Bloom

A machinima loop captured inside the post-apocalyptic single-player computer game Fallout 3 made by the U.S. based company Bethesda Game Studios. Part of an investigation into why we play computer games and why we consider some things funnier than others, especially the bizarre and the violent.

Consider the drudgery of repetitive tasks that we see as necessary parts of life. It is interesting that the things we call contemporary entertainment are based on the same types of structures. Comparing work along a factory line with the endless quests for higher levels, better weapons or breathtaking plots are not always that farfetched. How many times would we not define the gameplay as tiring and repeatedly feel the pressure from all of those adventures that lies around the corner?

If comparing the experiences in computer games with the necessities (imagined and real) of a regular job, we indeed have some freedom of choice, considering using the games or not. However, what is it then that makes us use and reuse those experiences contained in prepacked stories when we, in some cases, see no end to the repetition? It may be so that for us so called civilized individuals (domesticated) that these games are, among others, the last line for receiving an intense adrenaline filled emotional release, a catharsis based on the thrill of swinging a virtual gun barrel with a happy trigger finger towards a monster on a frontier in somewhere, close to something.

That the ritualistic repetition indicates an inherent search for something deeper and more profound. It may interpreted as a healthy sign. That we humans have a natural drive for excitement and curiosity. Inevitable this will with time will lead us towards the stars and beyond.