Monday Musings: You Should Play Video Games!

You should play video games, especially if you’re in a creative profession or indulge in creative past times!

Why would I say that?  Aren’t games just, well, games?

Not so much anymore.  You could argue that video games haven’t been just games for sometime, especially since the first true RPGs were created.  It comes down to the simple fact that video games have moved forward from simple games to deep interactive entertainment.

Let me elaborate.  Yes, many games are still, at their heart, games.  Diversions for pure entertainment, but even that makes them far closer to something like popcorn genre books and can aspire to be just as good.  More and more video games in the modern era go deeper than that, as they reach towards something more: true interactive storytelling.

It’s hard to discount the joy of interactive storytelling.  If you’ve ever say around a campfire making up stories with friends or sat at a pen-and-paper roleplaying table with a gaming group, you already know this.  The best video games add on to this with immersive graphics and sound design, creating a truly wonderful interactive entertainment experience.

Will video games replace books and film?  No, never.  However, they will rapidly become just as important as those other forms of media.  Video games can tell stories in completely different ways than a book or a film.  Each form of media have their strengths and weaknesses and each form has its place in our media consumption.

So what this means is that, if you don’t currently do so, you should pay attention to video games and try to play some of the best!

Until next time, good reading, good writing, and good luck!