How Modern Video Games Push us into Disconnection and Shallow Individualism

Written for an assignment for People & Games class at Media Design School proudly written by Callan Hansen

05/10/2025

Research question:

“How do modern video games create social isolation and ego-driven individualism, and how much are their profit-focused, competitive designs shaped by larger cultural influences, systems and institutions, and why?”

The Modern Disconnect

Today, more and more people are becoming isolated, disconnected, and losing their sense of identity and belonging. Researchers have described this as the “loneliness epidemic”, where, even though we are supposedly more “connected” than ever, our relationships are often shallow, leaving us to play roles rather than expressing our authentic selves (Jung et al., 2025; Greenblatt, A. 2023). Modern culture often describes itself as individualistic, but in reality, what we call “individualism” is actually quite the opposite; People adopt and perform in ways they think will earn them respect, sacrificing authenticity to meet social expectations (Smaldino & Epstein, 2015). Video games, as one of the most influential forms of modern media, play a role in reinforcing these cultural patterns. Modern gaming often promotes competition, inflated egos, and “us vs them” mindsets, reflecting and amplifying systems that already keep us divided (Smaldino & Epstein, 2015). These designs don’t just encourage division, they also keep players locked into controlled echo chambers that discourage critical thought.

A System Designed to Distract

Games, platforms, and centralized media are structured so that players remain just happy and distracted enough not to question the system, ensuring that profit continues to flow upwards while consumers remain complacent. As Sığın (2022) shares, “The fantasy worlds of video games divert people’s attention away from the problems of capitalist societies” and that these commodities are “getting increasingly standardized and are aimed at providing easy pleasures to consumers”. This aligns with Bronner’s (2011, as cited in Sığın, 2022) observation that “Capitalism, bureaucracy, and science—all expressions of instrumental rationality—constitute the real core of Enlightenment. They turn nature into an object of use, progress into alienation, and freedom into control. Autonomy is a nuisance and critique is a threat. Enlightenment may be associated with such ideals. But its real goal is standardization and control. In the name of liberation, its advocates wound up fostering a rationality of technical domination. The irrational beliefs that the Enlightenment originally sought to destroy thus reappeared as its own products.”

This creates the illusion of choice and individuality, while in reality, players are being funnelled into pre-existing belief systems that benefit the powerful and prevent deeper reflection. In contrast, earlier games often encouraged more imaginative play and problem-solving, encouraging curiosity and a deeper engagement with the medium. Through comparing the design philosophies of older titles such as Oddworld (1997) with modern experiences like Fortnite (2017-ongoing), we can see how gaming mirrors a larger cultural shift away from meaning and towards distraction.

Older Games Showed a Different Way

Back in 1997, Oddworld: Abes Oddysee showed a completely different design philosophy of play. You play as Abe, a factory worker caught in a system that wants to literally turn his people into products. The game doesn’t reward ego or dominance, it makes you responsible for others. Progress isn’t measured by how powerful you become, but by how many of your fellow Mudokons you manage to save. That design choice creates a strong sense of community and moral weight, where every decision has consequences for more than just yourself. Oddworld shows its critique of corporate exploitation not through flashy visuals and spectacle, but by making you feel the impact of looking away. Lorne Lanning himself reflected on this, saying “The fact is, it was just as relevant then, it just wasn’t recognized. At the time, speaking out about environmental issues was as likely to get [me] branded a conspiracy theorist. But I believe in the power of media to make a better world” (Polygon, 2014). It encourages the player to slow down, notice, and reminds you that you’re part of something much larger than your individual survival.

The Rise of Competition and Showing Off

In contrast, modern games like Fortnite focus almost entirely on competition and showing off. Success isn’t about helping others, making thoughtful decisions, or reflecting inwards. It’s about getting kills, climbing the leaderboards, and collecting cosmetic items to look impressive and feel validated. The game keeps players hooked in unhealthy cycles through constant updates, social pressure, and the fear of missing out. It manipulates cultural beliefs, reinforcing hierarchies of dominance and pitting players against each other (George & George, 2023). By keeping attention outward, it discourages reflection, numbs deeper thinking, and encourages shallow interactions and ego-driven behaviour, reflecting a culture that values performance and status over genuine connection.

Culture Shapes the Way We Play

Modern games are shaped by the culture around them. Society pushes people to chase approval, status, and fast rewards instead of slowing down or thinking for themselves. Social media makes it worse, teaching people to perform and show off curated aspects of themselves over expressing themselves authentically (Marom, 2017). Anything considered outside the cultural norm, anything considered “too weird” or “too much” gets pushes aside or ridiculed. Over time this traps people into echo chambers where pre-existing beliefs are reinforced, and anything outside the foundations we build our story, character, and life around are shunned (Mahmoudi, Jemielniak, & Ciechanowski, 2024).

How Reflection Gets Shut Down

Even substances like psychedelics, which could help people question and self-reflect, have been criminalized, showing how little western culture has historically valued genuine thinking or challenges to the ego. The criminalization of psychedelics in the 1960s was influenced by political motives, including attempts to disrupt antiwar and civil rights movements, which slowed research and discouraged critical engagement with these substances (Garcia-Romeu, 2023). As Garcia-Romeu (2023) observes, “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.”

Why the System Stays in Control

Most modern games follow the same pattern. They do not encourage care, reflection, or patience. They push competition, showing off, and chasing external validation. That is why so many games today are focusing on climbing leaderboards or chasing validation. Games that make you stop and think, that challenge your perspective, barely exist because the culture around them does not value them. Easy, fast, and flashy is safer to sell than something that asks you to slow down and notice.

The way games push competition and validation is not accidental. It reflects a system designed to keep people distracted and complacent. When attention is always focused outwards, chasing status or leaderboards, people follow social norms without questioning them (Smaldino & Epstein, 2015). Those at the top maintain control while those at the bottom unknowingly reinforce the system that works against them. Most people defend it because real change feels threatening. If everyone started thinking for themselves, the rules of the game would collapse. People would stop consuming without thought, start creating, and begin writing their own stories instead of living by someone else’s script.

Culture is harmful in this way. It locks people into shallow roles and relationships, makes wearing masks to feel safer than being authentic, and discourages reflection that could challenge the ego. Those in power only hold control as long as people stop asking questions and stop noticing what is really happening around them.

A Reminder to Slow Down

We need to slow down and question the things we never question. The thoughts we accept. The choices we make on autopilot. When you stop chasing the shallow stuff and pretending it matters, something opens up. You start paying attention again.