Opinion Article on Videogames

Opinion Article on Videogames

Videogames: that modern way of telling stories

Many anthropologists agree that telling us stories is one of the most humane gestures that exist, something we have been doing since ancient times. remote, when we sat on the edge of the fire to hear from the elders of the tribe stories of terrible gods and hunts mythological. A role that, over the years, has been played by countless human inventions, which range from the book and the magazine, to the cinema, television and, in more recent times, the video game.

When the first video games emerged from the hand of computers, they were entertainment devices in the most repetitive and mechanical sense of the word. Ping pong, shooters, and pac-man games, all dedicated to providing an interactive experience based purely on reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and hand-eye coordination. score idea: the video game did not have an end, it did not tell a story, it did not illustrate anything other than the same exercise arranged more and more at higher speeds and difficulties. In other words, the video game was sterile, it was a form of distraction and it harbored an emptiness inside: it did not count anything.

But that has changed for a long time, or at least it has been complemented with narrative proposals that border on the artistic and literary, when they do not openly dabble in it. Gone are the days when talking about video games referred to cell phone snakes, solitaire shows from Windows or arcade slot machines in which children competed to leave their initial three in the hall of fame scores high.

A narrative genre like any

As anyone with a home console knows, contemporary games are complex forms of narration, designed to gradually introduce the player to a simulated world and a story that takes place there: from exciting space thrillers Hollywood worthy, to nostalgic introspective adventures in a post-apocalyptic future, or military slogans that relive the great battles of yesteryear. Practically the same as the cinema offers today.

And yet the place of video games as a source of stories for modern generations is rarely recognized. Just take a look at the growth of the gamer community and its growing importance within mass culture, or look at the ranks average age of current players (comfortably settled into adulthood) to realize that some cultural paradigms have gone Changing.

People play video games and in doing so they demand more complex and mature experiences, more diverse and current. There are many proposals in the field that address crucial issues in the social, political and cultural discussions of the moment: identity, segregation, authoritarianism or the climate crisis, to name just the most relevant, are approached in critical, sensible and responsible ways within the world of many video games. In fact, a specialized, professional (or almost) criticism has arisen around them and makes its way more and more in the corridors of the academy.

Video games are a continuous source of stories for a generation less prone to reading on paper, addicted to screens and to the interactivity of the 2.0 world that the internet brought with it. It would be inexcusable clumsiness if those who study stories, think about the way we imagine ourselves and the contents that we are sharing with each other do not pay their due attention to videogames and allow themselves to be carried away by twentieth-century prejudices that reveal, rather than a supposed seriousness and traditionalism, a profound and unnecessary ignorance.

References:

• "Opinion journalism" in Wikipedia.
• "Videogame" in Wikipedia.
• "History of videogames" in Retro Computer.
• "The importance of the video game" in Creative culture.

What is an opinion piece?

A opinion piece it's a kind of journalistic writing, of common appearance in the written press, in which the points of view and considerations of an author are expressed signer, who is usually an individual with authority in the matter or whose perspective is valued within the society.

Opinion articles are subjective, personal and argumentative in nature, since in them the author seeks promote his point of view among readers, that is, convince them to interpret the reality of it way.

Opinion articles are also considered editorial columns, that is, in which the media expresses its institutional position on a given issue. These texts, however, are not signed by any person but by the editorial committee of the medium.

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