I do not understand "gaming." At all. And I don't care.
Perhaps that's how they--the obsessive gamers--feel about literature, sitting in the back of the classroom daydreaming about the gaming they are missing out on while they're stuck in class.
1 comment:
That's probably true. Although I'm not a "gamer", I do enjoy playing video games and computer games on occasion (such as Lego Star Wars on Nintendo DS, Zoo Tycoon on the computer, Mario Kart or any Super Mario game on any game system [we have the Wii], Angry Birds on the kids' iPod touches or my aunt's iPad). And I think I understand the whole "gaming" thing a bit.
For those of us who enjoy literature, part of the reason we enjoy it is because it transports us to other places, other times, other "realities". Reading can be a a way of escape, sometimes like movies or TV can. While reading, we often become part of that piece of literature's reality.
In gaming, I think it's much the same. However, instead of simply being a part of an "alternate reality", so to speak, gamers can control parts of that reality and often interact with others who are doing the same.
As I see it, the major differences are that 1.) readers cannot change the outcome of a piece of literature (unless you include the "choose your own ending" type books, which are still fairly limited), but a gamer can often change the outcome of a game, and 2.) Pieces of literature do not change; the events stay the same. In gaming, the gamer controls a number of the events.
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