For most of us, real life sucks in the most boring way it can suck. It is, by default, not some big dramatic story or massive grandiose stage in of your life that school, parents, and other authorities always make it out to be to justify treating your childhood/adolescence as a “test” and not an actual stage in your life you only live through once. This is where the appeal of escapism, through video games and other entertainment, but especially video games in particular, comes from. Obviously, it’s an escape from the dull and demoralising real world, but also there is more to it than that. It’s a substitute for the heroism, beauty of life, adventure, and strive towards greatness that most of us are denied or even choose to deny out of fear. A lot of entertainment centres around all kinds of themes of friendship, true love, deeper morality, strength, honour, thrill, nature, beauty, youth, and enough more that this list could go on all day. The unique appeal of video games in particular is that you get to project yourself onto your character, especially if it’s a mute protagonist, and write and live through your own adventures.

Obviously, it’s all fiction, and many will argue that because of this it’s a waste of time once you grow up, but in a world that denies people the fulfilment of their drive for greatness and real adventure, it surprises me that people (especially older people) are baffled that younger generations turn to escapism (that and it 'is' more important than people think). But we humans instinctually desire greatness and adventure, and it’s through a strive for greatness and adventure that we grow as people, that we “grow up” in the first place. Instead, in today’s world, we’re told to save all of the joy and dreams until we’re adults to focus on scoring well at school, while they simultaneously try to rip apart that joy and dreams over the course of our adolescence that they call a “test”, because they’re dull, broken people who can’t imagine a “better” and can only compromise for mediocrity, and they want to drag the future generations into that crab bucket too. A lot of seemingly basic things, like marriage, owning a house, having children, and so on are considered the end goals of life by many, where as back then they were simply the norm allowing for people to focus on their greater life ambitions, not only for themselves but humanity too.

A lot of people today don’t hold on to a desire for adventure, as they have it crushed by the time their adolescence is over and society is designed to deny most people real adventure. The only adventure most people are allowed are “safe” and manufactured adventures with boundaries they’re not allowed to step outside of. They’re denied this, therefore they’re denied the thrill and experience they need to properly grow up and develop as people, therefore many of them lack a proper sense of identity and all of the consequences of that come to be.

Think of a better, for yourself and for the world. Don't let other people's ideas of logic restrain you. Take as much time to think of a better as you need to. And then make that better a reality through spirit and will, by expressing yourself in any way you can, whether it's through writing, drawing, animation, music, or so on. Don't see creativity as "only" escapism, but desire too, the very expression of your heart itself. And then manifest it into reality. That is what a mentor-like figure of mine once said.