I think one of the most important aspects of video games, and one that’s somewhat under discussed is that they can place you into a context that few other forms of entertainment can. And in particular, they can, they can, if you like, again, the driving analogy. They can put you in the driving seat of a different world view that you’re not necessarily familiar with, but it’s therefore all about the actual world of the view, not the character, for example. So a good example is the game Dysphoria, where uh, you play Anna Anthropy’s life. And Anna Anthropy is a transgender woman who has had to deal with a lot of different issues as part of, you know, going, becoming a transgender woman. And in this game context, rather than sort of telling you about her problems, or rather than sort of beating you over the head with, uh, with, you know, you must understand my situation type of thing, she very, very beautifully just kind of puts you in the situation and leaves you in a gamelike context to solve the problems of her existence.So whether it’s avoiding catcalls, or whether it’s trying to pay for health insurance, or whether it’s shaving, or, like all of these kind of little micro-parts of her day, but within a game context, it’s so much more powerfully rendered than uh, if you just sort of read about it. You, ‘cause you’re not the one actively sort of doing it. So, that’s her world. It’s not actually about the avatar, if you like, within the game that you’re moving around - it’s about the space that you’re moving through, and about what it’s doing and saying, and kind of um, pointing you toward, and leading you to conclude, and all of those kinds of things.
