Video games can be a very healthy mode of escapism. They can help us get through the tough patches in life by allowing us to express ourselves and remind us of the sovereignty we hold both over life and in-game.
Escapism has many similar but fundamentally varied definitions depending on the field of study. In Literature, for example, escapism is simply finding distraction from daily life. However, since I am discussing escapism in detail, I would like to use a more complicated definition. In psychology , escapism is ignoring the emotional upset caused by stress or the triggers of that stress. Some psychologists claim that suicide attempts, eating disorders, and drug abuse are escapes from such emotional upset. Escapism then evolves from escaping emotional upset to escaping one’s self. People escape into addictions, like drugs or alcohol, so that they don’t have to focus on themselves, or their problems, anymore. Inside these escapes, people can focus instead on accomplishing goals (like quests, or scoring points) and care less about reality and its currently unsolvable problems.
However, unhealthy escapism is when the method of escaping the self causes self-harm. In the case of gaming, this is the point where a video game becomes so important to a person’s life that they neglect basic necessities, like food. The person will often only eat in order to keep playing. Social life also suffers, becoming restricted to gaming entirely, with no outside contact. Game addiction may not require going into rehab and have quite the physical consequences of drug addiction, but it is no less serious. Living inside a game instead of living your life should be temporary, no matter how agonizing reality is. There are others ways to fight misery, and being consumed by a video game for the rest of your life is not the answer, no matter how understandable it may be.
Games must be taken in balance, just like any addictive activity. In healthy doses, they can provide a distraction, and sometimes the motivation to face the problems in life. Games do this by providing the player the means to express themselves in ways that might be harmful in reality, and control in when and how to accomplish goals. What I mean by the player expressing themselves in-game, is, for example, the cathartic killing one can accomplish in games like Call of Duty or even Assassin’s Creed. I can tell you from personal experience that after a long day of angry customers, there is nothing better than sinking my blade into a Templar’s gut or sniping zombies in Bioshock .
This kind of expression doesn’t have to be violent either, which leads to the next point; games provide the player with control over accomplishing goals. In game, you can complete whatever quests you like, however you like it. You can be nice or nasty, and it doesn’t matter who you are in reality. If you’re in a transitional period in life, it can be wonderfully liberating to finally collect enough souls to level up, or defeat that Capra Demon.
Games can be addicting in a bad way, yes, but they can also be an extremely healthy part of life for the reasons stated above. They can help us express what we normally cannot express, remind us that life’s problems are not unlike quests, and that we are just as capable of accomplishing them. Video games can be a very healthy mode of escapism.