easy to blame video games, especially because how we have all be taught how evil video games are, and the stigma placed on them, the truth of the matter is that any ignorance or inadequacy that is associated to video games through people who play them, don't have to do with the games, but with the people, and more directly how they were developed, or more precisely, how they were not developed by/through the environment, which includes adults primarily.

So obviously someone who is responsible, and takes care of all of the duties that he/she has set up for him/herself to do, and places free time to enjoy himself, after completing his duties, is quite a successful person, wouldn't you say? If someone plays the whole day, then it either has to do with his lack of setting duties or his failure to live up to the duties he set. So it the end it really is all a decision, and what one does with ones time, and how one divides up one's day.

On deeper dimensions however, a person, such as myself, may have, emotional investment in certain games, which are connected to real life experiences, of losing, doing worse, failing, and how one reacts to that, such as with fear, discomfort, disgust, resistance.

I forgive myself to resist playing video games and feel discomfort, disgust and fear when I lose at a video game.

 I forgive myself to suppress how I felt while losing, and ignore it, instead of genuinely letting it go.

 I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to have a vendetta to win, to somehow show something/someone invisible that I can win, which really it is to show up my own emotions, or myself, in a way to kind of prove myself wrong, as if feeling discomfort, disgust, fear, and resistance meant that I can't win in the future.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to focus on how I felt, instead of my performance/action, and the power I have to change how I act/behave, and so play the game, thus proving to myself I can change, and so I can win, in any situation/moment, and that my emotional experience and thoughts were a lie.

When and as i see myself playing a game and feeling disgusted, resistance, tired, discomfort, and fear- I stop and I breathe and I realize that I don't need to prove to anyone that I can win a game, because I know that I can do anything if I dedicate myself to it, and that if I can't do something someone expects of me, that doesn't mean anything, because it can't tell me how it is possible, or whether it is possible, and that is something I would need to firstly decide whether it is worth finding out even. - Thus I commit myself to use games practically, either for pure enjoyment, or for serving as a lesson or demonstration for another person, and certainly not at all for proving that I can win because that is frankly, not fun, and pointless, since games are for fun, not proving things that would only validate inferiority.