Games, Explained

Games can easily become a literal part of life. Our virtual adventures and accomplishments can become real adventures and accomplishments in our real lives. As described in the article "Games, Explained" by Frank Lantz, games "become more than just ways of experiencing these qualities, they start to represent these qualities to us – they become symbols that stand for pleasure and freedom." These symbols will then find themselves in other aspects of life such as dreams, life aspirations, and personality. An example of this is where a goal in a game can become very relevant to a goal in real life. Then to accomplish this goal in real life, a person will try to gain the same satisfaction by completing it in game. This can make a confusing cycle of whats player really wants. The end result is a player that can't distinguish life from the game or goals from fantasy goals. As poorly written in Lantz's article "For example we may realize that the process of signifying pleasure has made a game less immediately pleasurable, and we may wonder why we spend so much time and energy projecting images and performing pantomimes of the things we want instead of just pursuing them directly. " Overall the article is written in a sequentially confusing manner, but highlights some big topics, such as "what is a game?", "What is the purpose of games?", and "How Games Take over real Life".