| Nov. 11th, 2009 @ 02:55 pm Just a Thought |
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Another Daniel Floyd video is out, Video Games and Facing Controversy. Well worth watching to the end, I promise. It's about a hell of a lot more than just what happened to Six Days in Fallujah, but how the industry and fan reactions are actually extremely important. Extremely, extremely, important.
Perhaps not on the immediate same subject, here's also an essay written by a gamer in Venezuela about the banning of violent video games. It... also strikes me as important.
And finally, a short article about "Wii-hab"; the Wii helping people recover from numerous surgeries and injuries. When something can help both physically and mentally (building self-confidence), it can no longer be quite so easily ignored.
You all know that if I had to use the term "gaming advocate", I would certainly be in that category. I certainly don't expect them to be everyone's cup of tea, obviously--some people will always prefer books, or movies, or music, or whatever elevates them, mind and spirit, and makes life even more worth living. But I do ask for a little fucking respect for the medium. Except the people who set out to make "art games", we should keep treating them like shit. *grin* *ducks away from thrown objects* I have nothing but respect for indie developers! Ow!
People who have been playing games for most of their lives are making them now, are adding to the tales told before, learning an entirely new set of lessons; walking along the beaten adventure path before stumbling off into the woods alone. There are as many leaps ahead as there are glances back, and it's all so very exciting to see happening. While it saddens me to know that the industry is (of course) so very money-driven, I am heartened to know that there are groups hellbent on preserving games in every state, even if they never made it past concept (Unseen64 is my utopia, Lost Levels my playground). Game makers are no longer nameless, faceless workers--they are celebrated for their art, their level design, their writing and character development (or the delicious lack thereof), the easter eggs that are so gloriously entertaining. Their work is not lost, because those of us who care will not let it be lost. Think what you will of piracy, but when the very game makers refuse to or can't preserve their own games, the actual game players will be glad to step in and do so for them.
Games are powerful things. Play is already how we learn. Video games have the sheer power of potential flooding through them, and even in the slowest times when it seems like nothing is happening and nothing is being released, that's because "the next big thing" is being worked on.
To me, video games are as perfect a medium as I could possibly imagine. They are not going away. They are powerful for the simple fact that they are a reflection of humanity. They are art, they are music, they are literature--they are simple, they are cute, they are vicious, they are complicated, they are controversial, they are shocking. They are escapism, they are story telling, they are pure play, they are distractions from chronic pain, they are skill-building in terms of thinking skills, they are helping people walk again, they are exploring a world that you would never be able to explore quite this way through any other medium, they are hilarious or irreverent or brutally heart-wrenching. They are worth the time. They are worth the money. I will passionately defend the medium that I have fallen into deep, sickly sweet love with. I hope other people who feel the same will stand in defense of this medium. You don't have to do anything but play. |
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