Video Games are not to be looked down upon
What is gaming? For some it is a community, for some it is an artform and for others an escape from reality. It can be many different things depending on who you ask, but what is gaming to you?
The gaming industry has turned into one of the most important and quickest evolving sectors in tech. It is no longer as simple as rapidly clicking buttons or solving the next level on the popular puzzle game. Gaming has turned into so much more:
- A professional environment for the best players to perfect their craft
- An entertainment industry that brings millions of viewers from all corners of the earth
- A community where you connect and bond with people across the world
By sharing what gaming is to me, I hope to shed some light on this fantastic virtual world of enjoyment.
The game & how it inspires the player
With millions of titles to pick from, it’s hard to describe all games in general. Instead I’ll pick the game which had the most impact on me personally; League of Legends.
So what is League of Legends? It is a virtual game played on a game board referred to as the “Summoners Rift”.
On this board you play as two teams of five, all with one unique character. The goal is simply for your team to get from one side of the map to the other before the other team. I like to compare it to a game of chess. But instead of a player controlling multiple pieces, every piece is individually controlled by one player.
So what is the big deal here? It sounds quite boring at first glance and I wouldn’t exactly call it an evolutionary form of art. Yet, what hooked me on this game in particular was its extremely complex design.
To give an example; every character in the game has 5 unique abilities and there are currently 154 playable characters in the game. If we once again compare it to chess, it would be like every chess piece could move in five unique ways and instead of there being 6 different pieces, there are 154.
You quickly realize that you have to memorize 770 unique abilities, only to understand the playable characters. And we haven’t even started talking about how you actually play the game. The key point here is that the game actively inspires its players to learn and develop their skills and competences in order to improve. You can’t simply start playing expecting to understand anything, it is a journey of research and growth, and that journey takes time.
I hear it all the time; “I don’t understand anything about game X”, and that is a natural part of gaming. It takes time to learn a game from scratch and it can be a big hurdle to overcome, regardless of past experiences. But it is that challenge that motivates and pushes players forwards, just like it would in any other sport.
Gaming as an artform
Games are not only the playable product. It’s a fully virtual universe, a world that expands much further than what you can experience in the game.
League of Legends has like earlier mentioned, 154 playable characters. But who are these characters? What are they like? How do they sound? How do they move? There is so much to discover beyond the game itself and that fact has given birth to the artistic side of the product. Below I will share some of the pieces that dive into the League of Legends universe and the community that surrounds it.
This is the ultimate form of engaging storytelling, using the digital space to its fullest potential. These surrounding products are all building pieces that make the game as immersive in nature as humanly possible. It is a combination of sound, art and plot packed up into the medium that we call “gaming”.
In the near future we’ll be seeing the release of Arcane. An animated television series which will explore some of the more serious themes that the League of Legends universe has to offer, giving the fans an even deeper look into the origin stories of several characters from the game.
Looking at the full universe instead of the playable product gives us as consumers an artistic awareness, opening us up to the possibilities that this medium provides.
“A video game isn’t just a game — it is a controlled passage through an overwhelming aesthetic experience.”
— KYLE CHAYKA
Gaming as a sport & entertainment
You might have heard the name esport (electronic sports) before. It is the term used for all organized professional gaming. In League of Legends, it would refer to the organized leagues and tournaments held all across the world. It is the place where viewers can watch the best players in the world battle it out and witness the extreme skills and mastery that the professional players possess.
The biggest event of the year in League of Legends is called the “World Championship” and is one of the most prestigious gaming tournaments in the world. The tournament rotates its venues across different regions each year, allowing each county to display their unique culture whilst putting on a fantastic show for the world to enjoy.
It has become a ceremonial event for the community and displays not only the best players, but also the fantastic universe that we’ve grown to love. In 2018, the final was watched by 99.6 million people, a number even bigger than the number of players that year. “Worlds” is an event that brings all gamers together to celebrate what we’ve built up over the last decade.
Ending words
The gaming industry is not only vying for the attention of a market that plays video games. It has grown to the point where it can and will compete with all the other digital entertainment products. Every chapter in the gaming evolution blows the previous out of the water and it is not showing any signs of stopping anytime soon. It is not “just a game” anymore, and neglecting that fact will leave one in a state of ignorance, uninformed and fully in the dark about what gaming is in the year 2021.
