Tom Bissell Argumentative Essay

Video games have become a hot topic recently. There have been a lot of controversy over whether to play or not to play. The controversy is due to them being arguably more captivating than all other forms of entertainment. Video games narrate an epic tale like no other form of entertainment can. You can become immersed in video games, because of this they are both a highly entertaining escape from the real world and a complete waste of time.

Tom Bissell, whom is the author of the article Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter starts off his article uniquely by creating a theoretical situation in which he is telling his future children that he missed the 2008 presidential inauguration, because he was playing video games. He talks about Fall Out 3, Oblivion and other games he calls, open world games, which are games with no designated path with the possibilities being almost limitless. Bissell explains how attractive the graphics are along with how interested in the story you can become. He admits how much time he has spent playing and how irritated the games make him at times. Bissell doesn’t clarify anywhere that he believes video games are good or bad for anyone, he just shares his experience with video games for others to think about or relate to.

Video games are highly entertaining with incredible graphics along entertaining stories. The

graphics in video games are a virtual world set in another time. The breathtaking landscapes rival the real world as well as regular viewer entertainment, where the grass is not as green and, the water is not as clear. The entertaining stories rival real world experiences or even books. The stories are filled to the brim with adventure that are not experienced by everyone or can’t be experienced at all in reality. In the video game, you live another life with new possibilities, just as Bissell states “for a while I lived there and claimed it”. These games give the gamer a sense of accomplishment generating satisfaction that is not achieved in reality (352). Video games can become so intense that they affect you, making your mood better or worse. The author, who suffers from depression, says it was something “I could fill my days with other than my piranhic self-hatred. It was an extra life, I am grateful to have had it”, many others with depression most likely feel the same as he does. (Bissell, 352). No other form of entertainment can be considered another life, showing another world, including a whole other life, that is crystal clear, interactive and all is given without any effort, unlike reality.
Video games are a complete waste of time.

They are like most forms of entertainment in which they take hours that the individual did not notice and cannot explain where they went. The difference that comes into play is “the game keeps a running tally of the total one has spent with it” (Bissell, 351-352).The gamer feels the full extent of how much time they sat there, not accomplishing anything in reality. The open world games’ main story may not take long, however the smaller stories included in the game that are said to be half the fun or even a small task such as “picking flowers” take up over half the games’ total time

(352).
Video games are both a highly entertaining escape from the real world and a complete waste of time. It depends on how the person is affected by video games. Some may be ecstatic about spending hours in a beautiful virtual world as well as some may regret the time spent resulting in a guilty conscience. And some people may not even play video games at all. But, anyone even the biggest video game enthusiast to the biggest video critic could agree that video games are highly entertaining and a complete waste of time.