The Realism of Video Games by Micheal Coley
Can you go back in time to the origins of video games? Where cute, harmless and completely unbelievable and mythical characters would tackle zany adventure in make-believe worlds far away from our own? Those simple and harmless days seem to be ancient history today. Today, many video games created for the Xbox 360 use real world events as their source of inspiration. Whereas before, video games were a tool used to escape reality through diversion, they are now extensions of the reality in which we live in. Depending on your vantage point, that can be very good or very bad indeed.
Take a look at one of the most popular video game franchises in history: Super Mario Bros. There aren't too many games for the Xbox 360 where a plumber battles evil demented turtles that fling hammers at you. No matter how imaginative one's imagination could be, there is simply no way that such an occurrence could happen in this world, like, for real. So, the illusion of the game remains intact.
Now, if you look at today's video games for popular systems like the Microsoft Xbox 360 or the Sony Playstation Portable, you can clearly see that video games are now using real world issues as their premise. Of course, there are also a plethora of fantasy based video games and characters. However, you are more than likely to discover a game that takes place in the deserts of the Middle East rather than the Kingdom of Mushrooms. Could you imagine a video game in the early 1980s based on the Cold War? But, today, there are many video games using current events as a fantasy gaming world.
There are many theories as to the dearth of reality-based video games. Improved graphics, technology and game play make it easier to create the real world on the video game screen. Perhaps it's easier to steal an idea from the world of today than it is to create a whole new world with plot, characters, functions, missions, etc. Perhaps it's a calculated effort to hone in on frustrated individuals who can't really join the fight: battle those terrorist creeps that you hate so much from the comfort of your own home. In the latter instance, at least, it can make for a quick way to make a quick dollar.
It used to be easy to distinguish video games from reality. On one side, was life and the real world with all its problems and ailments, most of which you can't control. On the other side was the gaming universe, where you are the ultimate master and are in total control. Idea: why not combine the two, and give a video game player the complete control that video games provide into a real world situation in which otherwise, they feel powerless?
It seems that today, a gamer can watch the news, get upset and then do something about it in the real world that exists inside their Sony PSP or Xbox. Now, whether or not that contributes anything of substance at all is a subject for another debate altogether.
Micheal Coley is interested in how video games and the real world interact with each other.
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Article Source: http://www.earticlesonline.com/Article/The-Realism-of-Video-Games/153220
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