Let there be Lightguns

Do games have a purpose? Are they harmful? Does it matter? I don’t think it does.

You can read a book or watch a film and feel a new zeal for life that’s purpose enough for entertainment or art, something, that re-evaluates your own purpose anything in regards to harm is down to the individual and the choices they make which has nothing to with games. This idea of utility versus harm is a base question you should ask yourself about anything (I'll be addressing this notion of utility vs harm in greater detail at a later stage). For instance you can look at fetishists and think does it have a use? Well yeah they like that sort of thing, does it hurt anyone? Not particularly, well then that’s all right, whatever someone does in the privacy of their own home, or garden, is their own business (Mill 1873). Why does someone need a reason other than that’s what they enjoy? Why do games have to justify themselves to anyone let alone their audience?

Videogames aren’t necessarily an intellectual pursuit all of the time but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the possibility to become one, it’s just the market that limits their intellectualism, although today’s games like brain training are quite popular it’s still just a gimmick and purchased mainly by people in serious need of a trained brain. I mean if you think you need a DS to train your brain or exercise your face muscles or whatever you need serious help. Games should be getting smarter and in some respects they are but they also have to appeal to a wide majority and that limits their intellectual content. Puzzles games are in that sense the way forward and those too can be ingratiated into other genres like resident evil and portal, where the games are puzzle/action hybrids.

When I think about purpose in games my mind is always drawn back to God games, where you take the role of a deity in a virtual world and you may play that for a little bit and think ‘this is fun... but what’s the point?’ and maybe it has no point or maybe that’s exactly what god thinks about us, we seemed like a good idea at the time.

What purpose do God-games have; Fame, narcissism, power? God games give you ultimate power to show you that you in fact as an individual have none.

 I know I’ve personally felt attachment to characters in video games through watching development of their character and slowly getting to know them but can you feel attachment for something virtual that you create? I think the answer could be yes and no, because when I write something or make something, that’s mine that’s me. When you write academically they want you to write objectively, they want all the information with none of the ‘You’. You are just a conduit for this collected information, you don’t matter, just the piece of work and I think that’s bullshit, what’s the point? Why make something that isn't you or you don’t have a vested interest in, why put any effort into something that really has no part of you in it?

When I write something you can feel me, my intention in every paragraph (Although I tend to waffle). I made that and I feel attachment to my creation but also I relish destroying what I create. I’ll play this God and I’ll make a vast city then rip it to pieces with a hurricane, why? Because I can.

 I tell myself it doesn't matter they’re not real, well then what was the purpose of killing them or creating them in the first place? Why kill anyone in a game when they were technically never alive to begin with? That’s covered in suspension of disbelief, we care because they matter to us but we don’t necessarily feel guilt for killing them because there’s no consequence for doing so.