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

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