Approaching video games in different ways

Since the beginning of gaming people have been studying them critically with various different approaches. Some of these include: the humanities, industry and engineering, Narratology and Ludology approaches. Thinking about video games in different ways can create many questions like could gaming be viewed as a new form of cultural practice like television and newspapers? With virtual reality becoming more popular, this statement could be very close to the truth. We are becoming more and more addicted to a perfect world that only seems to exist in cyberspace. Games are created as firstly, entertainment but can become an escape from reality for many players that question themselves about what is real and what is virtual. This can be tied in with creating individual identities for themselves, closing the distance between the virtual world and the real world. It’s frightening that not only games but social networks, which are said to be even more addictive than some games, can suck people in like this. The video we viewed in the lecture helped explain exactly why social networks like facebook and twitter are so addictive: because it is about us. Games can only be so close to our real lives but social networks are about us and only us. Because we are the common thread of social networks, we are subconsciously asked to make ourselves better, more interesting to other people and in turn we create individual identities. So perhaps social networks aren’t the greatest for us.