Interactivity is an element that separates gaming from the rest of the art forms. Many games like Tabletop RPGs, playground games, hide and seek and board games seek direct involvement of the players to let the game going and the form taken by the player input roughly defines the game.
The most interesting part of a video game is that along with the player interaction there is a combination of another artistic medium like music, visuals, sound design, narrative design, and some other aspects that creates an experience that is a sum of its parts.
The most interesting part is how the solidity experience works on the connection between players. In this way, video games have a huge impact on the world.
How do we socialize?
The interactivity in video games has changed the entire society in several ways. Games that involve multiplayer gaming with the increased internet speed have changed the socialization of people to a great extent. A high school guy would hang up with friends after school through the multiplayer mode of video games. Today, most children connect with their friends through video games.
One of those games is Stellaris. The game is a multiplayer game and young teens connect with their friends through the game. With video games, people can now connect with their friends and cousins without having to move from a pace to another. Though it has some disadvantages like inactivity among the new generations but in the present situation, socializing with close ones is much safer than stepping out in the crowd.
So, be it any reason, gaming has changed society a lot, and the most interesting part of the change is ts completely unintentional. Sure, the developers have made conscious decisions about online interactivity but they have never thought that doing the same gaming would change the aspect of socialization.
Changing the world through immersion
Like online socializing is promoted by multiplayer experience, other social changes come up with different other kinds of player interaction. The most effective feature of video gaming is to immerse the gamers in a different or fantasized world which aren’t real. The world of the games is far different from our original world and so it cannot be matched with ours.
There are fictional stories and characters in the games and the gamers get completely immersed in that world, the story of the game, the gameplay, and the missions of the game. The rewards you get after completion of every mission, all these features are fictitious. Immersing a player in the complete fictitious world needs some sort of ability that the developers of games truly possess. Games like, Paper Please are effective and the reason behind it is the players themselves are making them.
The players also go through different cognitive and emotional dilemmas. Even from Last of Us games, the characters can be seen going through moral dilemmas which arise from post societal world in which they live. The game alone cannot change the world but for some people, the game has its high impact.
Can this become commercial?
The Last of Us Part II tries hard to make the viewers see the enemy Abby as human, yet they dehumanize their enemies through the gameplay mechanics. However, the game needs to get profit, but the games like Paper Please will just not earn the same sales number. Here the question that arises is, can the commercial games add something to their games to create an experience for the players that would have a positive impact on society.
Paper Please is proof that some developers are designing their games for the social good. The potential role-playing games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout, and other RPG games are undoubtedly the most successful commercial games. The freedom of the player in these games and the focused story provides a fertile base to comment on the social issues.
The Mass Effect series focuses on the relationships between the crewmates and this is a good way to explore the moral obscurity of battle in detail. The relationships between the crewmates demonstrate certain moral choices.
What else can games do?
Initially, it has been discussed how gaming can positively impact social change by connecting people from distance, but there is more potential beyond that. The experiences that people gain from gaming help them with a lot of issues they face in the real world, like it helps them to handle finance, mental health, and the game even enhances cultural exchange between the gamers. For example, watching a video and learning to avoid debt and save is something and applying your financial skills into practice contributes more to your social change. One of the most popular sci-fi video games that helps the gamer with this problem is Stellaris. If you’re not familiar with Stellaris, here are the best Stellaris starting settings, which will surely be of great help to you in the beginning.
