The Similarities Between Video Games and Books
Clicking on this blog post, you may think, "Of course, Akeel's posting about video games he's addicted to them!" But, I made this post because I've been hearing about some of the positives of video games and how the effects are very similar to that of books. Also if there are blog posts about how analyzing music by Taylor Swift this should be okay (That blog post was amazing!)
Most adults tend to see video games as unhealthy and addictive and this mostly stems from video games being a more newer thing when they were kids. Jump to 2024 and you have the Super Nintendo World theme park and the Steam Deck which has over 8,000 games. Some of the reasons that video games have made an impact is how it feels like you are playing the story of a book and the game gives you a view of the main characters' perspective.
Are you part of a book club where you read a book at home and then come together to talk about it? Well, with videogames you can play online ranked matches with each other and review them as a team, and finally, videogames are written in code and then art and a story are added to the game. This is very similar to how books are written down as concepts are then developed further. In more recent years Indie Games (Games developed by a small group of people or a person without huge amounts of funds) have been gaining popularity. These are all similarities of how video games connect to books.
I want to finish off by analyzing a quote from an article on the "Next Big Idea Club" "Far more than books, movies or music, games force you to make decisions. Novels may activate our imagination, and music may conjure powerful emotions, but games force you to decide, choose, and prioritize. All the intellectual benefits of gaming derive from this fundamental virtue because learning how to think is ultimately about learning to make the right decisions: weighing evidence, analyzing situations, consulting your long-term goals, and then deciding. No other pop cultural form directly engages the brain’s decision-making apparatus in the same way. If you peer inside the gamer’s mind, the primary activity turns out to be another creature altogether: making decisions, some of them snap judgments, some long-term strategies."
Hi Akeel, I found this video game & book comparison really interesting, since you highlighted how they are in fact similar in many ways, and I especially agree with you that video games require you to make urgent decisions, which help you in real life. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Akeel and James, I also found this comparison very unique and interesting since you highlighted many of their similarities. However, I do think that while video games do require you to make decisions, those decisions are often very different from situations in real life and that they might not help in real life as much.
DeleteYo, Akeel! Nice post! I never realized how similar video game and books can be sometimes! Though I do believe that part of why many people say they're bad for you is because staring at a screen can really be harmful. But I think overall video games don't pose a true threat unless dealt with irresponsibly.
ReplyDeleteHi Akeel, I love this blog review, and you pointed out some argument's that many tend to overlook. I never heard of people comparing playing video games to basically living out a story but as a main character, but once you put it, that's exactly what they seem to be, and that's probably what make them so encapsulating, as video games are also much more immersive compared to your average book. I also liked the humor you included in the first paragraph, and it created a really nice overall introduction into the blog post. Great Stuff Akeel!
ReplyDeleteHey Akeel, I find the similarities between books and video games super interesting because I love both! Your point about how games can really immerse you in the main character's point of view really rings true for me as I constantly find myself getting more invested in game MC's then book ones (not to say I've never been extremely invested in a book MC before, I just find myself doing it more in games). At the end of the day, video games are just another form of story telling and can sometimes be just as good, if not better, a medium than books *cough* Omori *cough* *cough*. Great review!
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