10/31/2012

Reading vs Video Games


What comes up most often in the world today is whether people should either read a book or play a video game.  Remember when reading was the big thing?  How we could go on fascinating journeys in our minds?  And then along came video games and then we were the ones taking part in the stories, but there was little room for imagination as everything was laid out for us.  There was then a turning point in the world where people said the video games were better than reading.

But we have reached a problem today:  All novels seem to be the same.  There are not really any new stories that tickle the mind.  The same goes for video games, everyone is always worried about how many lines of coded Artificial Intelligence can be destroyed by a coded gun.  Nothing "new" has really come out in recent years for excite the mind.

So now we have that decision again:  Which is better?  Reading?  Or video games?

Let's analyze the two.

First up is reading.  While we previously stated that nothing new is around, there is also a plethora of "classic" novels to be read.  But a novel doesn't have to be "classic" to be good, all a novel is is a story. Everyone has different story tastes, but all have something in common: imagination.  When reading stories, we picture the story in our minds, the characters, the places, the people.  We imagine it all.  Everyone who reads it imagines something different, which is a joy of reading.  A person can be taken on fascinating journeys, across time, space, or even the Earth.  We can be a detective solving crimes, a space-farer discovering new planets, anything.  You name it, it can be done.  What we as a people need to find is what excites the mind now.  In the 50s and 60s, the most read stories were science fiction.  We now need to find the genre that people like now so that people will want to read again, as there is not really a greater joy.

Then we have video games.  Video games have so much potential, which I believe now can be taken up on.  What defines video games nowadays is how many people you can kill, or how lifelike the graphics are, or how good the gameplay is.  Very few games revolve around story anymore.  Thus, every game now seems the same to us, and we become easily bored with games.  What we need now is a game that revolves around story.  Grant it, video games leave little to imagine, as we said.  The landscape is laid out for them, the character progress is straight forward, the only thing left to imagine is a different story.  What we need to find today is find those games which also intrigue the imagination with a story.  Bridge both story and games together.

So, what would you rather do?  Read a book, or play a video game?  What are your thoughts on how we can change the world in imagination?