My apologies for my late post- somehow seemed to slip my mind. Anyhow, continuing with our conversation this morning, I really think that its a mistake of highest order to suggest that video games, as a surrogate to “reality,” may offer opportunities for satisfaction and learning equivalent to doing the deed in real life. To make my point by exaggeration, suppose we compare a game of tennis in the flesh to a game of tennis with phosphors. Clearly, exhaling hours of practice into a deftly done serve cries out far more skill than pressing the A button. You do not enjoy the fresh air, nor do you give your body a thorough workout-when you play from the safety of your couch. Quantitatively speaking, the amount of “experience” you glisten from playing a real game of tennis far outweighs that which you play in the virtual world.
Just because video games offer a somewhat diluted version of reality is not to devalue them- indeed, even a virtual game of tennis still requires an understanding of the parameters of the game of tennis itself + the parameters within which the game of tennis is embodied in the video game. Success requires some measure of concentration. But any real tennis player will have to tell you that the amount of concentration a real game of tennis requires exponentially outstrips that of a virtual game.
Since games can’t compete with reality in a one-on-one basis, their only hope of “making it” into the Olympics, Espn, etc is when video games allow players to play games that they could never play in reality. Thus, the game Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion throws players into a verdant fantasy world and players are free to generally act however they please. Here then is where video games may really shine and offer genuine moments of satisfaction equivalent to reality. A kid playing Oblivion may for instance, discover amidst his many heroic deeds in the game that he has a generally good natured disposition for helping others. This may, like Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, translate to heroic deeds in real life.