The Newest Video Game Fantasy

A big part of the appeal of video games are the virtual fulfillment of fantasies and imaginings. Common ones are being someone who is really brave or strong, or being a legendary sports professional who wins a lot, or going really high speeds in cars or jets without concern of speeding penalties, or hanging out with attractive-looking people, sometimes girls who wear clothes that are sometimes not suited for their activity in the game (such as participating in a war or flying in space). One of the more recent ones has actually been out for a while- being someone who gets to participate in luxury that someone else paid for, like "the government" which people gripe about a lot and are the scapegoat these people use to make themselves look good. Again, this is not new, it started in the 1990s, and was even found in a lot of SNES and N64 games. Some good examples are Pilot Wings 64, Wii Sports Resort, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the Star Fox series, and the Mario Kart series. Again, those are some examples.

Factors like over consumption and pollution are virtually nonexistent. There seems to be unlimited supplies, fuel, and for that matter, money. I know that cubes that mysteriously make items appear in your hands and fans and bats that teleport into stages- which are suspended in midair by massive jets on the bottom are common parts of game logic that gamers just accept, but it seems that all the money spent on bananas, bumpers, balloons, and floating intangible rings could have been used to rule the universe- or at least a solar system or a planet. Someone is paying lots of money just so Nintendo characters can mess around and hit each other. And part of the appeal to this particular fantasy is not knowing- or caring- who it is. I am not saying that you are a supporter of wasteful spending if you play a game that has these elements a lot, I am just making a point that many people desire to live in luxury at the expense of others, and become resentful when other people get those benefits. That is a theory I have about a part of the appeal of video games.