Why I Play Games: My Escapism
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Everybody goes through some form of hardship in their life, and each person chooses a different way to escape these troubles. For myself and many others, it's with a controller, or keyboard and mouse. Whether you've had a bad day at work or your partner has left you, you know that you have a home in Albion, the Capital Wasteland, Midgar or even on the battlefields in World War 2.As a father of three, I can't even imagine going through what this guy has. If video games keep his mind off the unbearable, then that can only be a good thing.
This escapism has never been more prominent to me than in the last two years. In February 2007, my three-year-old daughter passed away as the result of a car accident. My life fell apart, and I was on a knife edge, ready to jump into a chasm. But I escaped. Picking up a controller allowed me to step away from these problems. I absorbed every game that was released at the time, and each one took me away from my problems and challenged me, albeit in a material and competitive way, giving me something to strive for.
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But it's not just these quick-fix games that allow you to play and escape. There's another genre that gives you miles in which to run away from life, and that's the RPG.
Most role-playing games, even the bad ones, give you acres of environments in which to live a different life, one that's filled with imagination. Often starting as a put-upon orphan/only child/loner protagonist and living a Cinderella story of taking the world by the neck and fighting for what you believe in, they offer a real sense of place. Fighting an oppression and (sticking it to the man) has a calming feeling that is perfectly achieved by this genre.
