We’ve all heard of “mainstream” video games, namely the Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto series as well as Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon. But the onslaught of 8-bit, arcade-like games from the 80’s and 90’s paired with a sharp improvement in the quality of technology and graphics has inspired a host of new games to be developed from different genres and a variety of developers. While the general public may only be familiar with the most well-known titles, countless others have become cult classics.

Let’s begin with MMO’s (massively multiplayer online games). If you mention Runescape to almost any gamer, their eyes will probably light up as the nostalgia of this classic medieval roleplaying game, or "RPG," overcomes them. I’m one of the few exceptions–I only started playing Runescape two years ago and could never get into it, having been spoiled by more detailed graphics. However, these visuals were top-notch when the game was first released in 2001, and the “old school” version of the game attracted a peak of 8.5 million players in 2005. Just a year earlier in 2004, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) was released. Though Runescape’s population was astounding, WoW had a peak of roughly 12.4 million subscribers at the end of 2010 during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. A number of newer MMO’s have become prevalent recently, including League of Legends, Smite, and TERA.

What is so significant, though, about these video games? What attracts so many people to them? The conclusion I’ve come to is that, whether you create your own character in a role-playing game like Skyrim or play as a pre-made character such as in Portal, you are inserting yourself mentally and often emotionally into the game as you take on the role of that character and interact with NPC’s (non-playable characters with scripted dialogue) as the story progresses. Essentially, YOU become a part of the story–something that has never been done before in mass entertainment. Just like the book you can’t manage to put down for hours on end, a well-developed video game could have the same effect on you, especially if the art style of the graphics appeals to you and the dialogue is rich.

I want to bring specific attention to one independent or “indie” game in particular that has captured the hearts of me and several of my good friends, Undertale. Released on September 15, 2015 on Steam, Undertale focuses on the story of a child who has fallen underground after climbing the fictitious Mt. Ebott. The child, who you initially name yourself but eventually find out is named Frisk, travels through the Underground and encounters a number of characters whom many have described as endearing, including Toriel (aka “goat mom” because she is a human-like goat who rescues you) as well as Sans and Papyrus (a pair of hilarious skeletal brothers named after unpopular fonts). Undertale has been all the rage among the gaming community as of late. Famous Youtubers like Jacksepticeye, Cryaotic, and the Game Grumps have done playthroughs of this RPG, spurning a wave of interest among their fans. Undertale has received a decent amount of more formal recognition, too, having been selected as the “Best. Game. Ever” in a recent voting-based elimination bracket on GameFAQ. I’m not going to tell you more about what happens because I strongly encourage you to purchase it for yourself and give it a try–I guarantee it will make you both laugh and cry at different times, and the soundtrack is incredible.

There seems to be a stigma in our society against avid gamers because the assumption is that all of us are addicts who don’t do anything else. But as the classic philosopher Plato emphasized, “everything in moderation.” Sure, you can go to the movies or crack open a book, but starting up a game on your computer or console is an entirely different experience. Video games communicate messages to their players in an entirely new and innovative way by not only combining art with rich story lines, but also throwing the individual himself into a whole different dimension.