Sherry Turkle discussed the topic of videogames as a “window onto a new kind of intimacy with machines that is characteristic of the nascent computer culture.” She discusses how a rule-governed world has a strong hold over the current youth, that they desire it and this hold translates into the computer’s holding power. She does not accept videogames as a mindless addiction because they require mental thought, a learning process, and skill. She discusses how videogames are computer-specific, meaning that games outside the context of computers are different than games that take place in a computer because they are two different experience. She got the experience of “inhabiting someone else’s mind” from videogames as opposed to the separated feeling associated with non-computer games like pinball. She discusses an interview with a person named Jarish who describes his experience with videogames as a learning experience, an escape, a personal domain, and ultimately a place where he belongs most mentally. She also discusses losing oneself in videogames, not addiction but infatuation of the world being simulated in the game and how involvement in the simulated world can affect our relationship with the real one.
Aside from Turkle’s discussion of videogames, I see them as a tool for me to get into another world, live a story, and experience it in very much the same way I would experience a cinematic movie. In a deeper and less consumer level, I think videogames engage me on a personal level. When play God of War 2 I am thrown into a violent situation from the start, forced to learn what I need to survive. I possess the power of a God bestowed upon me by Zeus but am suddenly betrayed and have the power stripped from me. This makes me feel vengeful towards Zeus, because I lost my precious powers that have aided me so well. And so the game engages me on two levels: emotional and mental. I can spend hours playing this game because it’s so well crafted, I feel like I am actually part of the tale.