What "escapism" really means?

[Mallus]

I'm not really into RPGs for escapism either.

I know 'escapism' has a really negative connotation, but is that really right?

I think of a nice game of chess as 'escapist', seeing as I don't live or work on a chessboard. Any recreational activity/play that isn't directly survival-related is by nature 'escapist'. Whether you lose yourself for a few hours in violent elf-fantasies or in baseball statistics, you're still losing yourself; detaching from the responsibilities/concerns of your actual environment environment...

'Escapism' != 'obsessive escapism'. Except in the case of Sid Meier's "Civilization" series...

 

[Desdichado]

I'm not equating escapism with obsessive escapism, but I'm also not broadening the definition to be "anything not directly related to my survival."

I'm equating escapism to "blowing off steam" or "just getting away from it for a while" or what-have-you.

There have been times when gaming served as an escapism outlet for me, but my main interest in fantasy gaming isn't, and never has been, escapism for its own sake.

 

[Turanil]

Okay, thanks to all. After reading your posts, I formed a rather subjective idea of what "escapism" means.

So I will say:

Non Escapist RPGs: You meet to play and have fun with friends. It's a pleasant social activity. However, besides playing your life is plentiful and fulfilling. You could well live without RPGs at all, as there is so many equally interesting things to do.

Escapist RPGs: Your life is crap: dull job, small pay, no girlfriend. How could you have a girlfriend at 290 pounds anyway. There is nothing for you in this life... but there is RPGs. Here you are a bodybulded hero, there is plenty of action and fun; excitement! You spend all your time at your boring job thinking about your character and now that his next level he will be able to... And there is also this pic of nude succubus that you... Hum, well.

I think that probably most of us are somewhere between these two extremes. And of course the word "escapism" is the great word to use when one wants to justify his despising someone for reason that person is playing rpgs.

 

[TerraDave]

What escapism means to me

can someone tell me what it is supposed to mean exactly.

It means posting for posting sake because you are so bored at work...

It is funny what leisure activities are considered "worthy" of being ends in and of themselves, and which are un-worthy escapism. Fly fishing, gardening, hunting (in some circles), anything sports related, going on vacation, taking an art apreciation class...these are ok, no matter how eleborate or time consuming. And the things most worthy of being called escapist (if anything is)--TV, popular movies, most "partying" (or whatever the kids are calling it these days)--are so widely accepted that nobody calls them out as being escapist.

I guess the issue is supposed to be why you are doing it. Play D&D to spend time with your kids, good, play to get away from your kids, bad...But the irony is this: if playing D&D is an end and of itself, part of your life and not an alternate to it, then you will be more into it, and it will be more effective in diverting you from the kids, the job, whatever.

 

[maddman75]

Non-Escapist here. I play as a social activity with friends. Sometimes we play board games or computer games instead, or just hang out. Another on our list of fun things to do.

 

[jokamachi]

It means posting for posting sake because you are so bored at work...

It is funny what leisure activities are considered "worthy" of being ends in and of themselves, and which are un-worthy escapism. Fly fishing, gardening, hunting (in some circles), anything sports related, going on vacation, taking an art apreciation class...these are ok, no matter how eleborate or time consuming. And the things most worthy of being called escapist (if anything is)--TV, popular movies, most "partying" (or whatever the kids are calling it these days)--are so widely accepted that nobody calls them out as being escapist.

I guess the issue is supposed to be why you are doing it. Play D&D to spend time with your kids, good, play to get away from your kids, bad...But the irony is this: if playing D&D is an end and of itself, part of your life and not an alternate to it, then you will be more into it, and it will be more effective in diverting you from the kids, the job, whatever.

Good points, though I think the tricky part lies in determining one's motivations for such "diversions." Some people who play three times a week would not consider themselves hardcore gamers, and yet you could easily find someone who plays a few times a month who would say that he plays quite a bit. There are some who have little free time and play regularly, while others with planty of time might play on occasion, and so on. In other words, I'd have to know a lot about someone and their commitments before I were in a position to make such a call. But even then, I wouldn't ever know enough to really say if that person were pursuing an escapist lifestyle, and even if I did, I think it would be useless to point it out. Only the person in question can truly make that determination. In time, the evidence usually manifests in failed relationships, jobs, or responsibilities, but even with all that piling up before him there might still exist a degree of denial on the part of the gamer. I've witnessed both hardcore escapist gaming and the ravages of alcoholism, and I can't help but compare the two. The escape (some might say the "beloved") takes precedence over all else, so it's not likely to be acknowledged until the bitter end.

 

[randomling]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say there's nothing wrong with playing RPGs for a little healthy escapism. Everybody's life has parts that suck, and it's perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned to enjoy playing somebody else leading a different life for the very reason that they are somebody else, leading a different life.

Note the word "healthy", though. RPGs can get a lot more intense than, say, reading a book or watching a movie, and that's all OK as long as you leave your escapism at the gaming table, in the DVD player or between the covers of your Tolkien. The problems come when you do it too much, or take it too seriously, or let it get control.

I don't think escaping necessarily means that the activity is "an alternate to your life" - it's an activity that lets you get away from it for a few hours at most. I enjoy the escapism of RPGs a lot. Among other fun and benefits that it gives me. It's one of my leisure activities, one of my creative activities, one of my social activities.

Um, that wasn't meant to be a rant - just wanted to point out that, to me, escapism is not de facto bad.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't know if that's against the grain; I don't know if anyone's said that escapism is bad on this thread. Obsessive escapism is, but that's a different kettle o'fish.

On occasion, I've seen people on these boards say that escapism is a primary reason why they play in the first place, though (even though they're not obssessive escapists) and that's just not me. I play to escape on occasion, or at least enjoy the escapist nature of gaming, but that's not a primary motivator for me to game in the first place. My interest in not in escapism.

Oddly enough, I just read Tom Shippey's J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and he makes some similar points about Lord of the Rings and it being far from an escapist novel. Rather, it confronts and tackles head-on issues that are difficult to face directly in the real world, but no less pertinent or topical nonetheless. He makes a good point that it's the opposite of escapism, in many ways.

My own gaming experience is similar. I'm not a fan of simple adventure stories; go kill some orcs and take their stuff, etc. I like games that have more depth than that; which actually confront moral quandries and the like.

That's not escapism at all. It's the opposite of escapism. That's bringing real world problems into your fantasy and looking at it from a different light to better understand it. And hopefully that doesn't sound pretentious; it's all still done for fun and all that, but that's what's fun to me, not going in some hole, killing some monsters and taking their stuff.

 

[randomling]

Funny enough, that's almost exactly what I like to do best in RPGs. I tend to find stories without any real-world meaning to be pretty boring, and that applies as much in games as it does when I'm playing audience to a book or movie. Games with depth, moral quandaries of one kind or another - that's all a big part of the fun! I'd never thought of it as not-escapism, though.

 

[TerraDave]

Funny enough, that's almost exactly what I like to do best in RPGs. I tend to find stories without any real-world meaning to be pretty boring, and that applies as much in games as it does when I'm playing audience to a book or movie. Games with depth, moral quandaries of one kind or another - that's all a big part of the fun! I'd never thought of it as not-escapism, though.

from this line of reasoning I may be an escapist...though lite gaming can get a little old after a while

If the idea is that I play because my life sucks, then I am not an escapist, having had some of the best gaming when I was happiest overall

maybe the real issue/problem is being obsesive, or at least that is the word my wife always uses