A lot of my fellow One A Day bloggers are avid video gamers. Many of them even write words about them on a professional basis. But there are others, like Pete Fraser, who are understandably bewildered by the whole thing. Sure enough, it’s a fast-moving, exciting medium which many believe is difficult to penetrate if you haven’t been along for the whole ride.
To that I say: pish, pfaugh and nonsense. There’s never been an easier time to get into video games and find out more about them. Let me explain why.
It’s unfortunate that the early days of gaming were plagued with stereotypes (which some people, see the delightful Jeff Minter, pictured to the right, are still more than happy to live up to) and this put a lot of people off getting into the hobby. It wasn’t a “cool” thing to do. It was the thing that “nerds” did, and the sort of thing that could potentially get you beaten up at school if you were in a particularly rough and less-enlightened place.
The thing is, though, at least some of the stereotypes had partial basis in fact. Early gaming demanded many things. Patience. An understanding that you were dealing with a brand new technology that wasn’t particularly refined yet. In many cases, a mathematical mind. A willingness to practice things until you got better. Early games were frequently simple affairs that artificially inflated their playtime by being ludicrously difficult. This made the hardcore gamers very happy when they were able to finally beat a particularly difficult level, but for people who might be interested in passing? They didn’t want to spend that much time in front of a TV listening to the whining and squeaking of a cassette deck loading games.
Over time, though, games have become more and more sophisticated, family-friendly and accessible. A big part of this movement has come via games consoles, which have actually been around almost as long as home computers. Games consoles are made to be hooked up to “the big television” of the house and, in the early days at least, were often filled with experiences made to be shared—indeed, the very first gaming machines were primitive multiplayer “tennis” affairs. Later, we got many arcade conversions, and TV advertising, particularly the cringeworthy efforts from Atari, encouraged family participation and friendly competition.
As consoles became more and more sophisticated, developers started experimenting with a greater focus on developing narratives throughout their games. We saw titles such as the ambitious Final Fantasy series telling surprisingly mature, sophisticated (if now clichéd) stories through the SNES and PlayStation 1 periods having graduated from their primitive roots on the original NES. Graphics improved at a rapidly-increasing rate, giving us games that wanted more and more to be like the movies. But still they were tied to arbitrary control schemes that required practice; there was still a barrier of entry: “you must be this skilful to enjoy this medium”.
Until we get to this generation. This generation of gaming has exploded. We’re at a stage now where gaming is accessible to pretty much anyone. We’re at a stage where gaming is no longer confined to one specific demographic. We’re at a stage where you don’t even need a controller to work your Xbox if that’s the route you want to take.
Love them or hate them, several things have done a huge amount to make gaming more accessible to the masses. The Wii and the variety of plastic-instrument music games such as Rock Band brought family-friendly, “lifestyle” and party gaming back, reminding people how much fun it was to get together with friends and play in the same room. Kinect for the Xbox provides entertaining, active games that kids and adults alike can enjoy without having to remember which button does what. Facebook games like Farmville, while shallow to people who have been playing games for years, provide bored office drones and soccer moms with fun things to do on the Internet. Call of Duty lets the frat boys (and girl-equivalents) of the world blow seven shades of shit out of each other whilst shouting racial epithets at one another. And the blossoming independent development scene sees digital artists and creative minds pushing the boundaries of what “interactive entertainment” really means.
Games may or may not be art—that’s an interminable question that may never be answered conclusively. But one thing games aren’t? Just for teenage boys. Give ’em a shot. You might surprise yourself.
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Nah, games are shit.
Your face is shit.
For some reason I feel increasingly detached to videogames from the current generation of consoles. I kind of liked the whole barrier to entry element. But that’s life I suppose, and there’s always the retro side of gaming for people/weirdos like me.
Yeah, you’re not the only one who feels that way. But old-school gaming still exists, even these days: look at Xbox LIVE Arcade, PSN, Steam’s indie titles. It’s still there. It’s just not the only way any more.
Fantastic article!
Baffling as modern games are to me (purely as a result of my non participation), One of the main reasons I’ve studiously avoided buying a home console (I actually have a Sony PSP, which has been amazingly useful on tours) is that, as a musician, anything that would have the potential to hoover up a lot of my home-based time would essentially make me feel constantly guilty that I wasn’t working hard enough at music. I have an addictive nature where these things are concerned, and I often work from home, so it could be a recipe for disaster for someone as ill disciplined as I am.
As a child, I had both a BBC Master and an Amstrad CPC, and was happily obsessed by the small number of games I had. My next-door neighbours’ Nintendo consoles were a source of constant envy, so my potential enjoyment of games isn’t a TOTALLY closed book to me but, like untried drugs, something I tend to decide that, fun as they’d be, might have a detrimental effect on my life if introduced at this stage.
As with anything, it’s just a matter of self-control. Yes, there are some games that can easily take over your life (mostly games with an online focus such as massively-multiplayer titles or competitive shooter) but there are plenty of quick-play, casual-friendly titles out there too. The Wii is stereotypically the home of these, but there’s plenty available for download on the Xbox 360 and PS3 too. And PC too, for that matter.
In fact, the Xbox 360 even features a cool little piece of software called “Game Room” that allows you to purchase and play virtual arcade and console games from the 80s and early 90s if you ever want to recapture your youth.