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As we all know by now, the video games market, despite still being in its relatively infant stage, is massive, raking in more consumer cash than cinema and video rental, yet for all of this financial success, games are still not getting the artistic merit, acclaim and credit among a wider audience they so greatly deserve, and gamers are probably still seen as nerds.
Although people seem more willing to embrace new technology nowadays, when they see the part that things like mobile phones, dvd players, MP3s etc, play in their lives.
Consoles have lots of coverage in trendy lifestyle, film and technology magazines, but video games aren’t as accepted as movies, and people’s attitudes about games and gamers are still the same as they were years ago.
Can video games ever be considered an art form to rival films, literature or painting? Or will they always be classed as just harmless (or harmful depending on your point of view) entertainment? Has the image of the nerdy gamer changed as well?
Children, and indeed many adults love playing video games. However, there seems to be a school of thought amongst parents and Daily Mail readers to assume that games are bad, when much research proves on the contrary.
If kids are spending many hours staring at a screen, parents wonder what harm it could be doing to them. But people used to say that about TV and cinema, yet they are more accepted and receive massive media attention.
Compare video games with books, television and films; all have great complexity and diversity – they give you access to almost every aspect of human culture and understanding – but they are not interactive. On the other hand, something like playing the piano is also complex, and interactive, but it requires a huge initial financial investment and many months or years of practice or training with the related risk of misplacing that investment if you cant play it properly. Games are interactive, relatively cheap and are most of all good entertainment, yet are still frowned upon.
Games like Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 prove that games can have intelligent scripts, great voice acting quality and well developed characters who display wide ranging emotions, they are games that are almost on a par with anything that Hollywood can offer.
Will a video game script ever be hailed as a masterpiece? Will we ever see stuffy critics discussing the artistic merits of games on “Newsnight Review”?
As time goes on, I wonder if we’ll ever see high profile games designers/personalities?
Film directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are mega celebrities but also creative visionaries like many video game directors.
Millions of people love games, yet mention Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami and Yu Suzuki to most of the British public and they’ll think they are the back four for the Japanese national football team.
In the future will we see bigger video game tournaments where players are idolised like sports stars? Such competitions already exist and despite pretty high prize funds, they receive little coverage and are frequented by and won by hardcore nerds who live Quake 3.
Television coverage of games is way too poor compared to films and music.
Cybernet and Thumb Bandits aren’t really that bad, but when are we going to see good intelligent programmes that appeal to a wider audience, rather than treating all gamers as either ‘post-pub yobbos’ or childish geeks. A decent time slot would be a start.
All manner of games seem to be spawning trashy movies. Tomb Raider, Street Fighter the Movie, Mortal Kombat, Mario Brothers, not forgetting the masterpiece that is Double Dragon, are all prime examples. Whether the Resident Evil movie will live up to expectation and do it’s gaming forefather justice remains to be seen. So when are we going to see a movie tie-in we can be proud of?
Though I wouldn’t really class it as a game to film conversion, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was pretty good, although it performed pretty poorly at the box office and got a critical roasting. It defiantly didn’t get as much attention as the Tomb Raider movie despite it being way superior. These poor game to film conversions do nothing to raise the standard of people’s opinions of games, because the films are rubbish cash-ins.
Years ago, gamers were seen as either geeky 30 year olds, living with their parents, programming games on their Spectrums or spotty nerds who lived in their dark bedrooms, playing controversial games like Doom, GTA or Carmageddon.
Over recent years however, games have gone from entertainment for loners and social outcasts to so called ‘post pub entertainment’, and a great multi player social experience on games like GoldenEye, Pro Evolution Soccer, Smash Bros, etc.
So have games and gamers become more accepted?
The Sony Playstation may have brought games to the mass market, and in the process made gaming a more accepted hobby, yet I still feel that we’re all just considered as either little kids or sweaty nerds who love Lara Croft.
The Internet is now huge, but think of the typical Internet user and you think of a geek, except for all those who frequent the Special Reserve forums, you’re all cool ;)
Although video games are massive now, they still aren’t seen in the same light as the movie or music industries, but in a few years, who knows?
Should games be getting better press and more well deserved credit?
Or will they always be seen as mere trashy entertainment enjoyed by nerds and kids?
Although people seem more willing to embrace new technology nowadays, when they see the part that things like mobile phones, dvd players, MP3s etc, play in their lives.
Consoles have lots of coverage in trendy lifestyle, film and technology magazines, but video games aren’t as accepted as movies, and people’s attitudes about games and gamers are still the same as they were years ago.
Can video games ever be considered an art form to rival films, literature or painting? Or will they always be classed as just harmless (or harmful depending on your point of view) entertainment? Has the image of the nerdy gamer changed as well?
Children, and indeed many adults love playing video games. However, there seems to be a school of thought amongst parents and Daily Mail readers to assume that games are bad, when much research proves on the contrary.
If kids are spending many hours staring at a screen, parents wonder what harm it could be doing to them. But people used to say that about TV and cinema, yet they are more accepted and receive massive media attention.
Compare video games with books, television and films; all have great complexity and diversity – they give you access to almost every aspect of human culture and understanding – but they are not interactive. On the other hand, something like playing the piano is also complex, and interactive, but it requires a huge initial financial investment and many months or years of practice or training with the related risk of misplacing that investment if you cant play it properly. Games are interactive, relatively cheap and are most of all good entertainment, yet are still frowned upon.
Games like Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 prove that games can have intelligent scripts, great voice acting quality and well developed characters who display wide ranging emotions, they are games that are almost on a par with anything that Hollywood can offer.
Will a video game script ever be hailed as a masterpiece? Will we ever see stuffy critics discussing the artistic merits of games on “Newsnight Review”?
As time goes on, I wonder if we’ll ever see high profile games designers/personalities?
Film directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are mega celebrities but also creative visionaries like many video game directors.
Millions of people love games, yet mention Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami and Yu Suzuki to most of the British public and they’ll think they are the back four for the Japanese national football team.
In the future will we see bigger video game tournaments where players are idolised like sports stars? Such competitions already exist and despite pretty high prize funds, they receive little coverage and are frequented by and won by hardcore nerds who live Quake 3.
Television coverage of games is way too poor compared to films and music.
Cybernet and Thumb Bandits aren’t really that bad, but when are we going to see good intelligent programmes that appeal to a wider audience, rather than treating all gamers as either ‘post-pub yobbos’ or childish geeks. A decent time slot would be a start.
All manner of games seem to be spawning trashy movies. Tomb Raider, Street Fighter the Movie, Mortal Kombat, Mario Brothers, not forgetting the masterpiece that is Double Dragon, are all prime examples. Whether the Resident Evil movie will live up to expectation and do it’s gaming forefather justice remains to be seen. So when are we going to see a movie tie-in we can be proud of?
Though I wouldn’t really class it as a game to film conversion, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was pretty good, although it performed pretty poorly at the box office and got a critical roasting. It defiantly didn’t get as much attention as the Tomb Raider movie despite it being way superior. These poor game to film conversions do nothing to raise the standard of people’s opinions of games, because the films are rubbish cash-ins.
Years ago, gamers were seen as either geeky 30 year olds, living with their parents, programming games on their Spectrums or spotty nerds who lived in their dark bedrooms, playing controversial games like Doom, GTA or Carmageddon.
Over recent years however, games have gone from entertainment for loners and social outcasts to so called ‘post pub entertainment’, and a great multi player social experience on games like GoldenEye, Pro Evolution Soccer, Smash Bros, etc.
So have games and gamers become more accepted?
The Sony Playstation may have brought games to the mass market, and in the process made gaming a more accepted hobby, yet I still feel that we’re all just considered as either little kids or sweaty nerds who love Lara Croft.
The Internet is now huge, but think of the typical Internet user and you think of a geek, except for all those who frequent the Special Reserve forums, you’re all cool ;)
Although video games are massive now, they still aren’t seen in the same light as the movie or music industries, but in a few years, who knows?
Should games be getting better press and more well deserved credit?
Or will they always be seen as mere trashy entertainment enjoyed by nerds and kids?
As we all know by now, the video games market, despite still being in its relatively infant stage, is massive, raking in more consumer cash than cinema and video rental, yet for all of this financial success, games are still not getting the artistic merit, acclaim and credit among a wider audience they so greatly deserve, and gamers are probably still seen as nerds.
Although people seem more willing to embrace new technology nowadays, when they see the part that things like mobile phones, dvd players, MP3s etc, play in their lives.
Consoles have lots of coverage in trendy lifestyle, film and technology magazines, but video games aren’t as accepted as movies, and people’s attitudes about games and gamers are still the same as they were years ago.
Can video games ever be considered an art form to rival films, literature or painting? Or will they always be classed as just harmless (or harmful depending on your point of view) entertainment? Has the image of the nerdy gamer changed as well?
Children, and indeed many adults love playing video games. However, there seems to be a school of thought amongst parents and Daily Mail readers to assume that games are bad, when much research proves on the contrary.
If kids are spending many hours staring at a screen, parents wonder what harm it could be doing to them. But people used to say that about TV and cinema, yet they are more accepted and receive massive media attention.
Compare video games with books, television and films; all have great complexity and diversity – they give you access to almost every aspect of human culture and understanding – but they are not interactive. On the other hand, something like playing the piano is also complex, and interactive, but it requires a huge initial financial investment and many months or years of practice or training with the related risk of misplacing that investment if you cant play it properly. Games are interactive, relatively cheap and are most of all good entertainment, yet are still frowned upon.
Games like Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 prove that games can have intelligent scripts, great voice acting quality and well developed characters who display wide ranging emotions, they are games that are almost on a par with anything that Hollywood can offer.
Will a video game script ever be hailed as a masterpiece? Will we ever see stuffy critics discussing the artistic merits of games on “Newsnight Review”?
As time goes on, I wonder if we’ll ever see high profile games designers/personalities?
Film directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are mega celebrities but also creative visionaries like many video game directors.
Millions of people love games, yet mention Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami and Yu Suzuki to most of the British public and they’ll think they are the back four for the Japanese national football team.
In the future will we see bigger video game tournaments where players are idolised like sports stars? Such competitions already exist and despite pretty high prize funds, they receive little coverage and are frequented by and won by hardcore nerds who live Quake 3.
Television coverage of games is way too poor compared to films and music.
Cybernet and Thumb Bandits aren’t really that bad, but when are we going to see good intelligent programmes that appeal to a wider audience, rather than treating all gamers as either ‘post-pub yobbos’ or childish geeks. A decent time slot would be a start.
All manner of games seem to be spawning trashy movies. Tomb Raider, Street Fighter the Movie, Mortal Kombat, Mario Brothers, not forgetting the masterpiece that is Double Dragon, are all prime examples. Whether the Resident Evil movie will live up to expectation and do it’s gaming forefather justice remains to be seen. So when are we going to see a movie tie-in we can be proud of?
Though I wouldn’t really class it as a game to film conversion, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was pretty good, although it performed pretty poorly at the box office and got a critical roasting. It defiantly didn’t get as much attention as the Tomb Raider movie despite it being way superior. These poor game to film conversions do nothing to raise the standard of people’s opinions of games, because the films are rubbish cash-ins.
Years ago, gamers were seen as either geeky 30 year olds, living with their parents, programming games on their Spectrums or spotty nerds who lived in their dark bedrooms, playing controversial games like Doom, GTA or Carmageddon.
Over recent years however, games have gone from entertainment for loners and social outcasts to so called ‘post pub entertainment’, and a great multi player social experience on games like GoldenEye, Pro Evolution Soccer, Smash Bros, etc.
So have games and gamers become more accepted?
The Sony Playstation may have brought games to the mass market, and in the process made gaming a more accepted hobby, yet I still feel that we’re all just considered as either little kids or sweaty nerds who love Lara Croft.
The Internet is now huge, but think of the typical Internet user and you think of a geek, except for all those who frequent the Special Reserve forums, you’re all cool ;)
Although video games are massive now, they still aren’t seen in the same light as the movie or music industries, but in a few years, who knows?
Should games be getting better press and more well deserved credit?
Or will they always be seen as mere trashy entertainment enjoyed by nerds and kids?
Although people seem more willing to embrace new technology nowadays, when they see the part that things like mobile phones, dvd players, MP3s etc, play in their lives.
Consoles have lots of coverage in trendy lifestyle, film and technology magazines, but video games aren’t as accepted as movies, and people’s attitudes about games and gamers are still the same as they were years ago.
Can video games ever be considered an art form to rival films, literature or painting? Or will they always be classed as just harmless (or harmful depending on your point of view) entertainment? Has the image of the nerdy gamer changed as well?
Children, and indeed many adults love playing video games. However, there seems to be a school of thought amongst parents and Daily Mail readers to assume that games are bad, when much research proves on the contrary.
If kids are spending many hours staring at a screen, parents wonder what harm it could be doing to them. But people used to say that about TV and cinema, yet they are more accepted and receive massive media attention.
Compare video games with books, television and films; all have great complexity and diversity – they give you access to almost every aspect of human culture and understanding – but they are not interactive. On the other hand, something like playing the piano is also complex, and interactive, but it requires a huge initial financial investment and many months or years of practice or training with the related risk of misplacing that investment if you cant play it properly. Games are interactive, relatively cheap and are most of all good entertainment, yet are still frowned upon.
Games like Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 prove that games can have intelligent scripts, great voice acting quality and well developed characters who display wide ranging emotions, they are games that are almost on a par with anything that Hollywood can offer.
Will a video game script ever be hailed as a masterpiece? Will we ever see stuffy critics discussing the artistic merits of games on “Newsnight Review”?
As time goes on, I wonder if we’ll ever see high profile games designers/personalities?
Film directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are mega celebrities but also creative visionaries like many video game directors.
Millions of people love games, yet mention Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami and Yu Suzuki to most of the British public and they’ll think they are the back four for the Japanese national football team.
In the future will we see bigger video game tournaments where players are idolised like sports stars? Such competitions already exist and despite pretty high prize funds, they receive little coverage and are frequented by and won by hardcore nerds who live Quake 3.
Television coverage of games is way too poor compared to films and music.
Cybernet and Thumb Bandits aren’t really that bad, but when are we going to see good intelligent programmes that appeal to a wider audience, rather than treating all gamers as either ‘post-pub yobbos’ or childish geeks. A decent time slot would be a start.
All manner of games seem to be spawning trashy movies. Tomb Raider, Street Fighter the Movie, Mortal Kombat, Mario Brothers, not forgetting the masterpiece that is Double Dragon, are all prime examples. Whether the Resident Evil movie will live up to expectation and do it’s gaming forefather justice remains to be seen. So when are we going to see a movie tie-in we can be proud of?
Though I wouldn’t really class it as a game to film conversion, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was pretty good, although it performed pretty poorly at the box office and got a critical roasting. It defiantly didn’t get as much attention as the Tomb Raider movie despite it being way superior. These poor game to film conversions do nothing to raise the standard of people’s opinions of games, because the films are rubbish cash-ins.
Years ago, gamers were seen as either geeky 30 year olds, living with their parents, programming games on their Spectrums or spotty nerds who lived in their dark bedrooms, playing controversial games like Doom, GTA or Carmageddon.
Over recent years however, games have gone from entertainment for loners and social outcasts to so called ‘post pub entertainment’, and a great multi player social experience on games like GoldenEye, Pro Evolution Soccer, Smash Bros, etc.
So have games and gamers become more accepted?
The Sony Playstation may have brought games to the mass market, and in the process made gaming a more accepted hobby, yet I still feel that we’re all just considered as either little kids or sweaty nerds who love Lara Croft.
The Internet is now huge, but think of the typical Internet user and you think of a geek, except for all those who frequent the Special Reserve forums, you’re all cool ;)
Although video games are massive now, they still aren’t seen in the same light as the movie or music industries, but in a few years, who knows?
Should games be getting better press and more well deserved credit?
Or will they always be seen as mere trashy entertainment enjoyed by nerds and kids?
It's strange that. I still don't really see why people treat gamers and games as being all that different to TV addicts and TV's and Cinemas.
When you think about it, both kinds of people are virtually the same.
With games and TV, you're basically sat there in a transe, staring at a screen full of pretty colours and light effects, with sounds coming out of a box. So gamers are just as lazy as couch potatoes.
The only way I see games as being any different is becasue they are currently more interactive than TV. Not only can you create what you see on the screen, but you can also interact with one or more other people.
So by being more socialable, games are better than TV in my view, and a lot more enjoyable!
People easily get bored from watching hours of TV, but it's not quite the same from a 10 hour gaming spree!
So rather than critisising gamers, people should go back to moaning at the couch potatoes and telly addicts.
I also believe than TV may one day be very cose in terms of 'interactivity', to computer games. Interactive TV is already a growing quite rapidly, and it could one day rival gaming.
Did you watch Speed last night?? I doubt that we'll ever see interactive TV like what Dennis Hopper's character had in mind! :D
When you think about it, both kinds of people are virtually the same.
With games and TV, you're basically sat there in a transe, staring at a screen full of pretty colours and light effects, with sounds coming out of a box. So gamers are just as lazy as couch potatoes.
The only way I see games as being any different is becasue they are currently more interactive than TV. Not only can you create what you see on the screen, but you can also interact with one or more other people.
So by being more socialable, games are better than TV in my view, and a lot more enjoyable!
People easily get bored from watching hours of TV, but it's not quite the same from a 10 hour gaming spree!
So rather than critisising gamers, people should go back to moaning at the couch potatoes and telly addicts.
I also believe than TV may one day be very cose in terms of 'interactivity', to computer games. Interactive TV is already a growing quite rapidly, and it could one day rival gaming.
Did you watch Speed last night?? I doubt that we'll ever see interactive TV like what Dennis Hopper's character had in mind! :D
The Games Industry has certainly overtaken the Pop Music Industry.
I mean Will Young - a Pop Idol - yeah right.
I believe the day will come when games are seen as the HIGHEST entertainment artform, because games of the future will merge the deep storylines of novels and the cinematic splendour of film into one unbeatable interactive medium.
I'm very optimistic.... or is that naive?
I mean Will Young - a Pop Idol - yeah right.
I believe the day will come when games are seen as the HIGHEST entertainment artform, because games of the future will merge the deep storylines of novels and the cinematic splendour of film into one unbeatable interactive medium.
I'm very optimistic.... or is that naive?
I don't think the games industry is an infant. Look back to the Atari consoles and the Spectrums those were infants. It's evoled since then too, SNES and MegaDrive to PSone, N64 and Saturn to now DreamCast (well, not really now), PS2, X-Box and GameCube.