Why we love gaming

I was talking to a friend recently who said that he would never play Fifa because he thought, if he ever felt like playing football, he would much rather get a ball and a few mates and head down the local park. This got me thinking. Is the reason we play games all down to escapism or is there something else?

Taking my mates comments in mind, if I wanted to play war games, surely I could join the Army. There, eventually, I would be given a gun and I would be able to run around a battlefield at some point, shooting bogies all over the place and making sure I kept my frag-score high. This, however, sounds more like scary, scary shit than jump-for-joy fun! I think the problem here is that if I die in real life, respawning ain't so easy. In fact, some might call it impossible. Since ending my life isn't exactly what I had in mind, the next best thing is to grab a copy of Call of Duty 4 and shoot the shit out of my friends. This is fair, I think.

Let's get a little bit more ridiculous with this. The reason for the controversy behind Manhunt and Manhunt 2 was that, if these acts were to be carried out in real life (Manhunt is about making snuff videos), one would most certainly be locked away for quite some time. Also, I don't know about you but I find the prospect of making snuff videos rather immoral. So, people who agree with me (that should be most of you) can play this game and get away with it. This obviously is escapism. It creates a world where the immoral and the highly illegal are allowed and won't get anyone hurt (except for the minds of young children everywhere!).

Grand Theft Auto has a similar means of escaping the real world. You can steal a car, drive to the gun shop, buy an arsenal, sleep with a lady-of-the-night in the daytime, kill some cops, run some innocent pedestrians down, smash the car up trying to jump over a river and calmly walk home and go to sleep. There is a way for Americans to escape everyday life too; fly a plane? earn some money? go to a gym? Anyway, my point is that escaping real life by committing crimes in a video game is something that occurs often.

Let's bring it closer to home. If I wanted to, I could go and buy a skateboard from a shop in town and I'll be skating in mere minutes. However, if I ever wanted to pull off a 360 flip to Crooked grind... well, it would never happen. So therefore, a brilliant game called Skate was invented so that I don't have to humiliate myself. This is a game that allows me to achieve pro skater status without ever falling off and killing my chances of procreation.

So here is where I prove my friend that he's an idiot. Take all of the sports that I can't at least reasonably well; skateboarding, golf, cricket, basketball, ice hockey, snowboarding, race driving, etc. All of these are sport that I could never play to a skilled level even if I practiced everyday. This is why I play them on consoles, because it allows me to play them to a skilled standard. The same could be said of the sports that I do play, even if I'm a bit rubbish; American Football, Football, Rugby. Playing these sports on a computer allows me to play at a level I could never reach. This still isn't enough to claim escapism though.

I think there's something else. Maybe I enjoy games on a different level than simulating what I want to do in life. Some games run on a narrative and then the game turns into something more like a film where, instead of escaping my own life, I'm involving myself in someone else's. This can't be said of sports games, however. Some games are just about playing. Pacman has no real-world values and no narrative but I love playing it. The same goes for Tetris. Maybe sports games are the closest things we have these days to arcade games and, while they play no real part in escaping our lives because we could play them ourselves for real, they are fun to play. They don't need to replace the real thing, it isn't a choice of one or the other, they are both there for the enjoyment of all.

Games are fun and we enjoy them, sometimes because of the escapism, sometimes because of the narrative and sometimes because we just do.

Forget Line Rider...

...and try line golf! This game rocks. I don't know what's more fun, making your own course or trying out others. There aren't the quality on here as in linerider yet but soon, i'm sure we'll be on to something!

If you don't know what line rider is, it started off as a simple idea, whereby you can draw lines and the man on a sled will slide down them depening on where gravity pulls him. Then it took off with more and more people making complex line drawings sending the little guy on massive missions. There are now hundereds of really good videos of the courses people have made on Youtube. To have a go, click here and make sure you check the video out below!

Sam & Max coming to Wii?

A while ago, Telltale, makers of the episodic new releases of the famed Sam & Max series, put a cry on their blog for fans to send emails to Nintendo to get them to okay a release of Sam & Max on Wii. It didn't take long for the big N to cave in and contact Telltale and give them the thumbs up. So....

WHERE IS IT?!

Well, Telltale are hardly going to let this go so hopefully it will come eventually. And let's hope that they do it properly and not just port it over!

Smash bros. Brawl delayed

Kotaku have released the news that Smash bros Brawl is being delayed until March 9th for North America. It is not known whether this delay will effect the UK but it is likely. Smash Bros. Brawl is already likely to have a Summer release and it is even more likely now.

New Turok Trialer "Creatures".

Portal 2?

Joystiq presented an article that raised an interesting question this week; do you want a sequal to Portal? My first answer to this question, the answer before thinking, is "YES, NOW!". But thinking about it further, I'm not so sure.

I'm making a contraversial comment here but, again, I'm not sure. My reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the first game was too good. There were many brilliant things about the game; The characters, the arenas and the joy of discovering the dynamic. A second Portal would have no new excitement without drastically changing the dynamic. The idea itself is so simple that a short game is all that can come out of it without losing something. Half of the fun of the first game is discovering your portal gun in your world. Without this new idea being new, you take half of the fun away. Also, you killed the main character, or most of it, at the end of the game. Unless they make a sequal or a "second" crazy robot-woman then you have lost a major part of the game. And last of all on this point, you escaped from Appeture Science at the end of the game as well. You are now in the real world. Without a sequal, there would be no way to get back to the original setting and feeling of the game.

Then, maybe, I thought about Half Life 2 Ep 3. What if Gordon Freeman got his hands on the Portal gun? This makes me a little excited! Imagine how different Half Life 2 could have been with the Portal gun. Ok, so maybe it would have been bugged and hacked all over the place but surely there's room for a "more controlled" world with the Portal gun in mind and made some puzzles in amongst the world for it.

This is the only way I can see it happening without spoiling what is essentially my favourite game of 2007. It's a bit like the Matrix. This first film was good because it was a new idea and it was fairly understated and simple. Then they ruined it by shoving it full of shit! Also, there was no more discovery! and that's why the matrix reloaded and re(... what was it called?) were shit! Where am I?

Video games worse than fast food?!

Sorry, but does thing guy think he's being funny?! I aint fucking laughing!

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/29268/McDonalds-boss-Games-to-blame-for-childhood-obesity

Seriously, what a twat!!!