I've seen some people point at 1st and 3rd person shooters (especially online ones) and say "this is a violent and immoral depiction of violent fantasy and we shouldn't encourage it". And while I agree it is often violent and sometimes needlessly so, it isn't a fantasy. And not in the sense that people do go into conflicts with guns. No. Children play these games at school. You reading this will likely have played one of both of the physical games that modern shooters use as the basis for their gameplay.
Tag (and it's infinitely spelt alternatives) is a melee combat where some number of players are on an attacking team and the others are on an evasive team, often attempting to reach some kind of safe haven. When tagged, players tend to either swap sides or get reset back to a safe space for them to begin their assault anew. The game can end, but also can go on endlessly or until lunch ends.
Spotlight is a game often played asymmetrically with one player defending a location and all others attempting to use subterfuge or speed to reach that location. The defending player has some form of range that the other players don't, sometimes played in low or no light with the defending player using a literal spotlight to spot and call players to indicate they need to return to a starting position and begin anew or are out until the round ends.
These two games are essentially melee and ranged combat in FPS games.
We're not glorifying conflict, we're remaking and decorating playground games to try and give it the gravitas it had when we were five.
#game-design #jankademics #not-saying-fps-games-don't-get-used-to-propagandize-for-the-military #but-the-gameplay-is-very-much-play