The Power of Representation

"This is part of the reason why so many people love video games.  Many video games offer users a set of choices that closely model the many choices we face in direct, real-world experience.  The immersion we experience when "it feels so real" is captivating and pleasurable because it closely approximates lived experience."

What's really cool about many video games now is that you can customize your character or choose which character you want to play, which gives people a lot more freedom to represent themselves.  One thing that is loved about Bioware games are their character creators.  There is so much freedom within the newer games to design your character as you want, even down to facial structure.  It's all pretty cool, and the most recent games have a character creator that can make such realistic characters.

As for the actual experiences from playing games, some are not so real, and don't have real-life problems, but sometimes the puzzles and problem-solving skills involved in these things is what makes it feel more real.  Other games, however, can have an appeal because they do create real-world situations and experiences.  Games can be powerful, not only for our leisure time, but also for use in teaching skills or lessons we need to.