Trigger Happy
STEVEN POOLE
The idea that play can have a profound effect on the psyche of the player, for good or ill, is very old. The philosopher Plato wrestled at the Isthmian Games (part of the ancient Olympic cycle), and suggested, radically for the time, that children’s games could be educational. Modern research suggests that playing videogames such as Tetris soon after a traumatic event might help to prevent the memories being laid down in such a way as to give rise to later PTSD, and there is a flowering of games, such as Depression Quest, explicitly presented as therapeutic devices.
Many of us, of course, find therapeutic value in simply knocking off the day’s work in order to shoot large numbers of men in the face. (I very much regret that there is no Time Crisis available for modern consoles.) The mass murder of deserving terrorists, or floaty platforming in an emo comics world, or driving virtual cars around grey racetracks – these can all be therapeutic in exactly the same way, by giving jangling nerves something to do and relieving stress through the calming influence of repetitive motion.