Do Games Count?

Do games count? Yes

To be studied critically and scholarly? I'm on the fence.

Let me explain.


I grew up with two brothers and even before their balls dropped and their voices changed we had video games in every room. They had gameboys of every kind and an Atari. We eventually were given a PS2 which then was traded for a PS3, and now we own a PS4 as well. Gaming is important to my brothers and as a child I grew up around them yelling and cursing at the screen or even at each other. I always looked at video games with disgust because I had always believed that they always revolved around killing someone. They played games for hours.

And now that I look back at the games they played I can see that the world of gaming has become much more oriented around killing other people. For some reason I have this terrible memory of my brothers playing some kind of "Pokemon" game, or a "Tomb Raider" game. Neither of which are terribly gory. So why did I always think that they were killing people?

Terrible Graphics, good story. 

I think it was the yelling. Yes it was this. The immersion.
They became so connected to the game that they physically became angry when they lost and would throw things, or they would fight over cheating. I guess I never bothered to look at the games that they played or I would have been confused at seeing a big chested lady in small clothing fighting mummies or a small yellow mouse cat throwing electricity at other small cute creatures.
Nonetheless, I have a hard time believing video games should be studied scholarly. Only because of that memory do I feel conflicted. But throughout this strange adventure of learning about the Digital Humanities I look at the question "do games count?" and find myself in the middle. Somewhere I did not expect to find myself. When I think about the one and only video game that I had played and completed to the end, with my new knowledge of DH, I see how this game could be counted as interactive fiction which would merit it worthy of being studied scholarly and/or critically.

Favorite Game of all time!

It seems strange to think about "Kingdom Hearts" being a piece of electronic literature, even interactive fiction, but with the views of DH how can I not see it that way?

The game revolves around a kid named Sora. He has a few friends named Kairi and Riku. Riku and Sora both love Kairi and one day darkness swallows up their world. Kairi vanishes and Riku, yes you called it, becomes evil. Sora ends up going on this quest to save all of the other worlds, which happen

So many overlapping characters from other disney games. Magnificent.

to be inhabited by all of your favorite disney characters, with Donald Duck and Goofy. Sora wields the Keyblade and it turns out that all of the bad guys from the disney movies are in this together. Play the game to figure out what happens in the end.

My point, I guess after all of my pointless babbling, is that I suppose games do count. Considering the amount of work that is put into creating them matches the amount of work put into movies and maybe even literature, games should be studied the same way the others are. In the end it is another form of entertainment right? So why are they not treated with the same respect?

Games do count.

I just changed my own mind (blown).