Is RPG playing escapism?

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I don't really know what forum to put this in, so if I'm in a naughty place, please Tal, be gentle! Anyway, my question is do you consider Fantasy games to be escapism? All these questions about who we'd love to be inside the game, people seem to have answers all too ready... Are we living in a fantasy world??? This question isn't intended to offend people, I just wanted different points of view on this common concept.

 

Yes, it is escapism.

Yes, this post is probably in the wrong forum.

 

Lol, short but sweet. It IS about Baldur's Gate in a roundabout way, if it's the only RPG you ever play :-P

 

I wouldn't call it escapism. I'd call it "reality avoidance". At least that way it makes it sound like a disease rather than a habit.

 

Maybe escapism, but not the bad kind.

Yeah, we could all be doing something else, but really, is anything else this much fun while sitting down?

 

Way better than drugs... and sort of like them.

 

Absolutely - in the same way that reading and watching movies is.

 

"If you only look at what is, you may never attain what could be."

 

I'm not even sure I understand the terminology you're using. You use "escapism" in a way that is very nebulous and vague. I mean, is anything we do besides work and academics escapism? Reading books can be escapism. Watching TV can be escapism. Some people work out, exercise, go jogging or bicycling for "escape". I mean, is any downtime escapism? If it is then RPGing - or just about anything else you do for leisure - qualifies.

EDIT: Spelling

[ August 09, 2004, 20:08: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

 

I see what you mean completely, but reading books and watching telly are actions over which we have no control, so there is only such a level to which you can "Escape." In an RPG, the idea is to make as many things possible for the player as the game designers can, so these days, you can do virtually anything. It is escapism in the realest sense that I'm referring to, I mean like trying to live out your own life within a game because outside it's too boring by comparison.

 

Gah, Aldeth already said what I had in mind. Oh well here comes anyway.

What's sports on TV? What's alcohol? What's music? How about movies?

They're entertainment. Entertainment serves to detach ourselves from the stress caused by "life", as in things like work, studying or other such mind-draining stuff. Thus, entertainment in itself is escaping "reality". RPG's are just a form of that entertainment. Nothing more fancy than that, I'm afraid.

Sports and other forms of entertainment offer a simpler way out. For more aggressive individuals there might be things like basejump or similar. RPG's on the other hand require active thinking and imagination. Depending on the persons preferations to handle his stress, he might consider one better than the other. RPG's are in that way no more important or more powerful means to escape than anything else. Just different.

 

It's escapism, but isn't reading books escapism as well? And, seriously, would you condemn books for enabling people to escape reality for a moment? All diversion, from classical tragedies to modern computer games, is touched by escapism.

 

Who said I was condemning anything??? Hey, if RPGs are escapism, I'm an escapist!

Edit:- People really aren't getting what I meant by escapism. I understand that reading a book and watching the telly are also a form of escapism, but I mean the sort which is coupled with denial of the real world almost, people start to identify with the character they have created more than themselves and their friends, and so their TRUE life becomes hollow and meaningless and "Escaping" gradually becomes more and more necessary. (No? Just me then.....!?!)

 

Actually, we do get what you mean. It's you who're placing too much value on just RPG's.

As I said, RPG's are no more escaping from reality than any other means. They're just different. Preferred by people with different nature and personality than what most have.

Just as you believe that RPG's are more escapism than others because you actually play in a "world" outside your own as another character, some could say basejump was more escapism because you actually put your own life on the line just for that one experience.

The worth and "depth" of each means depends on the person you're asking. To some, RPG's can't do the job because they don't have the imagination to support the immersion that is needed. So to them RPG's are not any bit one of the most powerful and thorough means to escape reality, to them it's just some stupid child's game. Still, they may go hardcore on something else. Like alcohol, or TV-sports, which I on the otherhand consider immature and ridiculous. It's only a matter of the point of view. Yours isn't objective, obviously. Neither is mine. But it's good to see beyond your own way of viewing things.

 

I see, I never really looked at it that way, thanks! I have a friend who is an addicted gambler, and she was speaking to me this morning, saying that in its own way, even her fruit machines are escapism. I never realised that other activities could be so submersive.

 

We humans have an extreme innate need for all kinds of escapism for us to manage to deal with life. It ranges from everything to religion and drugs to pc games, books and movies. They all in one way or another takes us away from what is often a rather dull life in a pretty frightening world.