Escapism and Gaming

by Hawke Robinson — published Jun 20, 2015 05:05 PM, last modified Feb 05, 2023 12:22 PM

The arguments about "Escapism" often recur, and I recently saw someone posting about it again. This topic is addressed in the presentations at Washington State and Pacific Northwest American Therapeutic Recreation Association Conferences, so here is a snippet on the topic...

" At the risk of oversimplification, one could argue there are actually two forms of escapism: self-suppression and self-expansion. Self-suppression as running away from unpleasant thoughts, perceptions and emotions; self-expansion is actively seeking new skills, stronger relationships and positive experiences. According to Jane McGonigal, the difference between these two is comparable to the difference between saying, 'Everything sucks, so I'm going to go play games,' versus "Life is better when I have time to play games." - Washington State Therapeutic Recreation Association, by W.A. Hawkes-Robinson President of RPG Therapeutic LLC, and Founder of The RPG Research Project Community Website http://www.rpgresearch.com

You can view the entire presentation file here: wstra-2016-rpg-research-presentation-20160329zzf3.pdf

The videos from the variants of the presentation (shorter versions can be viewed here:

Texas State University / Living Game Pre-Conference 2016 (14 minutes): TSU / LG Short & Fast Video
Eastern Washington University / Washington State Therapeutic Recreation Association 17th Annual Conference (90 minutes): WSTRA-17 Video (pending upload).
Pacific Northwest American Therapeutic Recreation Association Conference (90 minutes, audio only): PNWATRA 2016 Audio (pending).
Seattle Children's Hospital / WSTRA 16 (90 minutes): WSTRA 16 Video.