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10
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Sony, Nintendo, Xbox, Other

On Delicious Experience and Escapism

RSS by Keith Sadler on 10 August 2010, 372 views
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EthaGilsdorwrote a great book called Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. It <script src="assets/scripts/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> rsquo;s excellent. Go buy a copy. I got mine from a good friend who forgot to take it home with him back to H <script src="assets/scripts/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> awaii. The author takes the reader along several delicious experiences. It’s a veritable . . . quest, for lack of a better term, of the various species of geeks, freaks, and nerds which inhabit our planet. One of the best sections is on World of Warcraft players. But, Mr. Gilsdorf, I must disagree with your basic presumption of the book, which is that most of what we want out of these various geek venues is escapism. http://www.ethangilsdorf.com/
Are video games about escapism? To me, it’s more about -augmenting- reality. I want to have experiences via video games that I can’t otherwise have. I want to blow shit up, I want to see demons and angels, I want to crash a Bugatti Veyron into a school bus full of adorable orphans. http://www.thesupercars.org/top-cars/most-expensive-cars   -in-the-world-top-10-list-2007-2008/ If I were to choose a reality (and I believe that we all do in fact choose our own reality) I would craft this life exactly as it is. I wouldn’t inhabit the reality my characters do. I wouldn’t fight things with swords. I wouldn’t race cars all the time or participate in street fights. For me, what’s great about my reality is that I can turn on my gaming system(s) and add to the experiences that I’ve already had that day, and turn it off to have the delicious experience of a good nights sleep in a safe bed. That’s one of the things which is so great about Limbo (one of the best games ever. Period.) I was able to experience what the protagonist kid was going through, but I only had to take the best things about it with me. I didn’t have to lose my sister in some scary woods or get chopped up into bits. I could take the best experiences and add them to my own.
I don’t want to escape the life I have now. I’m happy. I work hard to have a good life. People who don’t actively practice doing a thing (anything) become bad at it. (Evidently, I need to be practicing the hell out of Darksiders because I’m way bad at that.) But, to me, you have to practice having the life you want. Have trouble talking to girls? Go practice! Have trouble spending your money wisely? Go practice! You may find you need to be doing something different. Well, this life is a timed event. Don’t waste it wishing you were somewhere or someone else.
One of my heros, Mythbuster’s Adam Savage gave a remarkable speech to the Harvard Humanist Society http://boingboing.net/features/savage.html where he talked about the ultimate goal in life, and I’d like to add that it’s an excellent goal for video games as well. That goal is to have delicious experiences. To explain, Adam Savage referenced yet another work http://www.amazon.com/Eagles-Gift-Carlos-Castaneda/dp/067173251X saying when you die a great big eagle comes and eats you, and all your varied experiences add to the deliciousness of you. I’ve had many delicious experiences watching Mythbusters and if you’re here at this site I’m sure you’ve seen it and that you have also had many delicious experiences watching it yourselves.
Get out there and have some delicious experiences yourself. Got some good stories about your delicious experiences? Leave ‘em in the comments!

Ethan Gilsdorf wrote a great book called Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks. It’s excellent. Go buy a copy. I got mine from a good friend who forgot to take it home with him back to Hawaii. The author takes the reader along several delicious experiences. It’s a veritable . . . quest, for lack of a better term, of the various species of geeks, freaks, and nerds which inhabit our planet. One of the best sections is on World of Warcraft players. But, Mr. Gilsdorf, I must disagree with your basic presumption of the book, which is that most of what we want out of these various geek venues is escapism.

Are video games about escapism? To me, it’s more about -augmenting- reality. I want to have experiences via video games that I can’t otherwise have. I want to blow stuff up, I want to see demons and angels, I want to crash a Bugatti Veyron SS into a school bus full of adorable orphans. If I were to choose a reality (and I believe that we all do in fact choose our own reality) I would craft this life exactly as it is. I wouldn’t inhabit the reality my characters do. I wouldn’t fight things with swords. I wouldn’t race cars all the time or participate in street fights. For me, what’s great about my reality is that I can turn on my gaming system(s) and add to the experiences that I’ve already had that day, and turn it off to have the delicious experience of a good night's sleep in a safe bed. That’s one of the things which is so great about LIMBO (one of the best games ever. Period.) I was able to experience what the protagonist kid was going through, but I only had to take the best things about it with me. I didn’t have to lose my sister in some scary woods or get chopped up into bits. I could take the best experiences and add them to my own.

I don’t want to escape the life I have now. I’m happy. I work hard to have a good life. People who don’t actively practice doing a thing (anything) become bad at it. (Evidently, I need to be practicing the hell out of Darksiders because I’m way bad at that.) But, to me, you have to practice having the life you want. Have trouble talking to girls? Go practice! Have trouble spending your money wisely? Go practice! You may find you need to be doing something different. Well, this life is a timed event. Don’t waste it wishing you were somewhere or someone else.

One of my heroes, Mythbusters' Adam Savage gave a remarkable speech to the Harvard Humanist Society where he talked about the ultimate goal in life, and I’d like to add that it’s an excellent goal for video games as well. That goal is to have delicious experiences. To explain, Adam Savage referenced yet another work called The Eagle's Gift saying when you die a great big eagle comes and eats you, and all your varied experiences add to the deliciousness of you. I’ve had many delicious experiences watching Mythbusters and if you’re here at this site I’m sure you’ve seen it and that you have also had many delicious experiences watching it yourselves.

Get out there and have some delicious experiences yourself. Got some good stories about your delicious experiences? Leave ‘em in the comments!

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4 Comments

kthsdlr
kthsdlr (on 11 August 2010)

I will agree that 'escape' has always left a bad taste in my mouth, but I'm disagreeing with more than semantics here. I'm saying that out of life we all want an awesome experience. People work at boring jobs to be able to afford the positive experience of owning nice things or for caring properly for their family or what have you. It's the old adage with a twist: when you die you'll never say you wish you had spent more time at the office. I'm saying that's false, when you die you'll -really- never say 'I wish I had spent more time escaping my life.'

Thanks for the comments, you guys are all awesome. :)

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The Ghost of RubangB
The Ghost of RubangB (on 10 August 2010)

It sounds like the only thing you're disagreeing with is the definition of escapism, or at least disagreeing with the negative connotations that can come with the word. It sounds like you only like escaping from reality in small chunks, because it's fun and awesome. But it's still a virtual fantasy world that lets you do these things, which is pretty much the definition of escapism.

I know I like to play games for the same reasons, but I still call it escapism. I think realistic games are boring, but it doesn't mean I think real life is boring and I have to constantly hide from it. I just like virtual fantasy worlds, interactive art, music, and sometimes storytelling, and games is where they all collide. Escapism is okay in moderation, as long as you don't let something like WoW get in the way of your work, school, relationships, etc.

Whoa, I just noticed I said the same exact thing as Shanobi. Meh, I'm posting this anyway.

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Shanobi
Shanobi (on 10 August 2010)

If you want to do things that you can't do in real life, and do so in video games, you are practicing escapism. You could be out making something, bettering your community, but you're playing a video game. Not saying that's a bad thing, but rather than focus on something "real", you are spending your time in fantasy.

Maybe people have a hard time accepting things about themselves, that sometimes sound or carry a negative connotation.

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spdk1
spdk1 (on 10 August 2010)

good read, keep these up man!

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