The Power of Games

Games have long been besmirched by the idea that playing them makes a person socially undesirable, nerdy, fat, and lazy. The number of negative adjectives conjured up by gamings detractors to describe gamers is staggering. Even in the wake of the Columbine Massacre the media went to great lengths to correlate the gunmen’s horrible actions with the game Doom.(cite needed) When games are not being linked to violent actions they have generally been regarded as an “escapist waste of time” by those who don’t really enjoy playing them.(McGonigal) Indeed a prevalent and sweeping assessment amongst closed minded individuals is that games offer nothing to the individuals playing them. This negative assessment that paints games and the individuals that play them in a negative light could not be further from the truth.

The topic of games is vast, and encompasses more than just video games. There are table top games similar to Monopoly or card games, organized sports are considered games, and even children make up games to play with their friends like tag and hide and seek. Video games like Farmville and Wii sports have 60-65 million players, and games like Monopoly can boast 250 million players world wide. (cite needed) Indeed half a billion people spend at least an hour playing games online everyday, and 183 million if you count the U.S. alone.(McGonigal) Considering the numbers it should come to no surprise that games have the ability to reach millions of people.

It’s not just a matter of the amount of people games can reach though, it’s a matter of what level games can reach people on. Books, television, movies, and even music are all fairly static in terms of interaction. Typically there is only one way to interact with these forms...

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... establish a heightened sense of emotion the player may never be able experience. Games are entertaining, fun, and have the inherent ability to lift a persons spirits. They have the ability to help a person cope with real life situations, and can make a player better at different situations real life throws at them.

The negative stigma surrounding games and their players should by all means be lifted. The topic of games should be approached with an open mind, so that they can be truly appreciated for all the good that they do. As games become increasingly popular, and people sink more time into them year by year; those who view games negatively should reconsider. If not for the positive effects games simply because they’re fun. People with their ever stressful lives simply don’t have enough fun or forget how to have it. The power of games is that it can fix this!