Gaming started out as a minor fad in
my childhood (with the Sega and Nintendo rivalries and the countless Pokémon trades
via link cables) but managed to grow into a multi-billion dollar juggernaut
industry, thanks to the likes of Call of Duty and Madden. I still hold very fond memories from my
childhood of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and
the constant struggle to reach the end of the colorful, cutesy race towards the
finish(I never did beat the game, incidentally). The fact that I was making progress by
"killing" innumerable robots (most of the early games were careful to
ensure that killable enemies were never human) was lost on me as a child. I was following the actions of a colorful anthropomorphic
animal, not a disembodied hand holding a gun.
That hand, unfortunately, has become
the primary avatar of gaming today. The
first person shooter genre (FPS) has gained such prominence in the gaming
community primarily due to the ease of which it can be picked up (not unlike
the "elite" and "middle-class" people picking up modernized
dance moves), but also because it offers the person who plays it an opportunity
to unleash mindless fury upon humanoid targets.
Gone are the robotic animals that served as the foes of my childhood,
replaced by innumerable faceless gunmen (and voiced by teens who are incredibly
well versed in profanity). Sure, the
dances practiced by the women of the 1900s and the music that my parents
enjoyed were hardly innocuous activities, but shooting other humans for
entertainment raises eyebrows, and probably deservedly so. I suppose it wouldn't be wrong to admit that
gaming has matured in the last twenty years, but is this necessarily a good
thing?
Source:
Peiss, Kathy. Cheap
Amusements. Philadephia: Temple University Press, 1986. Print
By: Andrew Sullivan
I have mixed feelings about the question you raise about gaming being “necessarily a good thing.” I spent countless hours back in the late 80’s and early 90’s playing Nintendo. The games were nowhere near as violent and real as video games today (most notably Call of Duty). My ambiguous feelings arise from the fact that I enjoy playing Call of Duty from time to time. However, it was a little disturbing to find out that my 12 and 13 year old cousins play it daily and are exceptionally good at it. I think that technological advances and de-sensitization of society is why it is common for parents to purchase these games for their children. What will be interesting to see is what future generations will use for “social distraction” and how they will be looked on by older members of society. What could possibly top gaming in this aspect?
ReplyDeleteAh, I think I may just plug in the Nintendo 64 when I get home and play some King Kong or Mario Kart. Those games we grew up playing were not only the best games of all time (besides Oblivion, of course) but they weren't what I'd consider violent nor did my parents at the time. Moving on to playing games like Grand Theft Auto I had to make sure and keep the volume low so nobody would hear the filth tha poured out of the televison. It's amazing how far graphics and sheer game play have come but what ever happened to racing games and baseball/football type games that ensured a broken controller by a friend? Great post.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Andrew. Video games now days have gone to extremes. Like James mentioned, Grand Theft Auto is a perfect example of this. The whole point of the game is to steal cars and beat people up for their money. Is this really what we want to be teaching our kids to do? Certainly the majority of the population understands that this is just a game but what happens if someone gets the impression that this kind of activity is acceptable? It is definitely an interesting topic of discussion.
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