Are video games the one form of media you couldn't live without?

[T-Pac | 8,066]

If you were limited to only having one form of media, would you choose video games?

On one hand - they can provide great narrative experiences, with well-composed music, all in an interactive format.
But on the other hand - you could argue that they don't do all of these things as well as dedicated media like films and albums.

Thoughts?

[G-type | 2,832]

It's the post-apocalypse. You have managed to scrounge together everything you need for ongoing survival. On one of your scavenging expeditions you find a still working laptop loaded with 2TB of your choice of either music, movies, or games... (you can't cherry pick, its a fairly general cross section of 20th and 21st century media from popular culture.)

Personally, I'd probably go with music.

[Richardhead | 2,925]

Film for me.

Seeing a movie in the theater is possibly my favorite thing ever. When I was laid off and got a nice severance package, I went to see at least 2 movies a day and had a nice dinner. 
I got caught up on all movies playing so I  started to see them in Spanish. Then I got a job and I don’t go to see them as often because of my schedule.

[ThePhleo | 2,276]

Video games for me.

I'm not gonna go post-apocalypic scenario. I'm just going with being an old man who already watched the best films, and listened to the best music of my era. I can't relate with Timothy Chalamet's grandson in theaters, or whatever kids are listening to in 2065...so I have no more real replay value with old content that I already watched and listened to.

But, as an old man, I can eternally play the same video game over and over and get enjoyment out of it.

Edited September 6 by ThePhleo

[nrslam | 486]

I'd hate to lose any of the big 4: books, music, film/tv, or games, but if I could only have one, it'd probably be books.  Games,as much as I love them, are probably last.  I lived the first third of my life quite happily with (almost) no video games and I'm sure I could do it again.

 

[RH | 5,237]

Uuuuumm... books?

[Hammerfestus | 4,108]

I’ll be fine.   Music or books is the correct answer.  

[Gloves | 12,284]

Yeah video games, easy. It's my most-consumed media by an enormous margin. 

[Rhuno | 163]

I think I'd say books. I already don't care for movies/tv so that's easy to toss out. Harder to choose between the rest, but I think books have the most to offer in terms of learning and self-improvement, so I'll take those.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,968]

The fact that I'm (currently) active in an online community for only one of these things tells me everything I need to know.

1.  Video games

2a. Movies

2b.  Music

4.  Books

Books are great.  I read 20-40 of them a year.  I started the book thread.  But I consider myself far more of a subject matter expert for games and movies.  I'm practically a beginner in the grand scheme of books.  That's all driven by the amount of passion for the medium,  and that says it all.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,968]

Can you image me starting a book debate series?  That'd go over well 

[RH | 5,237]

If it's just me that's limited, I dunno, maybe I'd go with video games.  I don't read a lot of books but I do listen to them.

If this is a global-scale thing, then I have too choose books.  We like to say that "the internet never forgets" but that's just not true.  Go back and try to find something you remember from the internet 20-25 years ago and, unless it was straight-text, you probably won't find it.

But books can last for hundreds, if not more than a thousand years, depending on what they are made of.

[TDIRunner | 2,922]

If television is a separate media from film, that would be the easiest to get rid of for me.  After that, it's a difficult choice, but it would probably come down to video games or music as my number 1.  

[sp1nz | 691]

Video games would be no brainer answer for me:

I love music, especially video game music and there is no limit to what video game music can be AND video games can contain any licensed artist music too, so some great licensed songs could be there when you play.

I love movies but after I've seen one I rarely want to rewatch it, even if it's the best thing ever I'm pretty fine not seeing it for 10, 20 years or more. Games can be very cinematic and cutscenes can be fun, flashy and compact - some games have movie license and contain scenes from said movie but naturally it's been a watered down experience. In the future though who knows how games integrate movies, what level of interaction could make a movie into a game in of itself etc.

As for written word, if we accept visual novels as games, then those have great or even surpassing works compared to books in terms of reading enjoyability imo, the high point of books is how you imagine things while reading, while visual novel is more character interaction driven affair with sprites, backgrounds, voice acting, sound effects and music but some have interesting game mechanics and tough choices too. VNs are so much more more light feeling and easier to start for me than a book. RPGs can have vast amounts of reading involved too and you can immerse yourself in the story. Heck there was some DS game with bunch of literature classics, so basically an app disguised as a game that contains a lot of books.

So in the end video games can encompass basically any medium within them, on a high level. They can even contain the exact pieces from another medium. Of course it's luck of the draw what kind of licenses, quantity and quality of content games will harness, so it can't often replace your favorite things in other mediums but I want the interaction and the skill expression that games provide over the other stuff.

[JamesRobot | 6,044]

Music hands down.  You can always listen to music while doing virtually anything else.  And I had my own boombox and tapes before I had any other form of physical media (kids books aside).  We definitely had some VHS but the "entertainment center" was obviously owned by the parental units.

[PII | 2,041]

Books...    place no limits on the imagination.

Less is more.

'Can almost say the same for music...

[Kguillemette | 1,630]

Music, hands down. I go through phases where I don't watch TV, movies, or play games some months at a time. I'm in a book binge right now for example. But I can't go without music. It's a constant for me.

[Floating Platforms | 821]

I'll have to go with movies. I didn't get too in-depth with cinema until late high school, but I quickly loved them so much that I eventually got a degree in cinema production (which I don't use at all), wrote reviews off and on for a couple decades (planning to launch another project again in the near future), and ran a movie review podcast with my wife for 3 years & 150+ episodes.

Despite that, I did strongly consider video games because that's what I spend most of my time doing. However, one of the reasons I'm going so hard on gaming is that I guess I'm considered middle aged (in my 40s) and I know that my physical ability to play is going to decrease as time goes on.  When my dexterity, reflexes, joints, etc start to fail me, I wouldn't want to be stuck with only video games that I can no longer enjoy.

As long as I have eyesight and hearing, movies will be there for me.

[Brickman | 4,215]

Tough question. Music I could easily drop, movies and books are a little harder.

Ultimately I think I would stick to video games because you can read visual novel games and you can get music making games and there are games like guitar hero that have the songs in them. Also some RPG's have some of my favourite music such as FE and Persona games.

There are some games that sort of feel like movies but fall well short, so I would probably miss movies a lot but it would be a small price to pay to keep video games.

[twiztor | 921]

On 9/6/2024 at 3:19 PM, JamesRobot said:

Music hands down.  You can always listen to music while doing virtually anything else.  And I had my own boombox and tapes before I had any other form of physical media (kids books aside).  

 

On 9/6/2024 at 3:41 PM, Kguillemette said:

Music, hands down. I go through phases where I don't watch TV, movies, or play games some months at a time.  But I can't go without music. It's a constant for me.

 same here. i have music playing virtually 24/7 and listen to a wide range of music. There's something for every mood, and new sounds to discover all the time. The fact that you can listen to music while doing any and everything else makes it WAY more essential to me.

i would rank the big four this way (most important to least):
Music
Movies/TV
(Comic) Books
Video Games

[Splain | 2,722]

The post-apocalyptic framing is really good. If I want to be entertained, then definitely video games. If I want knowledge, then obviously books. It's funny when I get shade for not reading Harry Potter or some other popular thing, like, just because someone made something, I have to consume it??

Video games are made to be fun, and they fail if they're not fun. Other media is very often made to convey info or inform the masses of stuff, even if it's worked into the story or whatever. Boooring!

[GPX | 1,415]

The answer is simply “YES” for me. It’s not deep a source of story telling like in books or TV/movies, nor is it the most aural or visual experience in media form. However, to me, it has unrivalled value for the fun experience as well as many layers of benefits from improving my mental and coordination skills, to improving my knowledge and opening my mind to general philosophical issues.    
I don’t think other forms of media comes close to the overall impact and the value of the experience.

[T-Pac | 8,066]

Interesting - I wasn't considering print-media when I posed the question, but books and comics still wouldn't make the cut for me.

I'd probably go with TV shows. Even though it's my least-consumed media format these days, it's arguably the most important to me - and often distills the entertainment of movies into a format that appeals to my "bite-sized" preferences.

If I could cheat a bit with my answer, though - I'd go with web-videos (like on YouTube). I'd have music videos for my music fix, game-reviews and playthroughs for my video game fix (albeit, without the interactivity), and even a handful of movies and shows thrown into the mix. Plus - I just love listening to people ramble about random stuff, and web videos are excellent for that haha.

[T-Pac]

[Pojosama | 7]

I would love to say games for the entertainment value, But music is probably my most used media type. 

[OptOut | 9,036]

YouTube would be number 1 for me, seeing as I consume it almost constantly both at work and at home. It is immensely useful to me, as a distraction from stress and something to keep me sane whilst I work at my computer. I find it almost endlessly entertaining and informative, there's always something for me to watch or listen to to suit different moods and times of day.

After that it would be Video Games for sure at number 2, although that would probably change if I could actually play games as often and for as long as I would like. If I could play games limitlessly, whenever I want, without the requirement to go to work (where obviously I am unable to play), then I would probably choose video games as number one.

Other than that, movies and TV are okay, and music is whatever, and books are yawn, so they don't really get much of a look in.