the other game theory (Hero worship & gaming)

I once saw the God atlas, I was a dragon slayer, I saved a couple of princesses and I was able to rescue the president of the free world. Once I start my gaming counsel I am able to fight demons, conquer land, save nations and fight for freedom as a future soldier with an amazing suit.

 However other than the effects of visual stimulus, great story plots and ancient art of storytelling can we relate the gaming industry to a concept like hero-worship?

In general the concept of hero worship is the excessive admiration of someone, yet in this article I am looking at the excessive admiration of the idea of a hero not specific person or a specific hero.

Before answering this question it would make sense to look at the society in general. Is there symptoms of hero worship and if yes then how gaming satisfies such a need?

 There are about 670,000,000 results that come up when the word hero is googled, there is a television show on TNT network called hero, and CNN has a yearly award show called CNN Heroes where ordinary people are changing the world. Even fox news once had a headline out of the state of Maine where a man tried to plot a kidnapping where he would then go in and save the girl.

Thomas Carlyle the author of a book titled (Heroes) argues that there is a structural need of heroes in every society he wrote “Society is founded on Hero-worship. All dignities of rank, on which human association rests, are what we may call a Heroarchy (Government of Heroes)”.

He even argues that there is an innate desire for being a hero

“Does not every true man feel that he is himself made higher by doing reverence to what is really above him?” he asks.

I can see the answer to this question in Carl Jung writings as well he theorized that embedded deep within the human collective unconscious are universal archetypes, powerful symbols that all humans share in common.

Jung thought that these archetypes come to us primarily in our dreams and are represented in folktales, art, and epic poems and stories (not to mention TV shows about humans with special abilities). Among these archetypes is “the Hero.”

If the concept of hero worship is innate, embedded  or at least a huge market demand based on a society need how does gaming stand out from other forms or entertainment  that fulfills the same need?

There is the factor of overwhelming diversity of heroes’ shapes and forms in gaming; yes one can argue that movies, novels and TV-shows have very diverse categories of heroes.

Yet in games you can be an Italian plumber that saves the prince’s s from a jumping “not flying “dragon called Mario, in a game titled “Dead Space “ the hero is an astronaut who found himself  in a dead space filled hostile aliens , another game “Halo” the hero is a futuristic solder with advanced weapons that fight for a cause, in “Red Faction” your part of a movement on mars that aims to save humans. There is a verity of worlds, Ecology, heroes and missions.

Yet the one factor that makes games and the gaming world stand out from any other attempt towards heroes and hero worship is self –actualization. According to Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs self actualization is the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for him [the individual] to become actualized in what he is potentially.

In other words in games the gamers are the heroes. Other than the obvious mention that the gamer gets to be the character that is being played weather it’s a role-play game or any other form of gaming.

In the game “Def Jam: Fight for NY” the gamer get to be a celebrity hip-hop artist fighting rivals or better off you can create the character , most of the sports game the gamer gets to be  his hero create his path and engineer his sporting career.

In games like civilization, red alert and strong hold the gamer gets to even create the world in which his characters, teams or army will play in.

The industry took evolutionary steps in terms of self-actualization for gamers when it comes to the counsels and playing mediums from the industry veterans like saga and Nintendo till now.

From just playing the game through a monitor and controlling the character through joystick or a keyboard X-box now scans the gamer so he can have a direct experience with the game further more ps4 PlayStation Flow combines PS4 gaming with real-life swimming.
When the gamer gets to an underwater section of a game like “The Last of Us Remastered” the gamer can pause then resume at the nearest pool, dive in and resume playing through PlayStation Flow. With underwater environments in games becoming more and more realistic, PlayStation Flow provides a natural enhancement to player experience.

The system consists of four PlayStation Flow Sensors, constructed using the latest composite fabrics. They attach comfortably to your biceps and thighs and track your swimming, sending real-time updates of body movements back to your PS4 via Remote Play.

Another example is NAOS QG is the first mouse that provides deep insights into gaming. Via built in sensors, the NAOS QG tracks the gamer heart rate, galvanic skin response and actions per minute. This data appears as a transparent overlay on the screen putting the gamer in the heart of the action.

The KOR-FX gaming vest uses award-winning 4DFX technology that transforms the acousto-haptic signals (audio) coming from games or media into pinpointed high-definition feedback that allows the gamer to feel the on-screen action and environmental factors for the first time.

if society needs a hero , if the idea of a hero is embedded and innate in our human nature the gaming world doesn’t just answer the hero call.

In games you are the hero and you have many lives.

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