 | Some historical precedentApril 28th, 2006 |
For the next time that your friendly local government starts using your hobby as a weapon in the culture wars… Wired catalogs past “threatening” media.
It’s interesting to me the way in which control of idea flow is truly a nonpartisan concept. If it’s not the right bashing evolution, it’s the left protecting the children. Both motives flow from similar places, of course, but I wonder when the “stay out of my head” political reaction really takes hold — if ever.
After all, it is a more nuanced discussion than most game hobbyists want to admit. Recently I read a call by Ron Gilbert to “stop blindly defending video games”:
I think it’s irresponsible for the industry to bury it’s head in the sand and pretend that what we do has no impact. Like any force of popular culture, what we do does have an impact and designers need to understand that.
I am not suggesting we stop making violent games or censor (or let anyone censor) ourselves, but we do need to realize that what we do affects people, and that’s a good thing. It means we’re relevant and artistically influential, but with that comes responsibility, not only for the people making the games, but for those who are writing about them and standing up for them.
This position, which I happen to share and publicly espoused in the book, is one that doesn’t get talked about very much. Instead, it falls victim to the curse of all nuanced discussion: it’s not sensationalistic enough to really penetrate into the discourse on the subject. Instead, we get the hardline “get out of my head, take personal responsibility” sort of libertarian line, which tends to both minimize all responsibility for public reaction, and also trivializes the immense power of games as a medium.
The pendulum always swings; one decade’s morality is another’s license. The game gap is generational, primarily. The trick is to get through the next few decades. Once all the baby boomers are dead, this pretty much won’t be a political issue anymore. But it will remain a cultural issue as long as games continue to be made, just as everything in that list on Wired has remained a cultural issue, simply because games are a significant medium.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
[...] Comments [...]
[...] Once all the baby boomers are dead, this pretty much won’t be a political issue anymore. — Raph Koster Taken out of context this is my favorite line ever from a game developer. I may have to SIG it._________________Grimwell Member: HOS [...]