A trade group representing video game makers is suing the Chicago Transit Authority for the right to advertise “mature” and “adults only” games on the sides of buses, evidencing that the industry continues to have difficulties growing up.
Video games aren't movies, and they aren't just another format for presenting the same content you might find a book: they're intense, engaging, perception-modifying, and sometimes more “real” than real. I speak from experience, having enjoyed playing them since the days of Pong, and I'm a fan. In fact, I think the potential for games as entertainment and education goes far beyond titles that let players slaughter mutants or flip playing cards.
But to ignore the fact that participatory experience can perhaps influence kids, and sometimes become a harmful obsession, is like saying addiction is just an extreme form of like. Or that love is only a little more than friendship. If big brand spend billions every year trying to influence people’s lives via 30-second TV commercials, how could anybody claim that playing an ultra-sick video game for 18 hours wouldn’t have any impact?
And to ignore the fact that the content of most titles is about as nuanced and profound as a sharp stick in the eye is to miss the immense amount of work still ahead for this industry. Game designer Adrian Hon presented on this topic (Why Stories In Games Suck) at a conference last month, and I think he summed things up quite well. Crap pays.
These two points -- the game industry's lack of self-introspection, and the fact that the most violent, evil crap is what sells the best -- are what's driving the ESA's lawsuit against the CTA.
The association should be spending the member companies' contributions on creating the platform and structure for the real entertainment industry that games should become:
- Aggressively sponsoring alternate approaches to using the medium, like that coming from The Game Company
- Paying scholarships for a new generation of creators and designers who will invent games that don't rely on the first-person shooter model
- Inventing a real, meaningful ratings service (the ESA claims an advertising review council, but it's invisible on its website), and coming up with certification and awards for various contributors to the creative and technical integrity of the industry
- Researching the implications of game experience, both positive and negative, and helping game designers understand what they're playing with
Every time I dare to write about video games, I always get feedback from gamers who scream that games don't promote violence (after all, movies and music don't, right?), and that the right of free speech is all that matters. They're wrong on both counts, just like the industry they so adamantly defend.
Keeping the world safe for potential unsafe games will never earn the industry the widespread acceptance it deserves...or could deserve. Defending my rights to slaughter mutants gets it no further toward this goal, presuming that it even sees it.
