In the article From the Green Berets to America's army: video games as a vehicle for political propaganda, Aaron Delwiche discusses video games influencing those who play them. He identifies and describes “the four traits of video games that might function as mechanisms for influencing attitudes”, and these four traits are described as “the four I’s” (Delwiche 92).
The first one, immersion, has to do with the game engaging and dominating the senses of the user. The user is forced to utilize his or her senses while playing the game and as a result, engages heavily in the game. The user can’t just mindlessly play it as if he or she were watching a boring television show. He or she has to be apart of it.
This brings us to the second one, intense engagement, where the user’s “flow state”, a term characterized as his or her “focused concentration”, “time distortion”, or “sense of control” over actions, are induced because the game offers “clear objectives, precise feedback, immersive audiovisual material, and content that is dynamically adapted to reflect the user choices” (Delwiche 96). The user is playing a game that creates a world he or she is mentally affected by due to how intelligent it is.
The third trait is identification where the user identifies “bodily” with the game personas and “psychologically” with the “narrative arc” created by the character’s choices (Delwiche 97). The user takes the identity of the fictional game character, putting him or herself into the game.
Last but not least, there is interactivity which has to do with the user making decisions and the game’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) responding with an outcome. The AI of the game displays the outcomes of the user’s decisions very realistically, allowing him or her to believe they are contributing to a huge alternate world.
A game that utilizes these traits that pull the user in would be Grand Theft Auto V where the user can take on a character and play missions involving criminal activity. This game, unlike many of its predecessors, is incredibly realistic in terms of setting and has an AI that returns incredibly accurate outcomes. For instance, if one were to point a gun at any civilian, such civilian would run away instantly. When I played this game and tried to steal an ambulance, I was beaten up by the medics until I pulled a gun out. This is an excellent example of interactivity.
Identification is also involved when the user takes on the personality of the character and has direct influence on what that character does as well as what happens story-wise as a result of the decisions made on behalf of that character. When I played as the character Michael and killed someone in an area of witnesses, the witnesses ran and the police, notified by some civilian, went after my character.
The game also forces its users to engage intensely by requiring a lot of necessary moves for every significant course of action. When I had to chase and attack the tennis instructor having an affair with my character’s wife, I was forced to be heavily focused as if I was actually doing so in real life because I was so immersed into the game by the task, for I knew that if I was passive in my pursuit, I would have gone the wrong direction and lost my target. Delwiche's concepts show and my experience with Grand Theft Auto V truly show how much video games drag in and engage their users, for the four concepts by Delwiche and their power are clearly present in games like the one I played. This game did not change my personality in reality, but should it be in the hands of someone easily manipulated by fantasy, it could be dangerous. Therefore, this game should only be played by people of mature ages.
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