Blogpost #2: Video Games: Philosophy Within

          Due to long hours of thinking and arguing with my self, I have finally chosen a path on how to tackle my topic. I chose philosophy. In the eyes of my close ones, it is very unusual for me to choose something with a deeper meaning. That's the thing, I chose philosophy because it is unusual but little did people know, I enjoy talking about philosophy because sometimes I like to relate it to how society works. But you know what's the best thing about this ? It is philosophy in video games which makes it ten times better. Now that I said the things I wanted, let us begin to study about the philosophy in video games.

          Before I go jump directly into discussing more on the specific points, I decided to be introduced into my chosen path. I read this article called which is a review about the "Philosophy Through Video Games" which was a study done by Jon Cogburn and Mark Silcox. The review was written by Mr. J. Ryan Parker and I found it on www.patheos.com.

         "They argue, “The fantasies that we indulge in about ourselves when we pretend to be characters in a fictional world teach us about our place within the ‘real’ world, and this is precisely the sort of self-knowledge (one must surely assume) that will aid in the pursuit of true autonomy within our lives” (143). "

          I really want to talk about this part because it touched me in a very weird way. The way that it said that they argued that our "pretend" roles in video games actually teach us in our real roles in life, that phrase really got me. Why ? Because I feel like this is actually true. Take me as an example, I learned how to blend and act out my role smoothly because of the different video games I played.  How ? You tend to adapt to your role in a deeper way whenever your playing. I can't really explain how it works but that is just the way it is. Gamers suddenly fall into a weird spell or illusion that we feel that we ourselves are inside the video game. Our own self and personality get directly involved in our role causing some small or minor changes in the way we act as ourselves both in video games and reality.

          
          " While video game criticism has yet to reach the cultural status of its film counterparts, academic writing about and research into video games, their popularity, and cultural influence is certainly getting closer " 

          That quote presented above, that is one of the things that really inspired me in taking the path of philosophy in video games. I wanted to contribute more while we are getting closer to popularity. I also felt happy since I found out that there are people out there who actually wants to dig dipper in the philosophy hidden within video games. It is true that the usual people who actually know these things are what we call the more " hardcore " gamers. But still, even a normal gamer can know these and understand them. I mean hardcore or not we are still all gamers and we can all understand video games. But then again, it is still a matter of choice if we want to learn about stuff. I am gonna end this blog with a simple suggestion, try to be more attached to your role in a video game you are currently playing. Try to relate it to your role in reality and you might realize a connection between your two roles.