Games People Play

Picture yourself in 15^th century Italy, with a blade hidden in your wrist, perched atop the local church, waiting to strike a nobleman who has connections with the Templar organisation.

Picture yourself at the wheel of a Konigsegg Agera R, with nitrous, about to take a turn at 220 miles-per-hour with the cops hot on your tail.

Seems like a dream doesn’t it?

Welcome to the world of gaming my friend.

We humans have always wanted to live life large. We’ve wanted adventure, excitement, and panache in our lives. Unfortunately most of us have a nine to five job, with a family to take care of or have to attend college and come back to housework and the lecture notes. Suffice to say, we live a life filled with stress and some form of instant relaxation is a welcome thing. Something like grabbing a joystick and driving a 5 million dollar car down the streets of San Francisco or controlling Fernando Torres as he scores a goal.

The virtual reality that is gaming appeals to us because of this. For a few hours, we get to forget who we are, and step into a world not at all like our own. We get to drive the fastest cars, visit the biggest hotels or casinos and live the dream so to speak; albeit virtually.

Games these days are also about more than just that. For example, the immensely popular role playing games Mass Effect. In Mass Effect, the choices that you make while playing affect how the game ultimately ends. Make the wrong choice and a person can die. In the game Skyrim, you start out as just a dragon slayer, destined to kill the evil Alduin. As you progress your character becomes a shade of decidedly disturbing gray. Some missions in Skyrim have you kill innocents for powerful armor and weapons while in one mission you actually have the choice of becoming a cannibal.

The sense of power that these games give you demands maturity. Games these days are no longer for children. The industry has grown to accommodate adults as well and therefore the plot lines and the general visuals of the games have become dark; to reflect the world that we live in. Remember that someone playing a game is doing so to escape temporarily from the various pressures that he faces in his day to day life- be it a harsh boss or a strict professor. 

Games these days take that into account and give the player character the power necessary to vanquish the darkness.

Now here, I must mention that most games resort to tremendous violence and gore in order to transmute said power and as a result, you get tired of playing after a while. I mean how much killing can you take? Certainly, fighting a dragon and a challenging one at that is a different story, but pointing a gun at a person and getting points for shooting his head off isn’t my cup of tea. Give me a game I can get lost in, such as Dragon Age Inquisition or Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor  or even Alan Wake where the emphasis is on exploration and preparation before fighting as opposed to games like Crysis 2 which is basically “I have a bigger gun than you do” ; and I will be happy.

Games such as Ubisoft’s Child of Light, which is based on the fairytale Sleeping Beauty is an example of one such game. It’s a beautiful game, set in the mind of Aurora, the lead character- a princess who has gone to sleep while the world around her is in anarchy. The game plays out as a scene from a fairy tale and the soundtrack is equally mesmerising.

Ori and the Dark Forest and Limbo are games with a slightly darker theme, but based on the same idea that Child of Light is. Games such as these are fun to play, do not involve gore or bloodshed or profane language and remind us of times when we were innocent.

Having touched upon the subject of innocence, I will now conclude this writeup.

When we were young, we didn’t have so much trouble. Life was simple and games we played back then reflected that. In order to keep up with us, games today have evolved and the evolution has made some games lose that innocence. However the gaming industry has made brilliant games and in accordance to ages. There are games for all ages, games that demand a little maturity and games that are one time plays.

With so much versatility, we really are spoilt for choice. However, we need to remember that in the end, we are just playing a game. The actions we perform in-game are meant to stay in-game.

That being said, a Porsche Carrera is just a click away! 

The Bilge Master