Angry Gaming 07.09.07: For Love of the Game
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 07.09.2007
It’s the one year anniversary of 411’s game section! On this special day, we look at the overall state of video gaming and see if we can’t break it on down.
Welcome to Angry Gaming, the Robocrook that somehow steals the gaming industry's Mount Rushmore using only a giant crane. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and it's the one year anniversary of the game section here at 411mania. Lift your magnifying glasses Carmen Sandiego style for the loyal writers that made this zone so great! Eye salute you!
For Love of the Game
I can't speak for others but I consider 411 games' one year anniversary to be a serious cause for celebration. It was no accident that this zone came together as well as it did. Putting up a professional website and supplying it with fresh content on a daily basis is no small task, and the fact that we did so for a year successfully really shows something. In order for 411 games to work, we needed both the design and production skills of the existing 411 team along with great writers who had a real passion for gaming.
The term "passion for gaming" is what really sticks out when I think about the game section. We are talking about a group of writers who love video games enough that they are able to write new and innovative pieces nearly every day year round with little or no compensation. It's one of those rare cases where having talent just isn't enough. You also have to have something driving you to keep going, something supplying you with motivation to come up with fresh ideas and fill you with the desire to share them. For each member of this section, video games do just that.
That's somewhat of a credit to the gaming industry also. Most people are aware of just how far games have come in the way of maturity. For hardcore gamers, there's a certain feeling of shock to see just how far into the mainstream games have become. It's not uncommon to see a mother of three playing a flash game on her PC to pass the time anymore, whereas before such things would be considered to "rot your brain" or detach youngsters from facing reality.
Yet it's been a long road to get to this point. The history of video gaming is one full of trials and failures along with victories and success. Even today, gamers have to wade through a marsh of hokey Mortal Kombat fatalities before they can get to the epic dramatic clashes of Soul Calibur. The industry isn't always kind and neither is the public, and it serves as a reminder to us writers that games, like any other great art, are a labor of love and despite their entertaining nature, all aspects of the gaming are filled with hard work that must be done before anyone can truly enjoy themselves.
So why do we do it? Amidst all the garbage games, the frustrating difficulties, the cheaters, the trolls, the red rings of death, the loading times, the infinite waiting periods, and the various Jack Thompson law suits, what is it that drives gamers to continually remain in their positions of writers, reviewers, developers, and all out consumers? Today in honor of 411's first gaming anniversary, we will look not just at a few specific examples, but at video games as a whole to see how they compare to older and more traditional art forms that make up the entertainment industry of the world.
. Longer Lasting
When I was younger my grandfather used to give me money week after week so I could go and watch a movie on occasion after school. With him being partially deaf, it was difficult to explain that I did not relish the thought of hanging out in a movie theater alone, or that the movie experience of today was far gone from the multifaceted variety shows of my grandfather's day. In the end I usually wound up taking the money and running over to the local pizzeria to squander on Snapple cherry lemonade and games of Street Fighter Alpha 2.
Looking back, I don't feel all that bad about the deception. My grandfather basically wanted me to keep myself busy for the afternoon and that's exactly what I was doing. I had been given a choice to waste two hours watching detective John McClane take down a leer jet in Die Hard 2 or to waste six hours hanging out with other pizza patrons and honing my 2d fighter skills. The right choice even now is painfully obvious.
Games, through their actual presentation of difficulty and problem solving, last far longer than other forms of art as far as dishing out new experiences goes. It is true that you could look at one of De Vinci's portraits for weeks on end and never truly grasp the message the artist was trying to communicate, or discuss the use of feminism in Jane Eyre for a good long time, a mere stage or section of a game can accomplish the exact same amount of food for thought if it is done properly as well (and to be honest, only the great works apply here; we don't care about the technological accuracy of the wave riders in Dead or Alive Extreme 2 anymore than the biology behind over gold in I'm Gonna Git' You Sucka).
The best games also come with a well documented need to actually own them as well. There are plenty of fans who were content to go and see Peter Jackson's rendition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on the big screen without purchasing the DVD's and their subsequent eight thousand hours of extra footage, interviews, and commentary. Yet even a great game with a halfway decent multiplayer experience can give anyone an incentive to buy instead of rent, and that is just one reason of what makes games last so long. You don't just experience a video game once in a single play through, or relive the same experience the next time you play. By taking interactive control of a character, the player becomes an actual part of the experience and the decision making and strategizing process that comes from our own minds then becomes part of the game. It keeps things fun and fresh, and while games themselves can start to get old or outdated, they still outlast many great movies and books by far.
The Cutting Edge of Technology
In the past two decades, the world has experienced a technological revolution the likes of which has never been seen before. As computers have become a part of the typical human house hold, both hardware and software technologies have found themselves integrated into other parts of human life as well. The same technological advances that happen on our personal computers are also present in our cell phones, television sets, and cameras. New technology is everywhere, and though much of the mainstream doesn't want to admit it, the advancement of video games was a pioneer in this brave new world.
As the gaming industry grows, so does computer technology and peripheral technology. For example, from the 1980's up until recently it seemed as though video arcades were the only place a person could experience interactivity in video games. In order to get a true feel for Sega's After Burner you had to play the arcade cabinet version and actually use a flight stick to pilot your jet fighter. That later changed when flight stick controllers were introduced for the PC, and soon more peripherals followed.
Arcades went even further and began toying with light sensitivity technologies. Handheld gun games like Time Crisis hit the streets and became just as popular as the 2d and 3d fighting games that had so many fans. Eventually interactivity became the arcade's selling point, with games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and Police 911 taking center stage. With the release of next generation hardware and invention of perfectly emulated peripherals from systems such as the Wii, arcades virtually phased out and even more technology was brought into the home.
At the same time, these high end games and the demand to put them on the home systems also saw advances in media. Games for the PC and consoles simply became too big for standard CD's to hold, and DVD's became the media of choice and also brought revolution to the movie and television industry as well. The advancements continue today as companies like Microsoft and Sony incorporate HD-DVD and BLU-RAY into their gaming systems and list of available media offerings.
What it comes down to is this: the video game industry is a seriously huge business that has grown not only in and of it, but has also had great if not total influence over driving other technological industries forward. Even the latest version of the Windows computer operating system boasts a selling point that certain games are only compatible with it's technology. Human society has a driving need to be entertained and games are so good at doing that, we are willing to do just about anything and make any advancement to keep the great games coming. On a personal end point, I sometimes think that the racing industry works this way too, and that NASCAR and street racing are what leads to more powerful, easier to drive cars on the street year after year. It's just an amusing thought.
Take Me Away
The thing that probably most solidifies games as being a legitimate art form is the level of controversy and amount of debate that they have sparked over the years. In the past, parents and censorship groups were concerned over the levels of sex and violence in television, movies, and even books. While books are such an integrated part of human life that they escaped most monitoring systems, television, movies and games have all become subject to ratings systems and age classifications. Aside from the usual stance most in the gaming industry have about the influence of games on reality, one has to admit that this is sort of a compliment. To think that games, which were considered to be kid's toys not too long ago, are now looked upon as having the ability to control weak minded individuals like a mischievous Jedi in a field of storm troopers is quite an intriguing thing.
Even if you don't agree with the parental groups about games being dangerous or influential, you can certainly see where they are coming from. Video games have become such epic pieces of art that they can offer social critiques on real life and literally play out dramatic sequences on our screens. This is what makes games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas so great and that is another reason why gamers would rather be playing than reading. Isn't it more interesting to maneuver an avatar through the actual riots on the streets of Los Angeles than to read about them on Wikipedia? (Not that I want to discredit Wikipedia in any way, that site is amazing by god!) When kids tell start to tell their parents they would rather play through a virtual world than read about the real one, of course it is going to make people nervous, especially given the perverted forms of history we are sometimes given for the sake of making games more interesting. But, just like the perverted versions of history we get in many fictional books, society is slowly coming around and learning to take these tales with a spoonful of responsibility. It is this relaxed attitude that is helping the game industry to grow in leaps and bounds, and putting hardcore gamers back on the social map one round of Diner Dash at a time.
The Anger
If the longevity of the 411 game section has taught me anything, it's that games are far more serious and legitimized than meets the eye. Underneath that exploding tank is a developer's vision, a writer's review, and gamer's moment of fantasy. The industry runs so deep that most of us will probably go on playing forever, and we writers could probably go on writing about those experiences forever. Since I began writing at 411 I have partied with developers and played against professional champions, I have written an entire book's worth of articles and received mind blowing input from readers all over the world. We're all bound together by a love for these games, and I don't think another year's worth of words will still be able to communicate how powerful that concept is. That won't stop me from trying, though. So until we get it all down, embrace the hatred.
