The Heart of Gaming Is the Power Fantasy is an essay on the nature of gaming. I have played computer games since I was a kid, but I have to admit I have never reflected much on what it is that makes games appealing to play… that is, what makes them fun or not-fun. The essay makes a really good argument:
In almost every game, what are you doing? You are making changes in your environment. You are giving gifts in a dating sim. Designing roadways in Sim City. Shooting bad guys in, well, just about everything else.
When you change your environment, you are exercising Power.
You are doing this inside a game, a space that does not exist. Every video game takes place in a mental construct that is imagined. In other words, all video games take place in Fantasy. (In the dictionary sense, not the “casting fireball at an orc” sense.) Yet, in your brain, the Power FEELS real, and that is what counts.
Video games are about using power to make changes in a fantasy space, for pleasure. They are power fantasies.
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There is nothing shameful about Power Fantasies. If you think there is, consider instead that the problem is a world that systematically makes us feel small, meaningless, and helpless.
I found it very insightful and thought-provoking and highly recommend you go read it!