...And all the men and women merely players.
A blog about the state of gaming and technology

Monday, November 07, 2005

All The World's A Game...

..and all the men and women merely players.

I created this blog in order to share my thoughts as an insider in the gaming industry. I find I have a lot of things to say about games and their place in society, and too few people to say them to. I feel the gaming industry is at a crossroads - games are beginning to gain serious ground as a part of our culture, and also asn entertainment business. However, I'm not sure where games are as an art form. Movies rose from being a pure moneymaking industry to being a widely-accepted art for intelligent adults, while comic books have somehow managed to remain almost solely a juvenile pastime, at least in the eyes of society.

We have a chance, as an industry, to aim for one of these paths. We can continue to make games that sell well, and are bland enough to get into Wal-Mart or action-packed enough to get the 18-25 male market, or we can make games that challenge people's conceptions, make them think, and ideally reveal new truths about the human condition.

Of course, we're already doing both. And many games have at least something to say, even if they're mostly about blowing stuff up. But most people don't see both sides, and don't consider the artistic merits when thinking about games as a medium. If we have the right attitude, we can maintain the entertainment value of games (and the "blockbuster" hits) while making clever, poignant, and thoughtful contributions to humanity's cultural history at the same time.

The movie industry has the Summer Blockbuster and the Oscars, the Disney hit and Cannes. Literature has Dostoevsky, Joyce, and Shakespeare, but there's also romance novels, picture books, and Tom Clancy. They all have a place. The gaming industry, so far, has focused on the action movies and the epics - with a few exceptions, we haven't found our Kubricks, Lynches, or Fellinis. Or when we do, most people don't realize it.

So, there we go. This is my soapbox to rant (cf. above) about the industry and games in society. I also might talk about technology in general, the Internet, and anything else that catches my eye.

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