Imaginary worlds: beyond the game

When I was younger, and the Sims 2 first came out, I have to say, I was obsessed. The Sims 2 was the only game I played (though to be fair, it was the only game I tried playing really, other than the occasional game of Age of Empires). Yet my obsessive interest wasn’t so much with the game itself, though I did play it a lot. My immersion went deeper than that. The Sims 2 provided the foundation for the greater narratives that went on in my head. I would create backstories for my Sims, conjure up distinct and detailed personalities. Not only as I was playing, but in my time outside of the game also, I would try to imagine what it would be like to actually be them. In fact, I think this was why after awhile I got bored of the Sims- my own little fantasies about my characters never matched up when I played the game, my Sims confined by the rather mundane set of options programmed. Yet for awhile, it was a good kickstart for my imagination.

I mention this because I think it poses an interesting challenge to the notion that games aren’t intellectual, or valuable to kids (or anyone, really). Games like the Sims with an expansive game world, but little plot direction, can actually provide an incredibly good base for one’s own imaginative storytelling. Often all that is needed for a story to take off is a bit of a headstart, a structure- a setting and a semblance of a character that can be built upon. Games provide this. I remember my mum used to complain about how often I was on the Sims, and “why didn’t I do anything useful with my time”. Little did she know that the hours I spent directing various little virtual people around were also hours spent cultivating my creativity and exploring my sense of empathy (even if it was for people that weren’t technically ‘real’).

The second reason I mention this, is because I think it relates quite well to the representation lecture. In games like the Sims you are obviously afforded a lot of your own interpretation with the characters that you create. In other games, there’s less left to your imagination- in fact, as this week’s lectures show us, sometimes they’ll hand you a stereotype on a plate. For impressionable kids especially, that take the characters out of the game world and into their own imagination, there is particular danger of such stereotypes being perpetuated and reinforced in wider society and culture. Just as the Higgin reading noted that MMORPGS often use texts like The Lord of the Rings as points of cultural reference, games will also be a point of inspiration and borrowing for the next generation of storytellers. Characters are rarely just characters- even if players don’t use them for inspiration as such, they inevitably spill out of the fantasy world and into the framework of our own. Just like books, games can be important breeding grounds for imagination and social understanding. It’s important this power is respected, rather than abused.