The premise that the worlds of gaming and culture are separate seems wrong. Games are art. Games are sport. Gaming receives from and adds to culture just as much as anything else.
Games are much more immersive and insular than other forms of culture. I can easily imagine myself playing my favorite games alone for years if all my other needs were met. Hell, millions of people are doing just that. Meanwhile, historically not that many people have chosen to fully escape into a world of literature, art or music - they're just not as engrossing.
I think it is perhaps a function of the way we train ourselves to be workers that passively accept tasks to occupy our attention. Much of school and many jobs provide anywhere from a drip to a torrent of regular units of work for us to focus on, and this occupies a huge part of time and training.
In the past, we used to criticize television for its passive, zombifying effect on the viewer. Games are more engaging. In truth, people like being actively engaged, and they are very accustomed to being actively engaged without the cumbersome work of directing their own activity.
Completing complicated tasks is, in a way, relatively easy. Defining tasks, reflecting on priorities, and allocating time to work on them--and importantly, suffering the emotional consequences of real world success or failure--is sometimes less pleasant. Games are maximally engaging and minimally taxing. That is their magic.
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[ 7.0 ms ] story [ 20.0 ms ] threadIn the past, we used to criticize television for its passive, zombifying effect on the viewer. Games are more engaging. In truth, people like being actively engaged, and they are very accustomed to being actively engaged without the cumbersome work of directing their own activity.
Completing complicated tasks is, in a way, relatively easy. Defining tasks, reflecting on priorities, and allocating time to work on them--and importantly, suffering the emotional consequences of real world success or failure--is sometimes less pleasant. Games are maximally engaging and minimally taxing. That is their magic.