It seems that in reality, we quickly get used to the fact that there are physical and social limitations that have a very real influence on our everyday lives. Often these restrictions can make us feel frustrated and stressed and we therefore seek to temporarily escape from 'reality'.
New media technologies such as computer games and gaming consoles allow us to do this.
Narrative form in general allows us to experience a world outside these limits of reality: we can momentarily escape the restrictions and strains of everyday life by becoming mentally and emotionally involved in a fictional world.
The closure, resolution and meaning of fictional narratives provides a frame that allows us to momentarily dismiss the real world outside. Even primitive media forms such as storytelling, that have no physical frame to separate the story-world from the real world, still have this attribute of inclusion and exclusion because as we are invited to direct our attention towards the fictional world and away from real life concerns.
However, in my experience, computer games allow for a special type of escapism. When we turn on a computer game, a whole new world of possibilities suddenly opens before us, allowing us to virtually transcend the boundaries between real life and the fictional world of the game. While a film or a book may ask us to block out the real world, computer games require the player to perform the fictional drama that unfolds in front of them, through their own participation. Thus not only removing us from 'reality', but mentally moving us into the 'virtual reality'