Why I Play Games: The Panel – Part I

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//Why I Play Games
By Phill Cameron (The Reticule, Gamasutra, GameSetWatch)
I game for the same reason an astronaut wants to go to the moon – it’s just that I don’t have the physical discipline to do all that exercise and science. I game to project myself into a thousand different worlds, onto a thousand different characters, in a thousand and one different situations. I game to experience the highs and lows of my own self, to push myself to perform courageous acts and dastardly deeds, just because it’s a world devoid of meaningful consequence – or, at least, the type that would get me institutionalised or criminally sentenced. I see gaming as reading on speed, multiplied exponentially until it’s something beyond escapism – it’s another self to become when you feel like a change.

People say they game because the world sucks, but really, that’s not it at all. The world only sucks sometimes because we game, because we experience these other worlds that are so much more dramatic and vast, epic and sprawling than the confines of our city, our house, our mind. It’s a medium that allows you to enforce your will on hypothetical circumstance, make your own personal mark on an experience. It’s the only active entertainment that doesn’t involve going outside to exercise your muscles. It’s a way to exercise your brain.

When it comes down to it, I game because life doesn’t present me with the opportunities to be the hero very often, and it actively prevents me from being the villain. It’s a way of projecting the brightest and darkest parts of me on something that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t matter beyond the time you’re in that world. I’m angry, so I play some Street Fighter, and take it out on some polygons. I’m sad, so I play Bionic Commando, and laugh at the sadistic amusement of the lead, or the sheer thrill of swinging at high velocity through the cityscape. Simply put, I game because it makes me happy.

//Why I Play Games
By Chris Evans (The Reticule)
When Lewis asked me to write about why I play games, I found myself having to tackle a question I’d never really considered before. I’ve been thinking about it for the past few days, and I still can’t put my finger on one single reason.

If I think back to my younger days, I started playing games because it was an alternative to the usual programmes on the TV, and the fact that gaming was starting to become a more popular thing to do. I suppose that competing against my neighbour and other friends played a role in leading me to play games regularly – they all had Sega Megadrives and other consoles of the era, and I would often play with them. In all honesty, it’s those early gaming experiences that led me to carry on playing games all the way through my school years, and now my post-university life.

My reasons for playing games now are slightly different. I play games now because I enjoy the sense of community that can develop from playing games. I just think of my Battlefield 2 clan and know that I spent some good times playing with those guys.

The final reason? It has to be because they give me something to write about. I have been able to develop my appreciation of games by writing about them – and, of course, that has meant I can do things like this.

But, really, there is no simple answer to the question of why I play games. It’s changed over the years, which I guess that is a good thing – it means I have found different things that motivate me to play, and just goes to show the great possibilities that gaming throws up.

[Tune in for the final part of the series next Thursday...]

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