From getting lost in Shadow of the Colossus to finding our way in Journey, games underline the importance of the spaces in which we play. Other games let us experience our connection to the environment by adventuring in it. Then there are games of dire warning that let us step into a future where humanity is all but disconnected from the wider environment and hangs on just by a thread. One family told us about Final Fantasy 7 Remake's commentary on corporations and ecology. Other games, like The Wandering Village underline how our location in the world impacts on us and others. Or it can be how a game like Eco establishes the connection between your actions and the other aspects of the environment. This might be how a game like Terra Nil makes the land itself a character in the experience. As she quotes, “games of environmental responsibility animate our capacity to respond, to affect and be affected, to engage with others: other species, other people, and the otherness of our own planet.” They offer a chance to consider play from an ecological perspective. The games in this list take inspiration from Alenda Chang’s Playing Nature book. These games encourage players to consider the impact of their actions on the environment, as well as their interconnectedness to the world in which they live. There are, however, many games that offer quite the reverse. It’s easy to assume that video games are all about building big cities or running successful economies.
In video games, we step into other bodies so we can better understand our own and those of the people around us. In travel, as Andrew Soloman says, we go somewhere else to see properly the place where we have come from. More specifically, to use body therapy language, games offer us a chance to discover the inviolability of our bodies, personal autonomy, self-ownership, and self-determination. Whether this is into the awkward teenage years of Mord and Ben in Wide Ocean Big Jacket, the grandparent-escaping Tiger and Bee in Kissy Kissy, the fractured heartbroken body in Gris or the haphazard movement of Octodad we have a chance to reassess our own physicality and how we respond to and treat other people's physicality. Stepping into the shoes of a vulnerable, small or endangered character can help us understand for a short while some of what it is like to be someone else. This is not only an enjoyable way to escape the reality of daily life but a chance to reflect on and understand ourselves, and our bodies, better. Whether we step into the powerful frame of a trained marksman or brave adventurer, while we play we have a different sense of our physicality. Video games offer an opportunity to inhabit another body. Games like Watchdogs 3, Red Dead Redemption, Sea of Thieves and Fallout.
There are other games where you create your own character and it enables you to choose someone who looks older. There are other games where the character has a mythic quality that disguises old game, like Geralt in Witcher 3 or Kratos in God of War. This includes games where an older character has a heroic role, like Joel in The Last of Us or Corvo Attano from Dishonored 2. Either way, these games offer a chance to step into the shoes of a senior character. This may be because of the stage of life they are at, or because of a role they play in the game's narrative.
There are some games that specifically star older characters as the main protagonist. It's therefore, no surprise that games are made to appeal to a wide range of ages and address topics that are important at different stages of life. The average age of a video game player is late 30's and 31% of 45-64-year-olds in Europe play games regularly.
These days though, people of all ages play games. Video games are often considered to be a young person's pastime.
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