Big Screen Game Challenge / www.game-challenge.co.uk

Public Opinion

March 26, 2010 Uncategorized, games, play

When I talk about my favourite games I get over excited, it’s something I genuinely love and I find myself holding back when people see the happy but crazed look in my eye.  ‘Stop being so animated’ I say to myself, you are a loser and in their heads they are wondering how can you be so interested about something that isn’t real, that’s a waste of time and so on.  The fact is, there is not much point talking to certain people about games, they are probably smiling at me and trying to pay attention but it’s not something they can ever relate to, the public perception of who games are for has already told them I’m a lunatic.  But surely, this must change at some point though?

This year’s video-game BAFTAs were a much better affair than previous years, for the main reason that Dara Ó Briain was on hand to present the proceedings.  What made Dara perfect for the job was not his good comedic timing, which seems to get him a rather comfortable hosting slot on Mock the Week, or even the fact he is well versed in video game culture, Iain Lee says he plays games but still managed to mess it up for a couple of years.  Trying to make jokes about playing with your joystick to a room of the industry’s best was never going to go down well.  No, in Dara’s case he appreciates the fact that games can be many things to many people, a casual distraction, an epic adventure and often an artform, but not the geeky past time they are often portrayed as.  It’s a sad affair that nearly 50 years on since the dawn of video-gaming there is still a stigma attached to the people that play them.

Although the market would perhaps say otherwise, a Wii is now a pretty common sight in people’s living rooms, bringing the console out of the bedroom.  The DS has now branched out with it’s XL version, aiming the larger ‘portable’ at a group of people that aren’t as mobile as the kids they were once for.  Shigeru Miyamoto won the fellowship award at the BAFTAs this year for precisely that reason, his continuing efforts to include more people into his wonderful gaming worlds.  However, the press still enjoy having a go at the odd game, they need to find a scapegoat every now and then and like to shock with stupid headlines like BABIES ARE PLAYING THIESE MURDEROUS GAMES!  The reality that there is a giant BBFC 18 certificate on the cover seems to have been relegated to rather late in the article.  Recent shows like Newswipe highlight the lazy reporting and scaremongering that can go on by the media, and whatever public opinion actually is, we can always rely on the press for a comment on how modern life is destroying our future.

I suppose the important thing to remember with games is that there are many genres and styles, the possibilities in a game world are greater than those you can experience in a film or book, not only are plot, style and time variables in making a game but many games have no bearing in a cohesive reality, Bejeweled or the rather excellent Flower simply wouldn’t work in print or on the big screen.  Not to mention how the player interacts with the game, something that is continually changing in exciting ways, with motion sensors, balance boards, and Project Natal should finally be with us in some form later this year.  And whilst games in general have matured in their structure and tone, there is sadly a diverse range to pick on to highlight it’s shortfalls, even the big budget games have recently come under fire for bad voice acting and poor plot.  I’m sure if Daily Mail and co. actually dug around online and found some of the childish games available they could fill a few more pages.

But there is no need to be shy with your games my friends!  The image of someone sat in a darkened room alone may cast a forlorn image of someone with no friends and nowhere to go.  But they are exploring Hyrule, fitting an exotic adventure into a couple of hours, they may have their headset on chatting to someone in Europe or the US about news and politics, in-between games of Halo, introducing them to friends from home, how could you be more sociable?  The therapeutic nature of games like Tetris or Bejeweled or the even the sense of gradual progress you get from social games like Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook are all part of modern life and are regularly played by milions of people.  They can sometimes create the gossip of the day, for example, I’m being told it’s my turn on Scrabble right now (Do you know any words with 7 vowels?).  Games are seeping into more of our culture and in the next 10 to 20 years when everyone in western civilisation has grown up with these digital playthings being an integral part of mainstream culture, the people who play them will be able to stop defending themselves, as by then, games makers will probably have figured out out a way to intoxicate us all and there’ll be no one left to defend against.

Tags: Awards, BAFTA