Socialization of Teenagers Playing The Sims. The Paradoxical Use of Video Games to Re-enchant Life

Abstract

In order to scrutinize what video games can bring more into individuals’ life; a doctoral research had been undertaken on the teenage audience of The Sims, a game simulating life. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods drove to design what I called the journey of self-discovery of the gamer and development of the video-ludological socialization concept (Lorentz, 2013). Adopting an overall angle, this paper apprehends video games as the manifestation of the re-enchantment of the world. To begin with the recall of the rationalization process presented by Max Weber (2001/1905), whose explained the recoil of religious institutions in our societies at his time by saying that science had replaced religion for explaining life and the world, called the disenchantment. To a certain extend I claim here that video games are the perfect product of this rationalization movement (Caillois, 1967/1958). Paradoxically, video games allow their enthusiasts to live fantastic lives and dreamed situations. Individuals find eventually a way to believe again in the so-called impossible and therefore re-enchant their rationalized world.