"Yes, videogames are toys. So what?"

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GamesRadar editor can't see what all the fuss is about

HIDEAWAY
Life can be a scary thing. If it's not Hamas on the news it's cancer scares in the papers or climate change campaigns on the web. The generation - I'd say my generation - that Muir talks of as first becoming addicted to Pac-Man or Super Mario are now adults in an increasingly overwhelming world, overrun with seemingly insurmountable problems out of their control.

Sometimes, it feels like the best thing for us to do might be finding a dark corner and curling up into a ball with our eyes squeezed shut. We are uncomfortable in the real world. Is there anything wrong with a little escapism?

Videogames take us to worlds where, generally, everything is in black and white and, crucially, we have control. Catastrophes can be averted with a single squeeze of the trigger, epic troubles overcome with nothing more than a press of a button.

Christ, if we didn't have some way to escape the neverending drudgery of the real world, we'd all go stark staring mad. But you'd have to be a real cretin to argue that slumping deadeyed in front of shows like Big Brother or Dancing With The Stars is somehow a 'better' or more adult way of spending an evening than firing up Shadow of the Colossus, or enjoying a few hours of Half-Life 2.

Ben_Richardson

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.