Why We Game - Part III

Why We Game III - The Urge

We've all felt it. It's the reason we're here. It's the reason why we visit sites like this, why we spend our time looking at info for the latest game, why we post on the forums and read the articles. We know when we see it that this, this is the game. Something about it appeals to us and we must have it, then and there. Sometimes, though rarely, there is a rationale behind it. Maybe it's a sequel to one of the really good games we played a few years back. Maybe one of the game mechanics is just that good. More often than not however, our drive to get certain games is not defined clearly, and there is no set reasoning behind why a game continues to get played. It's been called the "fun factor," that indiscernible quality about a game that just begs for you to pick up the controller or the mouse and play until the sun comes up. We've settled for that reason, for the most part. It conveys what it absolutely has to, and the whole concept of "fun" is happy enough to satisfy us when we need to explain our gaming habit. Fun however, is a blanket term, something that we use to explain something that we don't really know, perhaps even want to know, about ourselves. Because by looking at our urge to play, we take away some of the mystery of why a game is "fun", and suddenly, it becomes another disc on the shelf. Still, the purpose of this series is to determine what drives us to play, and hopefully, better understand ourselves in the process.

Of course, the urge to play a game is specific to each person. One game that is a "must have" for one person may not even register on the radar of another. Since the beginning of gaming, where boundaries were still fuzzy, we have now separated games into different categories. Perhaps unconsciously, we have separated ourselves into distinct gaming categories as well, according to how we find our fun in games. FPS, RPG, RTS, adventure, sports; all of these are self-imposed categories that we fit into. Whereas before, there was just a game, and we either liked or disliked it, now enough games have come out that the whole gamut of playing experiences has been pretty much exhausted. And as a result, we have automatically identified, separated, and categorized our own definition of "fun." Maybe I'm a twitch gamer, obsessed with the highest frag counts, and that ever elusive spot on the deathmatch ladder. Maybe I like using my strategic mind instead, and maneuver my army of battle robot wizards into a crushing position around my opponent, besting them in a battle of wits. Or maybe I find my joy in becoming Ivana Krushalot and fighting evil dragons and giant robots all night. Over the past two dozen years, we have taken the games around us and molded them to our own desires, our own urges, and our own perceptions of "fun." Strangely enough, it has reached a point, where if you look at the real life society of today, that perhaps things aren't really so different outside our gaming community. Sports stars play for the "fun of the game", or more and more often, for the prize at the end. Chess is still the dominant strategy game, and will be found pretty much everywhere you look. Actors, who don the role of a different character every night, are in abundance around us. Things are really not so different from games anymore. Even soldiers in real armies perform in video game simulations before real combat. If you notice, every activity mentioned above, with perhaps the exception of combat training, is some outlet for people to release stress, to find pleasure, to have "fun."

The thing about games is that they can directly create and tap into those pleasure points that we've created for ourselves over our lifetimes. We can create our own fun, in virtual sessions that will satisfy us, and can then be turned off with a switch. The games that we create are our dreams, wish fulfillment made a reality. Perhaps this is also why, as we explore the boundaries of this new industry, that some of the dreams turn dark, tapping into more primal urges to play, and to continue playing. Games like Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto 3, and others create environments and scenarios where we can commit crimes, beat up, and kill, with little consequence. Don't get worked up, as I am not someone that's going to start preaching about games causing violence in society. That's for a later article. What I will say though is that these urges are not new, and they are not created or implanted in us. They exist within us, in our dreams and thoughts, things that we may not realize are there, but still lurk in the corners of our minds, no matter how much we or mainstream culture tries to deny it. It is these urges that tap into the same parts of our brains as the pleasure centers do, and so, on some level, we do find pleasure and "fun" in these darker games, because they allow us to do things that we know we want to do, but cannot accomplish in society without consequence.

So games, for all their variations and themes now, are still played for their original purpose, to be fun. But to think of these games and this fun as being nothing more than a distraction is to ignore the truth. For us, games are a part of our psyche. They are our sports, our chess, and our starring role. Are games the entirety of our life? No, of course not. With the exception of those fateful few, we have lives outside of games. But it is within the game that we posses the sole power to recreate our world around us. We surround ourselves with games that we find fun, and as a result, create a world that is filled only with what we like, what we enjoy, what we find fun. And it is by looking at ourselves, and how we game, that we learn about ourselves, our motives, and our true desires.