In
the course of this chapter, Gilsdorf elaborates on the impact and meaning of
the ‘fantasy escapist entertainment’. He explains that fantasy doesn’t only
serve as a source of entertainment or distraction but it has the potential to
serve as a character building experience, cornerstone of a belief system or
even as pure escape.
The
want or fantasy to be a ‘hero’ can be satisfied in games far easily than in
real life and this experience can serve a cathartic function allowing
individuals to overcome troubles in real life. Gilsdorf gives examples of
people who used games to help them overcome breakups and emotional stress. The
hero phenomenon is also an experience that allows people to develop
self-confidence and overcome inferiority complexes in some cases.
Just
like pure escape, a modified version of fantasy gaming can help people who have
experienced a lot of trauma ease out of their traumatic experiences or even
visualize them in order to help then accept and recover. Such recuperation has
been seen in the case of soldiers who used ‘Virtual Iraq’ to recover from Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder. However, the tools with such therapeutic
capabilities can be misused, this is evident in case when army recruiters
allow children as young as 13 to ‘play’ on advanced virtual war games like
'Virtual Iraq' to attract them to military service.
Another
key argument that Gilsdorf makes is that fantasy games have the ability to act
as an outlet for our primal emotions that a structured modern society deems
unacceptable like violent car jacking in GTA. This outlet, however, is a
double-edged sword because it can incite people to consider undertaking their
virtual activities in real life.
Gilsdorf
also explains that fantasy can be misused as easily as it can be benefitted
from. Addicted individuals can ruin their ‘real’ life as they strive endlessly
for a better virtual life. But Gilsdorf then argues that is true for all
addictions and that fantasy gaming is a tool, which is as beneficial or harmful
as the gamer allows it to be.
By
Sookrit Malik
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