Video games are a unique form of entertainment. As opposed to movies and songs, video games provide the consumer with control over the events that take place. This gives a new experience for people that want to pass the time. The question is, “Can this unique experience be used to provide change in society?” Movies and songs have been used to send messages since early human history. Propaganda is one example for movies. Edwin Starr sang “War (What is it good for?)” which opposes acts of war between nations. There are much more examples for movies and songs, but it’s difficult to find examples for video games. Why is that?

I believe that video games are not that effective when used to cause social change. There are multiple reasons for this. Since video games provide the user with control over the game, the guidance to teach a lesson or show morals is limited. The user is more focused on having fun or passing the time. People expect more from movies or music to experience something new. Video games are seen as a pass-time, not an experience. That is why games like Call of Duty are extremely popular, as opposed to smaller games like “Journey.” They give a fun experience over a meaningful one. There is nothing wrong with this, since video games provide other positive things, such as new friends and quick-time thinking. But, this has caused people to turn their brains off when playing video games. Game companies see this and choose to focus on game mechanics over story and message.

The new Battlefield game has completely removed the story-mode from their game, since they know that people will only use multiplayer for the entirety of their gameplay. The culture for video games has shifted extremely towards a certain direction, due to what the people want. Some games have tried to give a deep message that have succeeded, somewhat. For example, “Spec-Ops: The Line” gives a cruel and horrifying view of wars and it’s effect on civilians and soldiers. The player’s character suffers from PTSD and deals with death and horror. There is a horrifying part in the game where you are made to believe that you are killing enemies, only to find out that they were innocent families instead. This gives a new look at war games which caused a big stir in the news. But, this only lasted for a second, since players focused more on gameplay. They were more focused on getting kills, instead of who they killed. This is expected, since people don’t take games seriously. It’s the unfortunate truth.

I recently played the game “Bad News”, which gives the user an inside look on how fake news is spread and used to gain fame. The purpose of the game is to show the negative effects of this and teach the user on how to avoid it. But, in all honesty, I enjoyed the game more because I got to play a bad guy. I know I’m one person, but I always try to understand the meaning of art. When I played this game, I got carried away and enjoyed fooling people. The game wasn’t that effective in it’s message, since the game was more fun than it intended to be.

In conclusion, video games are not an effective tool for social change…at the moment. The culture for games is fast-paced, just like everything else at the moment. When things slow down, a video game will come out with a fantastic story and message that’ll give people something to thing about. But, now is not that time.