Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy manual

Trigger Happy

and detail every year and conclude that videogames are increasingly realistic. Those cars look pretty real; those trees at the side of the racetrack, waving gently in the wind, look satisfyingly (arbo)real.

This turns out to be the subject of a fundamental tension in videogames, which will appear in many guises throughout this book. It’s a version of a very old question about art, concerning what Plato called mimesis (“representation”). Is it real or not? How can videogames claim to be “realistic” at all? But the peculiar nature of videogames gives the old question several intriguing and novel digital spins. The problem of mimesis in this context—the virtual representation of “realities”—informs the inner life of nearly every videogame.

Plato allows something to be a game as long as it is not “harmful” and has no “utility.” There is an increasingly vocal charge from some sections of society that videogames are in fact morally harmful. But do they have positive effects—do they have “utility?” Squabbles between psychologists as to whether videogames enhance spatio-visual and motor skills are largely unresolved. The only thing that everyone agrees on is that playing videogames makes you better at playing videogames. Their effects on our

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