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"Why do you play games?"

I had this thought yesterday as I played my dad at Red Faction, Why do we play games.
Everyone at some point has played a game of some variety. Before consoles where even around children played games in the street, boys playing football with jumpers for goalposts, girls skipping and playing hopscotch. We have all played games an Im sure you will agree you have enjoyed playing them.

Its now what some call the computer ages where technology is so advanced we can send e-mails in a split second across the world, view almost anything on the web and play games on some of the most advanced games machines that are available.
So why do we choose to play games. I think we do it for the sheer fun of it, humans and most animals need stimulation, thats why we watch tv, listen to music and play games. Nowadays some games with the graphics that can be obtained look similar to tv. So is it the fact that games are interactive and you have control over what happens that makes them so popular?

I suppose games are so popular as the market is so popular and advertising is big and attracts people by the bucketload. But more children these days would rather sit in and play video games instead of getting out and experiencing the real world. They loose out on valuable life skills for the sake of a game. So my advice is games are good but dont spen your life stuck away playing them, get out and do something.Is it the fact that some games stretch your imagination beyond its limits with their strange characters, theme and visual effects. Or is it the fact that they allow us to do things that we will probably never get the chance to do like drive a £70,000 sports car, or gun down the enemy forces, or fly a space ship. I guess everyone has their own reasons for why they play games. But I say it all purely down to fun.

Another thing I don't understand about the games market is the way people stand up for a certain console, don't you understand that these are the people that rip you off. Why do people stick up for consoles in this way, countless people moaning over which console is better and defending consoles that they haven't even played and that aren't even released. Why do you do this?

Well what else am I gonna do in my spare time? Watch Coronation Street??? I can't stand listening to that annoying Vera Duckworth go "'er Jack, you don't want to do that!"

I have a poor social life so I rarely go out (except for going round Shocktrooper's house because I know him of the net). Or play football and that gets boring when there's only 4 of you!

To get a way from the real world, and enjoy something different and in a whole new world.

I play videogames because theyre fun and I enjoy them, simple as that!

I could tell you I play them because theyre educational, or because they stimulate hand to eye co-ordination but I'ld be lying. :-)

Games are great they take me to a reality that is safe and yet I can experience dangerous things that I would never experience in real life. Perfect Dark allows me to enter the world of a secret agent, Driver 2 allows me to race old cars around some of the worlds most beautiful cities such as Rio, Chicago, Havana and Las Vegas, and footy games like ISS Pro Evolution 2 allows me to take England on to victory in the World Cup.

Perhaps the main reason I play videogames is because besides being fun to play on my own they are infinately better when played with friends as anyone who has played a four player game such as Timesplitters on the PS2 with their mates will confirm.

To experience what you can't in real life. Like say, killing people and casting magic spells.

i play games cause im a social retard i have no friends so i have to play computer games, nahhhh i play them cause there fun and there a good way of wasting time

My reason for playing games is that Human’s seek Fun and new experiences. This is an example, Driver; I play this game because it is fun, and will probably never get the chance to speed away from the police. (Well without being caught anyway.)

Another example, Perfect Dark; When in God’s earth will I get the chance to pop someone in the head with a sniper rifle? Or blast someone in the chest with a shotgun and watch them fly across the room. Never, unless I am in the Special services or a psycho.

Resident Evil 1&2 and all the others. I play this game for the scariness, one of the great scary moments was (this is in the PC version) when you go into that room with the magic mirror and the “licker” jumps through the glass. I played this in a dark room with the volume turned up. I had stains in me pants!

My conclusion would be that we play games for the thrill and new experiences.

Remember when you were young (say 4 - 10) and you saw cartoons or films about heros doing heroic things and wanted do re inact them?

You could often do this with your toys but now you can take control of the Starwars characters or James Bond and skillfully do what they do on TV.

That's just one of the billions of reasons why people play games.

Me?

I like them because they're a way of tesing my skill/intellingence and most importantly: they're FUN

DanDaGr8 wrote:
> RastaBillySkank wrote:
> DanDaGr8 wrote:
> most gamers play
> games to escape there
> boring/depressing lives... i
>
> do

You been spying on me?

well now that you ask..

:-D

Hey now what is this about people who want to escape from every day life to play games! I can't believe it myself but was'nt "The Sims" and their expansion packs taking up 4 slots in "The ChartTrack" ELSPA top ten? What does this say about gamers. They would rather play a simulated family than live there own lives.

In most cases yes, children once played games outside with their friends but now the main point is that parents are worried that their children are not safe anymore and they themselfs encurage their children to stay indoors. When you are a child it is difficult, the choices you have are limited as your parents control most of you life.

What are games main purposes? Are they fun or challanging. I find that most games are in a sence annoying and fustrating. You know the ones. I don't know why but these games just make me scream at the screen, even worst is that they give you an addiction to beat the game. Then there are those games that let you manage your own so and so, I mean I'm a computer person myself and I do have these types of games but why? (Is this a long and difficult way of teaching children how to manage their lifes better?) I'd rather play some of the fantastic fictional games on the consoles, like battling a huge demon monster than building my own city from the ground up, but I guess I'm a dedicated PC owner, although there are some good games like that on the PC.

I have to agree with Your Honour that RPG's are the best. Does anyone remember the adventure books where all you needed were a sheet of paper a pencil and dice?

I have to say the main reason that games are so good is that you can return to then over and over. Can you do this in real life?

Well I'll stop now, maybe I'll do something useful like save the forests, care for the needed, reintroduce folk dancing....

RastaBillySkank wrote:
> DanDaGr8 wrote:
> most gamers play games to escape there
> boring/depressing lives... i
> do

You been spying on me?

well now that you ask...